Globally diversified stock portfolio with low costs modest gold allocation and room for efficiency gains

Report created on Apr 15, 2026

Risk profile

  • Secure
    Speculative

The risk profile, derived from past market volatility, reflects the level of risk the portfolio is exposed to. This assessment helps align your investments with your financial goals and comfort with market fluctuations.

Diversification profile

  • Focused
    Diversified

The diversification assessment evaluates the spread of investments across asset classes, regions, and sectors. This ensures a balanced mix, reducing risk and maximizing returns by not concentrating in any single area.

Positions

This portfolio is built almost entirely from broad index ETFs, with about 95% in stocks and 5% in gold. The core is a global split tilted toward international equities, complemented by a broad US market fund and a small additional slice of a US large‑cap fund. Structurally, it’s simple and easy to understand, which is a big plus for long‑term investing. A stock‑heavy mix like this focuses on growth rather than stability, so swings in value are very normal. The small gold piece acts as a diversifier, but it won’t dramatically smooth returns. Overall, it’s a straightforward, growth‑oriented setup that still keeps some diversification in mind.

Growth Info

Historically, $1,000 grew to about $2,876 over ten years, giving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.19%. CAGR is like your “average speed” over the whole trip, smoothing out the bumps along the way. That’s solid, but it lagged the US market by about 3.23 percentage points a year and the global market by 0.72. The worst drop was around ‑33% during early 2020, very similar to the benchmarks, and it recovered in about five months. This shows the portfolio behaves like a true equity portfolio: strong long‑term growth potential, but with sharp, temporary drawdowns that require emotional and financial staying power.

Projection Info

The Monte Carlo simulation projects many possible 15‑year paths based on how similar portfolios behaved in the past. Think of it as running 1,000 “what if” alternate histories using historical volatility and correlations. The median outcome turns $1,000 into about $2,799, with a broad middle range between roughly $1,785 and $4,105. There’s about a 73.6% chance of ending with more than you started, and the average simulated annual return is 7.94%. This is useful for setting expectations, but it’s not a promise: markets change, and past patterns can break. The real message is that long‑term outcomes are likely positive but can vary a lot.

Asset classes Info

  • Stocks
    95%
  • Other
    5%

Asset‑class wise, the portfolio is very straightforward: about 95% in stocks and 5% in “other,” which here is essentially gold. That means returns are driven mainly by the global equity markets rather than bonds or cash‑like assets. Compared with a typical “balanced” mix that might hold plenty of bonds, this is more growth‑tilted and will feel more volatile in rough markets. The modest gold allocation slightly diversifies away from stock‑specific shocks, but it doesn’t replace the stabilizing role that bonds usually play. This setup is best aligned with someone who accepts big swings in pursuit of higher long‑term equity‑style returns.

Sectors Info

  • Technology
    20%
  • Financials
    18%
  • Industrials
    14%
  • Consumer Discretionary
    9%
  • Health Care
    8%
  • Telecommunications
    6%
  • Basic Materials
    6%
  • Consumer Staples
    5%
  • Energy
    4%
  • Utilities
    3%
  • Real Estate
    3%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Sector exposure is nicely spread out: technology is the largest at 20%, followed by financials at 18% and industrials at 14%, with meaningful slices in consumer, health care, telecoms, and more cyclical areas like materials and energy. This pattern is broadly in line with common global benchmarks, which is a strong sign of healthy diversification. It avoids making a big bet on any single theme or story. A balanced sector mix like this helps reduce the risk that one industry’s downturn dominates overall results. The trade‑off is that it won’t massively outperform if a single hot sector goes on a huge run.

Regions Info

  • North America
    37%
  • Europe Developed
    23%
  • Japan
    10%
  • Asia Developed
    9%
  • Asia Emerging
    9%
  • Australasia
    3%
  • Africa/Middle East
    2%
  • Latin America
    1%
  • Europe Emerging
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Geographically, the portfolio is genuinely global. Roughly 37% sits in North America, 23% in developed Europe, and a solid spread across Japan, developed Asia, and emerging Asia, plus smaller pieces in Australasia, Latin America, and Africa/Middle East. Compared with many US‑centric portfolios, this is closer to global market weights, which is a big plus for diversification. It reduces dependence on any one economy or currency and taps into growth from multiple regions. The flip side is that it will sometimes lag a pure US portfolio when the US booms, as recent history has shown, but that’s the price of broad global balance.

Market capitalization Info

  • Mega-cap
    43%
  • Large-cap
    29%
  • Mid-cap
    16%
  • No data
    5%
  • Small-cap
    4%
  • Micro-cap
    1%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

By market cap, there’s a clear tilt toward larger companies: about 43% in mega‑caps and 29% in large‑caps, with smaller but real exposure to mid, small, and even micro‑caps. This pattern is similar to broad global indices, where giant firms naturally dominate. Large companies typically bring more stability and liquidity, while the smaller slices introduce some extra growth potential and volatility. Having some mid and small‑cap exposure helps avoid being completely driven by a handful of mega‑names, but overall the behavior will feel very “big‑company” like. That usually means smoother than a pure small‑cap portfolio, but still fully equity‑level bumpy.

True holdings Info

  • Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
    2.15%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares
  • NVIDIA Corporation
    2.01%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Apple Inc
    1.90%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Microsoft Corporation
    1.42%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
    1.00%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Amazon.com Inc
    0.99%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Alphabet Inc Class A
    0.88%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • ASML Holding N.V.
    0.81%
    Part of fund(s):
    • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Broadcom Inc
    0.74%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Alphabet Inc Class C
    0.70%
    Part of fund(s):
    • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
  • Top 10 total 12.60%

This breakdown covers the equity portion of your portfolio only.

Looking through the ETFs, the largest underlying exposures are big global names like Taiwan Semiconductor, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Amazon. Several of these appear in more than one fund, which creates some hidden concentration even though you only see a few ETFs on the surface. For instance, owning both total US and S&P 500 exposure means the same mega‑caps are effectively doubled up. Because we only see each ETF’s top 10 holdings, this overlap is probably understated. The key takeaway: while the ETF list looks very diversified, a meaningful slice of risk is still tied to a relatively small group of global giants.

Factors Info

Value
Preference for undervalued stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 95%
Size
Exposure to smaller companies
Neutral
Data availability: 95%
Momentum
Exposure to recently outperforming stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 95%
Quality
Preference for financially healthy companies
Neutral
Data availability: 95%
Yield
Preference for dividend-paying stocks
Neutral
Data availability: 100%
Low Volatility
Preference for stable, lower-risk stocks
High
Data availability: 100%

Factor exposures are estimated using statistical models based on historical data and measure systematic (market-relative) tilts, not absolute portfolio characteristics. Results may vary depending on the analysis period, data availability, and currency of the underlying assets.

Factor exposure is mostly balanced around the market, with value, size, momentum, quality, and yield all sitting in the “neutral” range. Factor exposure just means how much the portfolio leans into certain characteristics like cheapness (value) or recent winners (momentum) that research links to long‑term returns. The one notable tilt is toward low volatility at 67%, meaning the holdings are slightly more stable than the broad market on average. This can help soften drawdowns a bit in rough patches, while still fully participating in equity markets. It’s reassuring that there are no extreme factor bets here; the mix is broadly diversified across styles.

Risk contribution Info

  • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares
    Weight: 63.00%
    65.3%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
    Weight: 30.00%
    31.6%
  • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    Weight: 2.00%
    2.1%
  • iShares Gold Trust
    Weight: 5.00%
    1.1%

Risk contribution shows how much each holding drives the portfolio’s ups and downs, which can differ from simple weights. Here, the two big broad equity funds contribute about 97% of total risk, roughly in line with their combined allocation. The S&P 500 ETF adds a tiny extra slice of similar risk, while the 5% in gold contributes only about 1% of overall volatility. That makes gold a relatively “quiet” diversifier. This pattern is healthy: no single ETF is wildly over‑pulling its weight. If anything, you could think about whether holding both a total US fund and an extra S&P 500 fund materially changes behavior versus just simplifying.

Redundant positions Info

  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares
    SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    High correlation

The correlation data points out that the S&P 500 ETF and the total US stock ETF move almost identically. Correlation measures how often and how closely two assets move together: a value near 1 means they’re basically dancing in step. Because of that, holding both doesn’t add much diversification; it just layers more of the same type of US stock exposure. This isn’t harmful, but it does slightly complicate the picture without changing risk or return much. From a high‑level view, the real diversification here comes from the mix of US vs. international stocks and the small low‑correlation gold position.

Risk vs. return

This chart shows the Efficient Frontier, calculated using your current assets with different allocation combinations. It highlights the best balance between risk and return based on historical data. "Efficient" portfolios maximize returns for a given risk or minimize risk for a given return. Portfolios below the curve are less efficient. This is informational and not a recommendation to buy or sell any assets.

Click on the colored dots to explore allocations.

The risk‑return chart shows the current portfolio has a Sharpe ratio of 0.49, while the best mix using only these same holdings reaches around 1.12. The Sharpe ratio measures risk‑adjusted return: how much excess return you get per unit of volatility. Being 3.14 percentage points below the efficient frontier at the current risk level means the existing weights aren’t using these ingredients as effectively as possible. In plain terms, a different blend of the same funds could aim for higher expected return with lower risk. The positive news: no new products are needed — optimization is about refining the recipe, not changing the ingredients.

Dividends Info

  • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 0.80%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares 1.10%
  • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares 2.80%
  • Weighted yield (per year) 2.11%

The overall dividend yield is about 2.11%, mainly driven by the international fund’s higher payout around 2.8%, with US funds yielding closer to 1% and gold paying nothing. Dividend yield is the annual cash payout as a percentage of the current price, like “interest” on your shares. For a growth‑oriented stock portfolio, a ~2% yield is pretty typical. It won’t cover major spending needs on its own, but it adds a steady component to total returns alongside price growth. For long‑term compounding, reinvesting those dividends back into the portfolio can quietly add a lot over the years without you noticing day to day.

Ongoing product costs Info

  • iShares Gold Trust 0.25%
  • SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 0.10%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares 0.03%
  • Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF Shares 0.05%
  • Weighted costs total (per year) 0.06%

Costs are impressively low: the total expense ratio (TER) across the holdings is about 0.06% per year. TER is the annual fee charged by a fund to cover management and operations, quietly deducted in the background. For context, many actively managed funds charge 0.75%–1% or more, so this structure is extremely cost‑efficient. Keeping fees this low directly supports better long‑term outcomes, because every dollar not spent on costs stays invested and compounding. This is a major strength of the portfolio: it uses broad, cheap index funds in a way that aligns with best practices for long‑term, buy‑and‑hold investing.

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