For anyone interested in the issue of US or international, going forward - some discussion here. Maybe would be good if discussion on that particular theme were continued on this forum rather than the BRK board.
Sneak preview:
On the other hand, one could argue that a Swiss company like Nestle which controls a huge consumer portfolio or foreign miners who control assets in the form of natural resources might be interesting alternatives. There are also foreign industrial companies like Siemen, Philips, ABB and so on that are selling at bargain prices because of the current stress going on in Europe. Unless you think the Russian war is the “forever war” and the Chines COVID is the “forever plague”, these companies are comparatively cheap compared to their American competitors (so far, at least).
Jeff
Jeff
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About 1 year later, as a USD investor in index etfs/funds, I still prefer US equities over international mainstays (ignoring individual stocks, which could always do better/worse than any index). US equity etfs have outperformed emerging and developed equity etfs over the last year and last five years. I still don’t see much reason to buy broad international indexes.
| Total Returns | ||
| ETF | 1 year | 5 year |
| SPY (S&P 500) | 25.6% | 119.5% |
| QQQ (Nasdaq 100) | 53.7% | 194.4% |
| EEM (Emerging Markets) | 7.0% | 15.7% |
| VGK (Europe) | 19.1% | 59.8% |
| EWJ (Japan) | 18.1% | 40.5% |
| EWA (Australia) | 12.9% | 61.1% |
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And another 2 years later, 3 years from the original 2022 post, broad US indexes continue to greatly and almost always outperform international developed and developing markets.
A USD investor has done vastly better in US indexes for a long, long time (beyond the time windows below).
I think Warren Buffet said US investors should stay with US assets.
There must be some country-specific index ETFs that have outperformed the list below and we might have some reason to think will continue to do better?
What are they?
| Total Returns | |||
| ETF | 1 year | 3 year | 5 year |
| SPY (S&P 500) | 18.68% | 77.88% | 111.06% |
| QQQ (Nasdaq 100) | 25.56% | 61.44% | 125.54% |
| EEM (Emerging Markets) | 26.56% | 42.76% | 32.30% |
| VGK (Europe) | 17.64% | 41.29% | 71.23% |
| EWJ (Japan) | 19.48% | 35.07% | 49.24% |
| EWA (Australia) | 7.89% | 32.19% | 63.71% |
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