Talk:Simple portfolios

Article was created by splitting content from Portfolio design and construction --Peculiar Investor 06:01, 22 November 2013 (MST)

Three fund and four fund portfolios
In response to the LadyGeek comment on the talk page of Portfolio design and construction, I've gone ahead and changed "international" for "global", since we typically exclude US stocks from the term "international" in Canada. Global = everything except Canada; international = everything except Canada and the US. I have not done the equivalent changes in "Portfolio design and construction" (is that automatic? Shouldn't we put this information in one place only?). What remains to be done is to change the "FPX Balanced Four-ETF Portfolio" image in such a way that the legend of the pie chart fits with the table. Thanks. --Quebec 05:56, 23 December 2014 (MST)


 * I have added your definitions of global and international to the page. Consider that FWF has a number of cross-border investors, the perspective is important. It's also helpful for teaching new investors.


 * The "External links" section has the chart's source file, which happens to be owned by me. You are free to make your own copy of this file and update finiki, but you may not be comfortable with uploading files in finiki (yet). I'll take care of it.

On the same topic, in the four fund portfolio, why are we recommending XIU (63 positions, 0.15% fees) over XIC (252 positions, 0.05% fees)? And why not VTI instead of SPY? And why stick with XBB which still charges 0.3% when competitors now charge 1/3 of this? Then there is the question of US-domiciled vs Canadian versions, which have higher management fees but avoid currency exchange. I'd be tempted to recommend four fund portfolios made up exclusively of Vanguard Canada funds, for simplicity (like we do with the three fund portfolio). We can then point to equivalent cheap funds from the competitors. And make a note to use US-domiciled ETFs for RRSPs if possible. --Quebec 06:10, 23 December 2014 (MST)


 * It was a combined FWF effort. See the last 2 pages of: Simple Portfolios 2014. I've posted in the thread to invite some discussion. --LadyGeek 19:55, 23 December 2014 (MST)
 * Ok, let's wait after Xmas and see what people have said. Thanks for fixing the pie charts. --Quebec 11:35, 24 December 2014 (MST)
 * Yes, let's wait. Insomniac agrees and has an additional suggestion: Re: Simple Portfolios 2014.
 * My suggestion would be to have the wiki article specify the conceptual elements of the portfolio and leave the recommendation of specific investments to referenced forum discussions. The rationale is two-fold, we are not financial advisors and should be careful with specific fund/ETF recommendations, and the specifics of such decisions such as VTI vs SPY may change over time as characteristics change. The purpose of the article is about the overall strategy for simple portfolios, the high level choices to be made and what key considerations are important, such as fees. --Peculiar Investor 10:55, 29 December 2014 (MST)

Rework of Portfolio design and construction

 * As to putting everything in one spot, I agree. Portfolio design and construction puts the simple portfolios one level down (2nd level heading) which makes things difficult. If we can find a way to align the headings here (perhaps with a superflous "Simple porfolios" heading to bump the rest of the sections down one level), we can play some tricks with Transclusion to make this work. --LadyGeek 19:55, 23 December 2014 (MST)

I updated the Portfolio design and construction to synchronize with the above changes. The change was needed as both pages use the same charts. An approach to consolidate the content can be discussed later, but it was more important to be accurate. --LadyGeek 11:54, 24 December 2014 (MST)

I have created a draft page to develop a revised (top-level) description: User:LadyGeek/Portfolio design and construction --LadyGeek 20:28, 29 December 2014 (MST)
 * Excellent, but can you create a draft for "Simple portfolios" only as well? That way we can work there directly for the "Simple portfolios" part. The idea being to enventually stop duplicating the content of "Simple portfolios" within "portfolio design...". Thanks --Quebec 07:14, 30 December 2014 (MST)
 * ✅ User:LadyGeek/Simple portfolios. There are no special properties of these pages, meaning any editor can do everything (edit, rename, etc.). The page does not belong to me, only that I decided to create it under my own username. I intentionally did not include the category . Otherwise, the page will show up in the category list. --LadyGeek 11:40, 30 December 2014 (MST)

Do we need this page?
Do we still need this page? We now have an independent "simple index portfolios" page, covering the 3-4-5 funds portfolios in detail. There is a complete "simple portfolios" section in the upcoming version of "Portfolio design...", covering balanced funds, GIC ladders, pre-built portfolios, etc. Also, "Sector diversification and index concentration" will end up elsewhere (probably "Asset allocation", "Diversification", or something like that, it has already been moved around a few times), whereas "The FPX Indexes" now live in "Benchmark". Couch potato models are mentioned in "Simple index portfolios", at least twice. In my opinion, there is nothing specific worth saving in this page, except today's nice additions to "balanced funds", which could go to the "Balanced fund" page, and/or to the new "Portfolio design...". --Quebec 11:37, 25 January 2015 (MST)


 * I agree that the page is not needed. The additions to "Balanced funds" have gone to Balanced fund and to the new "Portfolio design...". Please double-check "Portfolio design..." as I made some changes that need an expert review. --LadyGeek 15:02, 25 January 2015 (MST)


 * page is now proposed officially for deletion. --Quebec 17:25, 25 January 2015 (MST)


 * I concur (as before), but this page should not be deleted ("Delete" action performed by an administrator). Instead, the content should be replaced by a redirect to Simple index portfolios. All pages which link to Simple portfolios (except for Portfolio design and construction) have been changed. I will defer final review and actions to Peculiar_Investor. --LadyGeek 18:31, 25 January 2015 (MST)
 * ✅ Per forum discussion, I have replaced the content with a redirect. --LadyGeek 18:59, 28 January 2015 (MST)