A beginner's guide for ETF investing (Q&A + example portfolios)

Jul 15, 2026

A few weeks ago I shared my ETF comparison table. The response was genuinely useful - alongside the positive feedback, the most consistent criticism was: "this is hard to navigate if you're new" and "a table of hundreds of ETFs is data, not guidance."

Fair. So I built a page specifically for people at the very start: ozfinn.com.au/etf/start

It has three parts:

1. Common questions, answered plainly. What an ETF is, why MER matters (with the compounding math on 0.04% vs 1.20% over 20 years), hedged vs unhedged, franking credits, why turnover creates tax, what tax drag is, what beginners commonly get burned by (thematics, sector bets, chasing last year's winner), what to look for in a core holding, and short explainers on factor investing and gearing.

2. Example portfolios - the combinations that come up constantly, from one fund to four:

  • 1-fund: DHHF, VDHG
  • 2-fund: VGS/VAS (70/30 and 80/20), BGBL/A200
  • 3-fund: core + a small satellite (NDQ or EMKT)
  • 4-fund: core + satellite + gold, or core + quality tilt (QUAL) + gold

Each shows the blended fee, historic return and volatility (weighted from the underlying funds' own data - it's an approximation, not a true backtest, and the methodology and its limits are spelled out at the bottom of the page), plus honest benefits/drawbacks and when each mix tends to do well or badly.

3. Popular factor funds (QUAL, VLUE, VVLU, AQLT, DAVA, AVSV) for people who want to go one level deeper.

To be clear about incentives: I built this, it's free, no signup, no affiliate links. The example portfolios are illustrations to learn the trade-offs from, not recommendations.

What I'd genuinely like from you:

  1. Is there a common beginner question I've missed? (The stuff that gets asked every week.)
  2. Is a popular portfolio missing that deserves a spot?
  3. Is anything on the page wrong or misleading? I'd rather be corrected than mislead a beginner.

The comparison table got noticeably better because of reader criticism, hoping this one does too.

Thanks,
Stan

Please confirm?