'Backtesting' the DIY World ETF Income Portfolios

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Last month I suggested that it would be possible to create a DIY geographically-diversified income-oriented portfolio using just ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). The idea was to create a long-term DIY portfolio that was easy to administer and which also minimised risk, whilst retaining (what I see as) the benefits of a yield-based income-oriented approach to investment.


One reader asked whether it would be possible to review the past performance of such a portfolio - so here goes...

When It Goes Wrong: Huntsworth

A lot of eggs in a lot of baskets
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The DIY Income Investor portfolio has recently hit an all-time valuation - that is very reassuring but the portfolo does contain some problem holdings.

Buying high-yield securities directly (as opposed to a high-yield ETF) exposes you to specific security risks. In a sense, that is what the high yield should tell you: buyer beware!

So what should you do when a security goes bad?

A Simple Decision (Portfolio Buy)

The perennial question: what to buy now?

This time - thanks to the new focus of the DIY Income Investor portfolio on building up the ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) holdings - the decision is relatively simple.  

What a Difference a Week Makes (Portfolio Sale)

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I've been AWOL and AFK* for a week - cut off from civilisation in deepest Oxfordshire; no news or share-price up-dates.

Firing up the spreadsheet on Monday morning - a little apprehensively - I was very pleased to see that the DIY Income Investor portfolio has hit another all-time high valuation. It could have gone the other way, of course.

With the portfolio increasingly on ETF autopilot, there should be less and less to do. However this week it did seem necessary to sell something - and it was an ETF. Here's why...