ETF Choices

These are the ETFs that I am going to focus on for now.

	Ticker	Family	Name
1	EFA	ishares	MSCI EAFE Index Fund
2	EWJ	ishares	MSCI Japan Index Fund
3	GLD	statestreet	SPDR Gold Shares
4	IEF	ishares	Barclays 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Fund
5	IWB	ishares	Russell 1000 Index Fund
6	IWM	ishares	Russell 2000 Index Fund
7	RWX	statestreet	SPDR Dow Jones International Real Estate ETF
8	TLT	ishares	Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund
9	VNQ	vanguard	REIT ETF
10	VWO	vanguard	MSCI Emerging Markets ETF
11	SLV	ishares	Silver Trust

The US stocks segment is split into large cap stocks based on the Russell 1000 index (IWB) and small to medium cap stocks based on the Russell 2000 (IWM) index.

Foreign stocks are split into Europe, Asia and Far East (EFA), Japan (EWJ), and emerging markets (VWO).

Bonds are split into mid-term bonds (IEF) and longer term bonds (TLT). Later I will consider whether to use short term bonds (SHY), or a money market account to hold cash.

Real estate is split into US REITs (VNQ) and international REITs (RWX).

Commodities are split into physical gold (GLD) and physical silver (SLV). I'll have more to say later about alternatives, for example exchange traded notes that track a commodities based index, such as DBC.

My Reasoning For Choosing These ETFs

Each of the equity and bond ETFs are based on broad indexes, which provides diversification within that asset type. The exception being GLD and SLV, which concentrate on gold bullion and silver bullion. Each ETF covers a different portion of the economy and hopefully react differently and at different times to changing economic conditions. Therby giving me a second layer of diversification, ie across asset types.

I'll dig deeper into the math of why this is beneficial next time.

Disclaimer

I own EFA, VWO, GLD, SLV, RWX, VNQ, IEF, SHY at this time, and could buy and sell at any time.