RetireJapan

I'm thinking of starting a NISA nest egg on Rakuten this month and wondering what to put in the tsumitate portion.

Anyone got any opinions on the eMAXIS Slim Balance (8 Asset Equalization Type)?
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fund/ ... 90C000EWV6

It has an ER of 0.143％ and has 25% REIT (1/2 Japan + 1/2 developed markets), with the rest split 50:50 between equity and fixed income (1/3 Japan, 1/3 developed markets, 1/3 emerging markets). The equal weighting of the 8 assets obviously doesn't reflect the actual weighting of these assets in the financial markets, but getting this diversification + reinvestment of dividends + rebalancing built-in looks appealing to me.

It’s better than nothing for people who really can’t be bothered, but why not choose your own allocation, if you are so inclined, I say.

ChapInTokyo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:11 am Anyone got any opinions on the eMAXIS Slim Balance (8 Asset Equalization Type)?

It is absolutely dreadful. They clearly created the asset allocation so that it would look nice on a pie chart rather than for any logical reason

Only reason to own it IMO would be if you were willing to use other funds to create a more sane overall allocation (and at that point why not just buy your own REIT funds, Japanese funds, etc.?).

You've hit the nail on the head! That pie chart sure looked pretty, but I plugged an equally weighted 8 asset portfolio approximating that eMAXIS one into portfoliovisualizer.com and was dumb founded at how atrocious it was. Invaluable advice there, thanks.

ChapInTokyo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:11 am Anyone got any opinions on the eMAXIS Slim Balance (8 Asset Equalization Type)?
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fund/ ... 90C000EWV6

Horrible. Overconcentration in domestic/developing securities. Overconcentration in Reits and bonds. Huge under-concentration in global stocks.

....

I understand that it is overwhelming at the beginning, but do not overthink things. The base of your portfolio should be global equities.

Pick one of these as your base, and you will be fine. My family uses 1 and 2.
1. Emaxis Slim All Country
2. Emaxis Slim developed Country
3. Emaxis Slim S&P500

Tsumitate Wrestler wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 8:34 am

ChapInTokyo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:11 am Anyone got any opinions on the eMAXIS Slim Balance (8 Asset Equalization Type)?
https://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/web/fund/ ... 90C000EWV6

Horrible. Overconcentration in domestic/developing securities. Overconcentration in Reits and bonds. Huge under-concentration in global stocks.

....

I understand that it is overwhelming at the beginning, but do not overthink things. The base of your portfolio should be global equities.

Pick one of these as your base, and you will be fine. My family uses 1 and 2.
1. Emaxis Slim All Country
2. Emaxis Slim developed Country
3. Emaxis Slim S&P500

Thanks for the advice!

Ideally I’d like to find some fund in the tsumitate portion of NISA that is a low ER balanced fund which can be left on auto pilot, even after I’ve passed on and the fund is inherited by my wife. I just saw that Rakuten securities has the Saison Global Balance fund in their tsumitate NISA section, albeit at .02% higher ER than the 0.56% that Saison Asset Management charge their direct sales customers. This might be what will fit the bill although the ER is comparatively high. The fact that it’s quite popular and unlikely to be wound up any time soon seems to be one thing in its favour…

Currently, the top 8 holdings that Saison Global Balance fund has are the following Vanguard funds:

Vanguard 500 Index Admiral - 32.57%
Vanguard US Govt Bd Idx Inv EUR Acc 27.05%
Vanguard Euro Government Bond Index Fund Instituti 18.92%
Vanguard European Stock Instl - 8.21%
Vanguard Emerging Mkts Stock Idx Inv - 5.33%
Vanguard Japan Gov Bd Idx Inv JPY - 3.41%
Vanguard Japan Stock Index Fund - 2.85%
Vanguard Pac ex-Japan Stk Idx USD Acc 1.40%

The Resona Smart-I funds have lower charges and three choices with different ratios of stocks and bonds. There are some REITS in there too, but at lower percentages than your emaxis balanced. Not a recommendation, but might suit what you are looking for.

Beaglehound wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:32 pm The Resona Smart-I funds have lower charges and three choices with different ratios of stocks and bonds. There are some REITS in there too, but at lower percentages than your emaxis balanced. Not a recommendation, but might suit what you are looking for.

Thanks! Will take a look!