U.S. investors tend to think in terms of what is happening stateside. Yet many of them have a fair amount of overseas exposure.
Take the popular Vanguard Target Retirement Fund 2030 (VTHRX) with $40,000,000,000 under management. That’s $40 billion with a “B.”
VTHRX holds 40% in its Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and 27% in its Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund. Year-to-date, it has logged a return of about -22%.
If the 67% stock exposure had been in U.S. stocks only? The return would have been closer to -19.8%.
Maybe that does not seem like a big deal. Depends upon who’s evaluating.
Yet there are a whole lot of folks who aren’t even aware of there international positioning. Nor are they aware that global stocks (excluding the U.S.) are LOWER than they were 20 years ago.
