While I usually recommend investing money in index funds, it can be fun to construct portfolios of stocks only. I recently built a “Research Portfolio”; constructed with securities that rate highly for long-term growth prospects both in fundamentals screens and using analyst ratings (from BofA, JPM, MS, Morningstar, Goldman, and several others).
If you need a sign-up link, just click below for a free $10. They also give you money for depositing a certain amount with them.
As the portfolio has many positions that are in half-percentage point increments, I created two sub-portfolios each with a 50% weight and then doubled the weighting to get the correct values.
This portfolio represents what I’d consider to be “Growth at A Reasonable Price”, and could be combined with $SPY or $VT to lower the active share.
(Five holdings all at 3%. Full holdings listed at the bottom of the page if you need them.)
With the top four holdings in $AAPL, $MSFT, $AMZN, and $GOOGL, the portfolio shouldn’t stray too far from the S&P 500. While it still holds names like $NVDA at 2.5%, it doesn’t hold names like $TSLA. Instead, higher weighting is given to a number of financials, healthcare stocks, industrials, staples, transports, and other sectors which analysts expect to outperform their industry rivals.
Remember, this portfolio is split into halves. If you invest in it or add it to an existing portfolio, remember to allocate evenly between them to properly replicate the full portfolio. Simply click the button to be taken to the portfolio.
When working with M1, it does an excellent job of ensuring new money goes toward underfunded positions. However, it’s best for smaller contributions to go toward an index fund to decrease slippage. There’s little sense in buying 25-50 different stocks when you’re only depositing $25-$50.
Instead, I’d set my minimum investment to $100-200 *or* I’d use $SPY / $VT or $VGSH / $SHV for all smaller deposits. Setting an investment minimum will ensure that M1 won’t execute any buy orders unless you have $100-$200 (or whichever you set for a minimum) before making a buy. You can also tell M1 to manage your Spend/Invest money. For example, I tell it to put any money over $3,500 into my invest account, and whenever my invest account exceeds $200, it will add to my portfolio. (In other words, a $3500 limit on Spend and a $200 investment minimum on Invest.)
The best way to do this is to set the portfolio up initially with just the stocks. Then, new money can sit in cash or be deposited into the ETF of your choice (for S&P use $SPY, for world stock, $VT, for short-duration treasuries $VGSH, or money-market style treasuries $SHV). These should all have a minimal spread, and as such won’t pose any issues if you’re only buying $25 worth of stocks.
Then, you merely set your portfolio to ~10% in $SPY or $VT etc., until you are ready to make a large buy. Then, simply lower $SPY or $VT to 1% to ensure all new money goes into your stocks. Alternately, you can click “buy” on the portfolio if you prefer, and M1 will only buy from the portfolio you select.
For rebalancing, I would discourage manual rebalancing at all unless you decide to remove a stock from your portfolio. Remember the wash-sale rule. If you end up selling $SPY in a taxable, you’ll need to use 50% $SPYG and 50% $SPYV instead, or $VTI / $VV, or $VUG + $VTV (50/50). Or, you could use $SCHX or $SCHK or $IWB or $MGC or $OEF or many other combinations. A financial advisor can help you with tax harvesting.
(It can be good to use $VUG and $QQQ alternately for growth and simply sell one to buy the other every 31 days if there’s a loss to write off the taxes. This is a bit harder for value, but can be done with $VTV and $SPYV, although most of the liquidity will be on $VTV, $QQQ, and $VUG.)
—Avery
Some Other Portfolios:
If you’re bored or looking for some other portfolios, here ya go:
“Balanced Global 90/10” (Actually 92/8)
60% S&P 500 $SPY
10% Small-cap Value $AVUV
16% Developed Markets w/ Small Cap Value $VEA $AVDV
8% Treasuries (70% Short/30% Intermediate).
6% EM (42% Avantis EM, 35% Vanguard EM, 23% Latin America)
Most of the risk in this portfolio is in EM and Small Cap Value, which also have the potential for higher returns. If you’re nearing retirement or looking to lower risk, removing small-cap value ($AVUV and $AVDV) or EM ($AVEM $VWO $ILF) and putting them in $SPY or Treasuries is the simplest way to reduce risk and/or equity exposure.
Click the button to invest in the portfolio or add it to your existing investing plan.
Another single portfolio of stocks that I believe represent “growth at a reasonable price”. Again, this is a stock-only portfolio and is best complemented with index funds.
Microsoft, TSM, Google, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire, JNJ, Eli Lilly, Thermo Fisher, TotalEnergies, Visa, Alcoa, Anthem, BHP, CNQ, Schwab, Conocophillips, Danaher, Deere, and more.
Again, just click the button to view or add the portfolio. I recommend holding at least 30-50 stocks minimum in an all-stock portfolio. Otherwise, no more than 1 stock per 1% (or 2-3% for megacaps).
M1 Research Portfolio
M1 Research Portfolio
M1 Research Portfolio
A Portfolio… of Stocks
While I usually recommend investing money in index funds, it can be fun to construct portfolios of stocks only. I recently built a “Research Portfolio”; constructed with securities that rate highly for long-term growth prospects both in fundamentals screens and using analyst ratings (from BofA, JPM, MS, Morningstar, Goldman, and several others).
If you need a sign-up link, just click below for a free $10. They also give you money for depositing a certain amount with them.
M1 — $10 Free w/ Signup
As the portfolio has many positions that are in half-percentage point increments, I created two sub-portfolios each with a 50% weight and then doubled the weighting to get the correct values.
This portfolio represents what I’d consider to be “Growth at A Reasonable Price”, and could be combined with $SPY or $VT to lower the active share.
M1 — Averygrrl's Research Portfolio
“Research Portfolio A” — 50%
“Research Portfolio B” — 50%
Top 10 Holdings:
Apple $AAPL — 7.5%
Microsoft $MSFT — 7%
Amazon $AMZN — 7%
Google $GOOGL — 6.5%
L3Harris $LHX — 3.5%
Danaher $DHR — 3.5%
Costco $COST — 3%
JPMorgan $JPM — 3%
Honeywell $HON — 3%
Marvell Technology $MRVL — 3%
Visa $V — 3%
(Five holdings all at 3%. Full holdings listed at the bottom of the page if you need them.)
With the top four holdings in $AAPL, $MSFT, $AMZN, and $GOOGL, the portfolio shouldn’t stray too far from the S&P 500. While it still holds names like $NVDA at 2.5%, it doesn’t hold names like $TSLA. Instead, higher weighting is given to a number of financials, healthcare stocks, industrials, staples, transports, and other sectors which analysts expect to outperform their industry rivals.
Remember, this portfolio is split into halves. If you invest in it or add it to an existing portfolio, remember to allocate evenly between them to properly replicate the full portfolio. Simply click the button to be taken to the portfolio.
M1 — "Averygrrl's Research Portfolio"
A bit of advice for working with M1…
When working with M1, it does an excellent job of ensuring new money goes toward underfunded positions. However, it’s best for smaller contributions to go toward an index fund to decrease slippage. There’s little sense in buying 25-50 different stocks when you’re only depositing $25-$50.
Instead, I’d set my minimum investment to $100-200 *or* I’d use $SPY / $VT or $VGSH / $SHV for all smaller deposits. Setting an investment minimum will ensure that M1 won’t execute any buy orders unless you have $100-$200 (or whichever you set for a minimum) before making a buy. You can also tell M1 to manage your Spend/Invest money. For example, I tell it to put any money over $3,500 into my invest account, and whenever my invest account exceeds $200, it will add to my portfolio. (In other words, a $3500 limit on Spend and a $200 investment minimum on Invest.)
The best way to do this is to set the portfolio up initially with just the stocks. Then, new money can sit in cash or be deposited into the ETF of your choice (for S&P use $SPY, for world stock, $VT, for short-duration treasuries $VGSH, or money-market style treasuries $SHV). These should all have a minimal spread, and as such won’t pose any issues if you’re only buying $25 worth of stocks.
Then, you merely set your portfolio to ~10% in $SPY or $VT etc., until you are ready to make a large buy. Then, simply lower $SPY or $VT to 1% to ensure all new money goes into your stocks. Alternately, you can click “buy” on the portfolio if you prefer, and M1 will only buy from the portfolio you select.
For rebalancing, I would discourage manual rebalancing at all unless you decide to remove a stock from your portfolio. Remember the wash-sale rule. If you end up selling $SPY in a taxable, you’ll need to use 50% $SPYG and 50% $SPYV instead, or $VTI / $VV, or $VUG + $VTV (50/50). Or, you could use $SCHX or $SCHK or $IWB or $MGC or $OEF or many other combinations. A financial advisor can help you with tax harvesting.
(It can be good to use $VUG and $QQQ alternately for growth and simply sell one to buy the other every 31 days if there’s a loss to write off the taxes. This is a bit harder for value, but can be done with $VTV and $SPYV, although most of the liquidity will be on $VTV, $QQQ, and $VUG.)
—Avery
Some Other Portfolios:
If you’re bored or looking for some other portfolios, here ya go:
“Balanced Global 90/10” (Actually 92/8)
60% S&P 500 $SPY
10% Small-cap Value $AVUV
16% Developed Markets w/ Small Cap Value $VEA $AVDV
8% Treasuries (70% Short/30% Intermediate).
6% EM (42% Avantis EM, 35% Vanguard EM, 23% Latin America)
Most of the risk in this portfolio is in EM and Small Cap Value, which also have the potential for higher returns. If you’re nearing retirement or looking to lower risk, removing small-cap value ($AVUV and $AVDV) or EM ($AVEM $VWO $ILF) and putting them in $SPY or Treasuries is the simplest way to reduce risk and/or equity exposure.
Click the button to invest in the portfolio or add it to your existing investing plan.
M1 — Balanced Global 90/10
“GARP Stocks”
Another single portfolio of stocks that I believe represent “growth at a reasonable price”. Again, this is a stock-only portfolio and is best complemented with index funds.
Microsoft, TSM, Google, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire, JNJ, Eli Lilly, Thermo Fisher, TotalEnergies, Visa, Alcoa, Anthem, BHP, CNQ, Schwab, Conocophillips, Danaher, Deere, and more.
Again, just click the button to view or add the portfolio. I recommend holding at least 30-50 stocks minimum in an all-stock portfolio. Otherwise, no more than 1 stock per 1% (or 2-3% for megacaps).
M1 — GARP Stocks
Research Portfolio: Other Holdings
The rest of the holdings:
Blackrock $BLK — 2.5%
Capital One $COF — 2.5%
Chevron $CVX — 2.5%
Equity Residential $EQR — 2.5%
NVIDIA $NVDA — 2.5%
Parker-Hannifin $PH — 2.5%
Sherwin Williams $SHW — 2.5%
Truist Financial $TFC — 2.5%
Union Pacific $UNP — 2.5%
United Health $UNH — 2.5%
Walmart $WMT — 2.5%
Zoetis $ZTS — 2.5%
Cisco $CSCO — 2%
Abbott Laboratories $ABT — 2%
Disney $DIS — 2%
NextEra Energy $NEE — 2%
Prologis $PLD — 2%
Shell Plc $SHEL — 2%
Sherwin Williams $SHW — 2%
Ford $F — 1.5%
Thermo Fisher $TMO — 1.5%
Carrier Global $CARR — 1%
Expedia $EXPE — 1%
Home Depot $HD — 1%
International Paper $IP — 1%
Hilton Worldwide $HLT — 1%
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