Should you own international stocks in your stock portfolio?

[@chrissycrazy4]

Loved all your points!

[@RetirementPlanningEducation]

Thanks!

[@joelcorley3478]

Good video. Personally I think international stocks add complexity to a portfolio without necessarily adding to the performance or stability. I hold a small international position, but you could argue that it's not large enough to move the needle. One decision I made about 6 or 7 years ago was to try to remove any direct exposure to so-called emerging markets. I'm not saying there's not the potential for opportunity there - I'm saying that there are huge uncompensated risks. I made this decision when I realized that around half of all so-called emerging market equities were at that point incorporated in China or Chinese based. The problem I have there is that this means a Communist totalitarian state had direct control over the fate of a non-trivial portion of my portfolio. In fact many so-called emerging markets are run by fascist dictatorships or other problematic political structures. This realization has led me to conclude that investing in these markets makes me culpable for how they treat their citizens and it also puts my retirement at the mercy of these governments. Being in either position is simply unacceptable, so I cannot invest in any investment that invests in emerging markets.

[@janethunt4037]

Thank you for sharing these insights.

[@Antandthegrasshopper]

I am a dividend investor and retired early. I hold VYMI which has a P/E of less than 10 and Yield close to 5%. Its sister ETF VYM (American) has 18.5 P/E and around 2.7% yield.

[@ericgold3840]

It is obviously true that the S&P is heavily weighted towards the top 5 -10 companies in the index these days, but is that so much different than the past 100 years ? I'm under the impression that the answer is no. Without looking into this with rigor, I've accepted the qualitative argument that so long as the largest US market value companies are *in* the S&P, allocating a large fraction to the S&P remains an unchanged thesis.

[@vasto7146]

Nice presentation of the salient points. I agree with your position. I'm a bit uncomfortable at the 40% level. But that would be the neutral position. I am at around 1/4 of equities.

[@tommypain]

Germanish? 🤣

[@RetirementPlanningEducation]

It’s only a matter of time until Oxford’s adds it to their English dictionary!