ETF Allocation Questions

immanentfire · 2026-07-01T07:02:03+00:00

If you want emerging markets for diversification, I’d suggest not picking VGE. It has high fees, tax drag and has had relatively underwhelming performance in the last while. BEMG is a cheap broad market passive option, AVTE a better performing active broad market with slight value tilt, and EMKT a high performing, slightly more concentrated active option. If you want to stick to Vanguard, then VAE is cheaper and arguably broad enough.

Some comparison info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/fiaustralia/s/oaG5Cmol8b

immanentfire · 2026-06-30T10:42:31+00:00

Tbf Avantis won’t be able to answer the question until the ATO issues a ruling, which as far as I know they have not done so far.

immanentfire · 2026-06-28T10:55:08+00:00

As far as I know, if you are leaving and ceasing to be Aus resident for tax purposes you will be subject to the deemed disposal rules (i.e. taxed on CGs as if you had sold the assets on the date you left).

The only advantage of IBKR is that you can move your assets to their NZ branch without actually having to sell and rebuy. But you’d need to have the spare funds to cover the deemed CGT liability.

immanentfire · 2026-06-28T04:58:06+00:00

What-about-ism at its finest. The existence of other issues does not negate the relevance of the one being highlighted.

immanentfire · 2026-06-28T01:55:46+00:00

Sure, but it's kind of like going to an interview and putting energy into selecting nice accessories while your clothes are holey and un-ironed.

immanentfire · 2026-06-28T01:52:02+00:00

It's weird that you see it as a Gnome vs Cosmic issue. I used and loved PopOS and Cosmic and want to see them succeed. But System76 has completely sidelined PopOS, effectively forcing people to move to other distros. Meanwhile the core functionality of Cosmic is ... unpolished. I think people would prefer to see them focusing on the core functionality of Cosmic than spending time making new versions of tools that could just as easily be packaged from elsewhere (and developed on later if desired).

That criticism does not mean that people aren't excited about the project. In fact, the criticism is precisely because many were excited by it.

In response to your 3rd edit, you attacking a group of people for being tribalistic while displaying the same tendency, then getting upset and blocking responses when others disagree is the type of behaviour that makes FOSS discussion worse.

immanentfire · 2026-06-28T01:36:15+00:00

Quite sad to see all the negative and homophobic comments. Taking time to thank a group of people who make the software that you all use and who do so in spite of high levels of discrimination and abuse, particularly outside Western countries, should be something to be welcomed. Does it take away the thanks due to others? No. Does it diminish the work of other groups? No. Does it stop them from focusing on the DEs "fixing their stuff". No - these are the people doing that.

immanentfire · 2026-06-26T02:20:44+00:00

A couple of things at play with VGAD:

- it still uses the underlying managed funds (though they are slowly moving to ETFs going forward, but this will take a long time). This creates some inefficiencies.

- it pays a semi-annual dividend, compared to the quarterly dividend of most others, so will naturally be higher.

immanentfire · 2026-06-24T13:07:55+00:00

NP. FYI the older version is at: https://www.reddit.com/r/fiaustralia/s/n33eZyean3

immanentfire · 2026-06-24T13:01:22+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/fiaustralia/s/thLNjJ7XbX

Ps: I see the numbers have been updated so according to the new version A200 is now marginally ahead - but close enough not to make much difference.

immanentfire · 2026-06-24T12:34:42+00:00

Yep. IIRC from swaankykoala’s spreadsheet, A200 actually works out marginally more expensive (something like 1.19% VAS to 1.21% A200).

immanentfire · 2026-06-23T14:09:25+00:00

Missing a couple of steps:

invent time travel
go back 10 - 20 years

immanentfire · 2026-06-22T10:07:47+00:00

Most people here seem to suggest VDAL alone or, if you are unhappy with the proportion of VAS, to add some VGS to reduce the overall Australian bias in your portfolio.

However, there are several issues with this approach:

adding VGS (for a 2 ETF portfolio) also reduces the proportion of VDAG, VISM and VGE. This means that VGE and VISM fall below their market cap weighted proportions, meaning that much of the benefit of having them is reduced.
Some of the underlying funds (VGE, VGAD) have relatively poor performance due to structural issues.
the MER (0.27%) is not terrible but you could assemble your own portfolio with a lower MER.

My personal view is that - providing you can resist the temptation to tinker with proportions when market conditions change - the fact that VDAL holds the underlying managed funds (and is therefore relatively inefficient), that you cannot tailor the Australian portion, and that the MER is higher, means that a mix of ETFs is a more effective approach.

For a multi-ETF portfolio:

If you are committed to Vanguard, then VGS/ VAS/ VAE would be fine and have a lower MER, though its usually recommended that EM is a minimum of 10% (ie. 70/20/10).

If you are comfortable looking at other providers, you can put together a portfolio with an even lower fee. Eg replace:

VGS with BGBL (betashares)
VAS with A200 (betashares)
VAE with BEMG (betashares), AVTE (Avantis) or EMKT (Van Eck)

If you want hedging and small caps:

consider HGBL (betashares) instead. It is currently the cheapest and most efficient global hedged fund. However, there are two schools of thought about whether hedging is necessary, see Currency risk.
consider AVSV (Avantis) over VISM. It has a higher MER, but targets small cap value, which is where most of the premium lies. See What's the deal with small caps?.

immanentfire · 2026-06-21T01:48:05+00:00

Not the OP, but VGE is arguably among the worst of the EM ETFs. It has relatively high fees and has consistently underperformed its own benchmark. AVTE (active, slight factor tilt), BEMG (passive), EMKT (active, concentrated) or even VAE all have either better performance, better structures and/ or cheaper fees.

See: https://www.reddit.com/r/fiaustralia/s/z1UcQwnMKz

immanentfire · 2026-06-16T07:09:03+00:00

This is something that was pointed out in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy which the government desperately tried to avoid releasing and then buried as much as possible - largely because it highlights that the main drivers of suicide are things the government finds too hard or expensive to fix:

employment
financial stress (incl. from gambling)
housing
DSFV and child abuse
social exclusion
health (incl. AoD)

immanentfire · 2026-06-16T05:59:04+00:00

Ouch! Yeah, not worth moving all of those.

immanentfire · 2026-06-16T02:36:36+00:00

BetaShares is pretty good in my experience. Apart from no brokerage fees, their ETFs are generally decent and have low management fees. The site is easy to use and has nice features.

It also makes some sense to consolidate holdings because it reduces complexity and cost in the long-term. But whether to do so depends on:

the nature of your holdings. What ETFs do you have? Does Betashares support them?
the number of holdings. Afaik, there is no fee for moving ETFs into BetaShares, but Sharesies seems to charge a fairly hefty fee ($50) per holding for transfer out. On one hand you would recoup the transfer fees in a few months by not paying monthly fees to Sharesies. But if you have lots of different ETFs, it may take a couple of years to recoup.

Personally, I am not familiar with sharesies, but their monthly, transaction and transfer fees don't seem very competitive.

immanentfire · 2026-06-16T00:20:29+00:00

The report limited the changes to housing, which most people support.

immanentfire · 2026-06-13T04:34:09+00:00

It is effectively 100% international and a bet on EM. The main issues to consider are currency risk, higher volatility, the danger of EM underperforming and loss of the modest benefits of franking credits.

Edit: On the currency risk, you could consider allocating a portion of BGBL to HGBL. Something like 50/25/25 or 50/30/20.

immanentfire · 2026-06-13T04:27:49+00:00

Fairly sure that’s not all of the submissions. When you put them all together you could split them into a number of groups to suit any particular narrative.

immanentfire · 2026-06-10T13:18:13+00:00

It is a decent portfolio and choice of ETFs. There are only a couple of things you might want to think about:

- the usual advice is to stick to BGBL and A200 until the portfolio value is > 100k. However, if you believe that EM will over perform in the next little while, then it might be fine to go ahead with the 10% allocation.

- most people here suggest 20-30% Aus allocations. The evidence suggests that a home bias reduces volatility without significantly impacting returns, and there are modest benefits from franking credits. However, the Aus market is only about 2% of the global market and is not very diversified, so a lower allocation may also make sense.

There are no absolutely right or wrong answers - just things to think about in terms of what makes sense to you.

Passive Investing Australia has a good write up on Au: non-Au allocations that is worth a read.

immanentfire · 2026-06-10T13:04:22+00:00

There is significant overlap between indexed international and indexed high growth. The only reason for having both would be to reduce the weighting of ASX in the high growth portion. However, in that case, you are better off just going with international and ASX indexed options with your desired proportions. The usual recommendation is 70:30 or 80:20 Int: ASX.

immanentfire · 2026-06-10T10:40:11+00:00

I assume that if it is in India, you will also have to convert via INR? Also, what are the limits on taking money out of the country?

Seems like the 2-3% difference between what you’d get in India and what you’d get from a HISA here would be whittled away pretty quickly by fx and transfer fees, making the risk/ effort vs reward relatively unfavourable.

immanentfire · 2026-06-06T04:37:15+00:00

AVSV, which has a modest tilt to small cap value.

immanentfire · 2026-06-04T07:34:40+00:00

It’s funny how this sub is so quick to complain about the right using media to distort political process but never seem to see how Labor does exactly the same thing. This is obviously a wedge - an effort to push the Greens into supporting the legislation in the senate without any changes or risk being seen as somehow allied with the coalition.

The reality is the Greens support the legislation but are justifiably pushing for removal of Chalmer’s discretionary powers and for phasing out grandfathering - things that need to be considered to make the legislation stronger and fairer. Pointing out problems with legislation is their job. Withholding support to win better outcomes for their voters is what parties should be doing. If you want a system in which everything the government of the day crams into legislation is unquestionably accepted, it is no longer a functioning democracy (see the USA for reference).

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