Canadian Business Online, February 6, 2004
The Global Couch Potato portfolio takes couch potato investing a step further. The fundamentals are the same: keep your costs low, diversify and rebalance your portfolio once a year. The difference is that the Global Couch Potato portfolio strategy offers better diversification because it adds an index product that tracks markets in Europe, Australasia and the Far East. It also includes a product that tracks the Canadian bond market.
Here's how it works.
Split your money into five equal portions.
One-fifth goes into the iUnits Composite Cdn Eq Index Fund(XIC), an ETF that tracks the broad Canadian stock market.
One-fifth goes into the iUnits S&P 500 C$ Index Fund(XSP), an ETF that tracks the U.S. stock market and is hedged to Canadian dollars.
One-fifth goes into the iUnits International Equity C$ Index Fund(XIN), an ETF that tracks markets in Europe, Australasia and the Far East and is hedged to Canadian dollars.
Two-fifths go into the iUnits Canadian Bond Broad Market Index Fund(XBB), an ETF that tracks the Canadian bond market.
Once a year, buy or sell as necessary to get back to an equal split. Reinvest any distributions, preferably through a DRIP program if offered by your broker.
