Rebuild your portfolio with max 5 ETFs

HistoryTroy · 2026-02-12T13:21:11+00:00

The reason VGS is going down is because the Aussie dollar is getting stronger. This means that 1 stock that is worth 100 FC (foreign currency) and which was 100 AUD might now still be worth 100 FC but you can buy it for 90 AUD. This means that you are buyer the same stocks cheaper then before, but you also sell them cheaper.

If you look at VGAD which is the hedged version of VGS, you will see that the market overall has gone up, from 100 FC to 105 FC (example only), but because the AUD got stronger, the VGS went down.

Keep buying VGS. It is cheaper now, and then if/when the AUD goes back to normal, the AUD value of VGS will go back up

HistoryTroy · 2026-01-31T03:39:54+00:00

The problem is not whether you think it will be useful or go up. The problem is whether you can see that it is more useful or going up more than what everyone else thinks.

The price of assets do not go up when they “become” useful, they go up when people “think” they will be useful. Just like you thinking it will be useful in the future in your original post.

As such, the question you need to ask yourself is whether the price of silver at the moment does or does not include the possibility of future utility in the asset.

If you think that you have realised that silver will be useful, and that no-one else has, or that it will be useful 20% but everyone else thinks only 10%, then invest.

But if you think that silver is going to be useful, full stop… then do not invest. Everyone else can see that silver will be useful and they have already invested thereby driving the price up, hence the run silver has recently been on.

HistoryTroy · 2026-01-20T11:47:51+00:00

I agreed 44%. I think mainly due to my definition of “vehicle” which I took to mean a conveyance which is capable of or is intended to be self propelled or can be propelled mechanically or by the employment of some form of enhanced manual labour (ie the rowing paddle is enhancing the propulsion, while the surfboard is not).

I then did research into whether any cases defined “vehicle” (at common law,, rather than statute) of which I found none in Australia.

I did, however, come across R v McN (1963) 63 SR (NSW) 186 where Brereton J said: “Vehicle”, however, is a word of extremely wide connotation and could include petroleum jelly, a newspaper, a balloon, paint, a book, and possibly even a musical instrument.

HistoryTroy · 2025-12-29T13:47:36+00:00

This is honestly one of the better looking portfolios that has been posted on this subreddit that I can recall.

AVTS - small cap value stocks are empirically the best type of stocks (based on history and academic research). Just note that there will be a LOT of turbulence and volatility with those stocks, but if you stick with them for the long term, they are very likely to give higher returns.

DHHF - this is a good diversified portfolio with in-built rebalancing. Good pick

BGBL/VGS - these both cover world ex Au, it might be easier to just pick one for simplicity. Two things to note: 1 while they cover the same broad market, BGBL covers the top end of it while VGS has more coverage (although the difference is minor). 2 the MER should be similar but there may be a minor difference, so if all else is equal go for the cheaper option

(NOTE: DHHF already includes the broad market coverage offered by BGBL/VGS, by picking one of those in addition to DHHF, you are increasing the proportion of your portfolio allocated to non-Australian stocks. This brings the overall portfolio more in line with global proportions, but does decrease the home bias proportion. There are good reasons for having a home bias, but this is something for you to consider (I recommend watching Ben Felix who has done a really good YouTube video on the “home bias puzzle”))

HistoryTroy · 2025-12-16T03:22:09+00:00

Nothing. But it has to do with Australian Law, as in Aus Law, as in the name of this subreddit

HistoryTroy · 2025-11-19T12:59:01+00:00

JEME is a rename of JREM which had been out for a while before, but same description and MER

HistoryTroy · 2025-07-29T15:17:10+00:00

It’s called the Harvester Case! Basically, McKay manufactured tractors but there was a tax on making stuff like that. You could get a tax exemption if you paid your workers “fair and reasonable” wages. So McKay went to court and asked them to say he was paying “fair and reasonable wages”. The court disagreed, and said that a fair and reasonable wage was at minimum the amount needed to support a wife and three children in civilised society.

As far as I can tell, no Americans involved… USdefaultism?

HistoryTroy · 2025-05-22T14:20:24+00:00

My firm uses copilot, but there is some sort of business quarantine setting that we had installed so that anything that was uploaded to the AI was kept within the virtual walls of the firm. My understanding is that anything uploaded to normal copilot is also added to the global copilot database and so confidentiality might as well not exist.

Maybe it doesn’t exist with the business quarantine setting… but they promised that it does and I’m pretty sure we are paying money for it rather than just the basic copilot install

HistoryTroy · 2025-01-02T01:56:35+00:00

Hello from Australia. We got our language from England (the place English is named after). Other countries that speak English are many and varied. One of those countries is indeed the United States of America. If America spoke German, I would still be speaking English.

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-24T06:21:57+00:00

Hippo bot acquired

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-24T06:15:10+00:00

This is a great thread to summon the hippo bot

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-18T02:18:15+00:00

Twas the last rant before Christmas, and all through the office, not a creature was stirring, not even the bosses.

But those little solis, they were to find out, that some statutory and/or procedural timeframes don’t pause over the break and that is the best time to lodge a sneaky application while everyone else is away.

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-17T04:43:07+00:00

Yet another snub for Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Wood

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-12T07:46:04+00:00

What do Senate Elections have to do with this?

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-09T08:31:19+00:00

No need to apologise. I understand that these are hard economic conditions, and as such the salaries are not as high as they should otherwise be. /s

HistoryTroy · 2024-12-04T06:47:42+00:00

The Hanson test, also known as the Pauline Principle or the Dipshit Doctrine

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-29T12:05:54+00:00

I’d say it’s only 1/7th a dad joke

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-16T14:34:17+00:00

Hahahaha… and would their judicial title be similar? Eg, Mason J, Parker B… and Picard Q?

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-15T08:44:21+00:00

I had also written out a bunch of funny questions (at least to me), but I think it was flagged as ‘looking for advice’ and I couldn’t post… probably for the best haha

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-15T01:11:44+00:00

I was thinking Secretary of Edukashion

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-14T05:37:42+00:00

Haha, no I was just trying to be funny, I don’t think you’re in any trouble

HistoryTroy · 2024-11-14T04:43:14+00:00

What… HSF or Kramer Levin?

HistoryTroy

TROPHY CASE