I have VOO bought in several tranches since 2008/2009, have returned ~80% to date. Management fees are rock bottom.

My opinion is that in developed market, index fund perform better than investment managers. For less develop market, investment fund managers is better since there is more market manipulation, insider trades, info leak etc etc.

Index funds are one of the many tools for portfolio management. In fact if one buys carefully, you can have a very balanced portfolio based on ETF. Also ETF is a great tool to buy obscure stocks, which is otherwise out of your reach. You want to buy Nigeria or Bangladesh Stock Index ETF.. you can do so....

This post has been edited by gark: Jun 10 2013, 10:05 AM

For those who are interested in ETF... but worry about trading cost and 30% withholding tax ton dividends there are ways to avoid this.

Buy offshore US ETF listed in SGX and HKEX, you will not be charged the 30% withholding tax since both countries have no tax on dividends. You choices are more limited, but you can still find the most of the more popular ETF's.

Also a lot of broker have commission free trades on US ETF, this might be able to offset your witholding tax. Then sell your holdings before dividend and re-buy ex-dividend once the price is adjusted. Otherwise don't bother (like me) as most US ETF dividend is <3%.

Or you can buy Offshore Vanguard funds , as non-US resident but the minimum purchase is $10,000.

This post has been edited by gark: Jun 11 2013, 02:47 PM

I hold VOO, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, and my MER is 0.05%-0.06%....

This post has been edited by gark: Jun 11 2013, 02:42 PM

All of them listed is US, HKEX or SGX is traded in USD only.

Just the company structure is different, those listed in SGX and HKEX is offshore, so they are not subject to US tax.

By TT? Or you can buy through MY broker, but more expensive...

This post has been edited by gark: Jun 11 2013, 04:33 PM