Where Your Treasure Is Matters

Where in the World Are Your Investments?

While I do care where the companies (and ETFs or mutual funds) are located or invest globally, I never try to “balance” the domestic and international investments. What matters more to me is dividend growth, quality, low expenses, diversification, and easy income. However, there are times when it pays to review where you have both your temporary and your lasting treasure.

The primary treasure of lasting value can be found by examining the teachings of Jesus. In Randy Alcorn’s book, The Treasure Principle, he proposes six key principles. The first one is, “God owns everything. I’m his money manager.” In other words, we start with understanding ownership and then realize our responsibility for what God has placed in our care for a couple of decades. The second is “My heart always goes where I put God’s money.” Is this true?  Yes, location matters in lasting treasures just as it does in temporary treasures like real estate or investing choices.

Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Far too many worry about so many things in life. Perhaps perspective would help. Charles Schultz said, “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” It is, however, a good thing to pay attention to your flocks and herds. Why? Proverbs 27:23-24 reminds us about the brevity of both this world’s riches and our lives. “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?”

Fidelity’s Analysis Tool

If you are a Fidelity Investments customer, you can quickly see where you have your temporary investments. There is a “More” tab on the “All Accounts” page. If you click on that you can see “Analysis” as an option. There is a wealth of information in that section, including Summary Views, Stock Analysis, Fixed Income Analysis, and Ratings. In the Summary Views there is a dropdown for “Geographic Distribution” with an interactive map that is quite helpful.

Where Are My Top Ten Investments?

Most of our investments in are North America, followed by Europe Developed. The areas where we have small investments are primarily the result of owning ETFs that buy some foreign investments. VYM is the largest player in our portfolio for some international exposure.

There is a problem with the main map. You can see that adding the percentages creates a total of more than 100%. While this is annoying, the allocations are more important than the fuzzy total.

Here are four images to help you see how we are invested. VYM and STX are two of our larger investments and STX is our largest international investment.

Reminders

Don’t be a fool and just build bigger barns when you are investing in this life. As Randy Alcorn has wisely stated, “Either our treasures are going to depart from us or we’re going to depart from our treasures.” If you fail to get this right, you will face an eternity that will remind you of your failure to remember that riches on this planet don’t last forever. Remember you are the manager, and you can direct treasures to a place where moths, rust, and thieves don’t depreciate or destroy your holdings.

One of the ways Cindie and I do this is by how we give. This giving includes our time, our energies, and the income we receive from Social Security, dividends, and options trading.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.