Daniel Solin Portfolios, Smart Investing, Simple

Last Updated on June 30, 2020

Dan Solin’s portfolios are exposed to between 20% 20 100% stocks and, 0% to 80% bonds. They include small caps. They can be built with just a few ETFs. The portfolios range from low to high-risk portfolios.

For the past 10 years, Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium-High Risk has returned 6.76% with a standard deviation of 7.27%. The dividend yield is 2.19%. The 30-year return is 7.36%. Year to date Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium-High Risk has returned -2.41%. Last year it returned 14.93%.

What Is The Return Of Dan Solin’s Portfolios?

How Do You Build Dan Solin’s Portfolios with ETFs

Here is how you build Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium-High Risk  portfolio. You will find many more further below!                     

• 56.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 24.00%  International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us) (VEU)
• 20.00%  Total US Bond Market (BND)

Who is Daniel Solin?

Daniel Solin is a veteran in the investment industry and is considered one of the good guys in investing. Read Who Are The 3 Good Guys In Investing? He has served at Index Fund Advisors and Buckingham Strategic Wealth (in company with Larry Swedroe, Tim Maurer).

He is the author of the Smart Series which helps you invest, manage your finances and plan your retirement. Small books that will make a massive impact on your life.

They are excellent. We are big fans of Dan Solin. They include:

•  The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the “Pros” and Take Control of Your Financial Future
• The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own: A Do-It-Yourself Breakthrough Strategy.

What is special about Daniel Solin’s portfolios?

Daniel Solin’s investment portfolios are great because they cover the entire spectrum of investment goals. The investment portfolios are simple and use only a few asset classes to achieve great results. For instance, Daniel Solin’s SuperSmart portfolio high-risk has beaten the market since 1989.

Daniel Solin has managed to make portfolios that cater to everyone. He has a simple portfolio with only two funds (Total world stock fund and a bond fund). But he also has a portfolio that is more complicated but which in turn does much better.

His influence from Index Fund Advisors and Buckingham Strategic Wealth Advisors can be seen in that Daniel Solin favors value and small caps as his preferred tilts. Tilts mean that you overweight your asset allocation towards a certain asset class. Value and small-cap stock asset classes have historically outperformed the broader market.

Larry Swedroe from Buckingham has a similar smart portfolio as Daniel Solin. IFA’s portfolios also tilt their portfolios towards small-cap and value. You can read our article on IFA portfolios Index Fund Advisors: Market Beating Portfolios.

His books are unique because they give concrete advice and no-frills warnings about the stock market. They are without a doubt some of our favorite investing books and are on our short-list of all-time-best investment books.

Building the portfolio(s)

Below you can see the asset allocations for the portfolio(s). You can also see if the portfolio(s) has a socially responsible investing (ESG) variant portfolio. You can read more about socially responsible investing (ESG) investment portfolios in this post.
To build the portfolio(s) yourself, go to our best in class ETF page to see which ETF you should choose for a particular asset class. There you can also see which socially responsible investing ESG ETFs you should select.

Asset Allocation of Daniel Solin’s portfolios

Dan Solin, SuperSmart Portfolio, Low Risk

• 4.00%    US Large Cap (VV)
• 4.00%    US Mid Cap Value (JKI)
• 4.00%    US Small Cap Value (VIOV)
• 2.00%    REITs (VNQ)
• 2.00%    Emerging Markets (VWO)
• 2.00%    International Large Cap Value (EFV)
• 2.00%    International Small Cap Blend (VSS)
• 80.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)

Dan Solin, SuperSmart Portfolio, Medium          

• 12.00%  US Large Cap (VV)
• 12.00%  US Mid Cap Value (JKI)
• 12.00%  US Small Cap Value (VIOV)
• 6.00%    REITs (VNQ)
• 6.00%    Emerging Markets (VWO)
• 6.00%    International Large Cap Value (EFV)
• 6.00%    International Small Cap Blend (VSS)
• 40.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)

Dan Solin, SuperSmart Portfolio, Medium-High Risk

• 16.00%  US Large Cap (VV)
• 16.00%  US Mid Cap Value (JKI)
• 16.00%  US Small Cap Value (VIOV)
• 8.00%    REITs (VNQ)
• 8.00%    Emerging Markets (VWO)
• 8.00%    International Large Cap Value (EFV)
• 8.00%    International Small Cap Blend (VSS)
• 20.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)

Dan Solin, SuperSmart Portfolio, High Risk                         

This portfolio is part of Portfolio Einstein Gold, Premium Portfolios. 

Dan Solin, The Smartest ETF Portfolio, Low Risk               

• 80.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)
• 20.00%  All World Stock (VT)

Dan Solin, The Smartest ETF Portfolio, Medium-Low Risk                            

• 60.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)
• 40.00%  All World Stock (VT)

Dan Solin, The Smartest ETF Portfolio, Medium Risk                      

• 40.00%  Short Term Treasury  (VGSH)
• 60.00%  All World Stock (VT)

Dan Solin, The Smartest ETF Portfolio, Medium-High Risk                           

• 20.00%  Short Term Treasury (VGSH)
• 80.00%  All World Stock (VT)

Dan Solin, The Smartest ETF Portfolio, High Risk                              

• 100.00%  All World Stock (VT)

Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Low Risk                           

• 14.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 6.00%    International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us)  (VEU)
• 80.00%  Total US Bond Market (BND)

Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium-Low Risk                        

• 28.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 12.00%  International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us) (VEU)
• 60.00%  Total US Bond Market (BND)

Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium Risk                  

• 42.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 18.00%  International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us) (VEU)
• 40.00%  Total US Bond Market (BND)

Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, Medium-High Risk                       

• 56.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 24.00%  International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us) (VEU)
• 20.00%  Total US Bond Market (BND)

Dan Solin, The Smartest Index Portfolio, High Risk                          

• 70.00%  US Total Stock Market (VTI)
• 30.00%  International Large Cap Blend (all-world ex-us) (VEU)

How we select the right ETFs

There are a lot of ETFs out there. Most of them can be discarded because:

• They are too expensive
• They hold too few assets and are therefore too illiquid
• They do not meet the criteria for representing the asset class they are supposed to mirror.

We have carefully selected an ETF for each asset class that the portfolios on portfolioeinstein.com use. If you want to read more about our selection process and see what we consider the best ETFs please visit our article What Is The Best ETF?

If you are a European investor you need to buy European ETFs. We list 47 best ETFs in our article What Are The Best ETFs For European Investors? (Here Is 47).

As of 2020 we also track socially responsible investing ESG portfolios. Socially responsible investing (ESG) portfolios prioritize investing that puts an emphasis on environmental, social and corporate governance issues.

You can find the socially responsible investing ESG ETFs in the same article.

Dan Solin resources

Dan Solin has a youtube channel. Here he presents short investing wisdom tips. You should check them out.

Dan Solin’s bestselling books

Dan Solin’s website

Suggestions for your next steps

Finding the correct portfolio is hard. Maintaining your portfolio is also daunting. If you are still in doubt about which portfolio to choose, we suggest you read our article How To Invest Money: 5 Simple Steps That Work For Anyone

If you have already committed to a portfolio – good for you! If you need help maintaining the portfolio you will find our rebalance worksheet useful. Rebalancing your portfolio lowers your risk and may even provide higher returns in the long run.

You can find the rebalance worksheet in our article Here Is The Most Easy To Use Portfolio Rebalance Tool