Balance Your Portfolio for Success …
Investing only in the S&P500 means owning just one country and, effectively, just one large sector (technology).
For most of 2025, I have encouraged having a more balanced portfolio. See here and here.
That meant looking beyond the popular (but wrong) idea of owning just the S&P500 index. 2025 has debunked that as an effective strategy.
But whilst the S&P500 index is down this year, many other markets are doing pretty well.
Amongst our community of informed investors, we have increasingly focused on non-US markets this year, including Gold.
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The chart below shows the year-to-date performance of just two of our favoured ideas, versus the US market …
The red line is the S&P 500 index (down 6.3% this year), the blue line European shares (up +8.7%) and the yellow line is Gold (up +17%)
Some of our smart investors have invested in Gold and earning monthly income of 1-5% through owning it. That is done with a conventional options strategy – see my video explainer here – or through a clever strategy called ‘Poor Man’s Covered Calls’.
So what’s with the US?
In 2025 US stocks (S&P 500 index) have underperformed because:
- The S&P 500 became increasingly dominated by big tech stocks, which then underperformed
- DeepSeek was our first signal – my note on this was written when that red flag emerged
- Donald Trump’s tariff threats have materialised into reality, threatening the US economy
- Chinese and European economies (somewhat linked) appear to be turning the corner
- A mass of global/US wealth rotated from the US and flowed into Europe, China and Gold
- That gathered pace as investors realised how skewed historical flows had been into the US
- Gold benefited as a safe haven asset (one of our ‘Protect’ assets).
Do i need to know all this to be a good passive investor?
Not at all.
The key thing is to be balanced and diversified: a key pillar inside our investment academy.
This means not just owning the S&P500 but also Global Stocks, Gold, Bonds and Options. Owning all of those in the right way provides the investing holy trinity of:
Growth + Protection + Income
Doing that lets you literally set-and-forget. No monitoring required, whichever way the world shifts.
This is the essence of how we train investors to master their own financial future. Learn more here.
And if you have more diverse investment interests, don’t forget to read that recent note about more investment ideas.
Always Remember:
- Time in the Markets always beats timing the markets
- Stay Diversified
- Minimise those leakages: Fees, Inflation, and Taxes
- Financial Markets are a great source of recurring income
- ETFs, Balanced Funds and Options achieve all the above
- Being educated helps you outperform 99% of the population
… to ensure your investments work for YOUR financial freedom (not someone else’s)
And …
For more guidance, our Investment Academy will help you implement all of this in a step-by-step way.
Thousands of people have learnt how to diversify and pound-cost-average into low-cost, set-and-forget ETFs & Funds for inflation-beating growth. And Options to create recurring income.
Click here to learn about our Investment Academy
Finally …
– Don’t take the above as advice as it may not apply to you personally
– Your Capital is at Risk
– You may not be covered by the FSCS
– Anything mentioned in a podcast or in a previous article was valid at that time and may not continue to be now
