Every chef naturally thinks his or her creation is the best and strives to portray it in its ideal light. But for an everyday investor just trying to find a good plan, it’s hard to know who to trust. The data presented here is my effort to level the playing field. The goal is to provide a neutral resource that fairly compares the pluses and minuses of a variety of popular portfolio ideas from many different perspectives.
Depending on your personal financial needs, biases, and emotions, some portfolios may be more attractive than others. My philosophy is that there’s no such thing as a single portfolio to rule them all, and that different people require different asset allocations. I will not include an option here that I consider to be a bad idea, so don’t be afraid to browse until you find one that resonates with you.
Portfolio Sources
I’m simply the supplier of portfolio performance information, and the original authors deserve full credit for each portfolio idea. I do what I can to support the smart people who share their diverse investing knowledge in the following ways:
- I provide attribution to each author and encourage everyone to read their original work. You can find references to their books and blogs on each portfolio page.
- I do my best to preserve design intent and to not twist the author’s recommendation in any way. The only reasons I may change percentages are when I don’t have the right data or need to round to the nearest percent to not over-burden the tools. When that happens I try to faithfully represent the design intent as closely as possible. I always point out when I do that and why.
If you ever see something that looks like an error or that you think needs clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Trust is earned, and I’m willing to do the work!
International Translations
Portfolio Charts is somewhat unique in how it is able to model portfolios in multiple countries using their own currency and local inflation. While many portfolio authors write from a US perspective, I also do my best to interpret the underlying philosophy to the investments available in a different country.
The portfolio translations use the following logic:
Australian, Canadian, and Japanese portfolios use domestic & international definitions where “domestic” means your own home country and “international” is a broad developed world fund. The same interpretation strategy applies to European portfolios with simple asset types. For European portfolios with small and value tilts, I take advantage of the more numerous investing options in broad Europe funds and describe portfolios with Europe as the domestic market and the United States as the international market. Doing it that way not only follows fund availability but also captures more of the factor-based asset nuance in these types of portfolios.
To see the interpretation for your country, look for the charts on a portfolio page and select your home country from the dropdown at the top. If you disagree with my interpretation for a portfolio or simply prefer your own tweaks, that’s great! You can always model your own version with the My Portfolio tool or any of the other fully customizable charts.
Building a Portfolio
Portfolio data is only as useful as your ability to act on it. To help take the next step to purchasing index funds to build your own asset allocation, each portfolio page includes a tool called the Fund Finder that can help you identify low-cost index funds for each asset in your country.
For more information on how that works, read the notes on the dedicated Fund Finder page. And if you find a portfolio you like but are not sure what to do next, check out my quick guide on how to manage your own portfolio.
Disclaimer
The numbers you find here may differ from the numbers provided by portfolio authors in their own writing for the same timeframe. Usually this is due to differing data sources or minor methodology differences. Also note that all calculations on Portfolio Charts account for inflation, while some authors ignore inflation in their own work.
I’m not paid to list any portfolio on this site, and I have no financial interest in promoting any financial author. I only list portfolios here because I find them interesting and helpful.
Never take anything I write as promoting a particular portfolio or investment for you personally. I don’t know the specifics of your situation, and even if I did I’m in no position to tell you how to invest your own life savings. I’m not a financial adviser — I’m just a neutral engineer with good data and an interest in the truth.