Here are some investments we use in our practice

You can use these to build your own basic portfolio based on your risk tolerance (which you can determine using our risk tolerance tool).

These are not recommendations and past performance does not guarantee future results.  Please get in contact with us if you have questions or would like some ideas for creating a more comprehensive investment portfolio or to discuss your specific situation.

Exchange Traded Funds

We like exchange traded funds because they:

  • Are easy to get in and out of
  • Often have low internal fees
  • Are a simple way to get exposure to certain segments of the investment universe
  • For index funds, provide performance approximately equal to their tracking index

Schwab ETFs

  • SCHB Schwab US Broad Market
  • SCHX Schwab US Large Cap
  • SCHM Schwab US Mid Cap
  • SCHA Schwab US Small Cap
  • SCHF Schwab International Equity

Vanguard ETFs

  • VTI Vanguard Total Stock Market
  • VV Vanguard Large Cap
  • VO Vanguard Mid Cap
  • VB Vanguard Small Cap
  • VEU Vanguard FTSE All World Ex US

Actively Managed Mutual Funds

The best reason we see for using actively managed mutual funds is for their potential, over time, to show returns that exceed their benchmark.  Definitely not an easy task.  But it can be done.

We like actively managed funds for certain client situations, but we are extremely selective.  Many actively managed mutual funds are not good, but there are a handful of really great ones.  Finding the great ones takes time, skill, effort and experience.  And they have to be watched carefully as time goes on.

Here are a few we are using right now:

  • HCAIX Harbor Capital Appreciation Fund (Large Cap Growth Fund)
  • BUFTX Buffalo Discovery Fund (Mid Cap Growth Fund)
  • BSCVX Bernzott US Small Cap Value Fund (Full disclosure I worked for Bernzott Capital in the past but receive no compensation for putting their fund on this list)
  • OAKIX Oakmark International Fund