Extreme Investing for Expats

I like my investments boring.  I am a militant, hands off long term buy and hold investor.  I don’t track my investments and don’t know how they‘re doing.  I like it this way!

Many of my clients take the same approach.  Boring, know nothing investors like me.  Some get all they need in one fund.   Others in a couple of funds.

But what if you need something more?  A little more excitement – more edge to your portfolio.  The couch potato mix I subscribe to won’t cut it for you.  And you are interested in the US market?

If you feel this way, and some of my clients do, you can satisfy your urge and still have a great investment strategy with the iShares S&P SmallCap 600 UCITS.  You can purchase it in USD, GBP, or EUR. 

It offers holdings of 600 small companies in the US.  You may not have heard of many of the holdings.   I live in the states and am not aware of most of the companies. 

It is an aggressive holding and offers some nice diversification away from large companies both here in the states and abroad.  The small cap asset class is considered a good long term holding for investors looking for complete diversification.  It will include in its mix some of the stars of the future along with some that might flame out.

But it is not crazy at all to buy this type of ETf in moderation. It comes in at .40 expense ratio.  You could easily add it in at 10 to 15% of your mix and at .40% it is not that much to bite off.

I have no idea how this fund will do in the future.  It will likely be volatile.  But it owns 600 companies so it is nicely diversified.  While I am too boring for this type of investment, I think it could be a great option for the more “extreme” expat investor.