Automatic Pilot Portfolio Provides Diversity

If you do not want to constantly monitor your long-term investment portfolio, a diverse portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a few high-quality, dividend-paying stocks might be you. Buy the investments when they are down in price but on the price upside and then hold them for the long run. Be sure to reinvest all dividends so you accumulate additional shares with no extra effort.

Once you make your selections, your portfolio is on automatic pilot. You do not need to check it daily or weekly, but be sure to review it every few months.

The following sample automatic pilot portfolio includes a diverse mix of domestic and global exchange traded funds that track broad market averages. The gold and natural resource ETFs broaden the diversity of the portfolio. The individual stocks add the opportunity to outperform the broader market averages.

Auto Pilot Stocks
Investment	Symbol	10-Year Moving Average Chart*	Price and PDI Chart	Multiyear Returns	Investment Type	Comment
SPDR 500	SPY	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Tracks S&P 500
Nasdaq 100 Trust Series I	QQQQ	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Tracks Nasdaq 100
SPDR Utilities	XLU	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Large electric and gas utilities - pay dividends
PowerShares India Portfolio	PIN	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	India
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund	FXI	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	China
iShares GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust	GSG	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Natural Resources and commodities
iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund	EFA	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Tracks MSCI EAFE Index (Europe, Australia and the Far East)
PowerShares Dividend Achievers Portfolio	PFM	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Dividend-paying stocks that comprise the Broad Dividend Achievers Index.
streetTRACKS Gold Shares	GLD	Chart	Chart	Table	ETF	Tracks gold
3M	MMM	Chart	Chart	Table	Stock	Conglomerate
Emerson Electric	EMR	Chart	Chart	Table	Stock	Industrial Goods
Illinois Toolworks	ITW	Chart	Chart	Table	Stock	Industrial Goods
International Business Machines	IBM	Chart	Chart	Table	Stock	Technology
Procter & Gamble	PG	Chart	Chart	Table	Stock	Consumer Goods

NOTE: * A stock with fewer than eleven years of price data from Yahoo! Finance will not display a 10-year moving average.

Non-Dividend-Paying Portfolios includes links to each portfolio of a few or no dividend-paying stocks.

Dividend-Paying Portfolios includes links to each portfolio of dividend-paying stocks.

Great Dividend Stocks includes links to more dividend-paying stocks.

To follow the day-to-day progress of the Auto Pilot portfolio, check out the chart below. It is updated each day, so the portfolio values are always current. The current value of the portfolio assumes that $769.23 was invested (total of $10,000) in each of the 13 stocks at its closing weekly price for the first week of January 2001.

Click chart to enlarge it.

Related Articles:

buyupside.com BRIC Portfolio
buyupside.com Global Stock Portfolio
Exchange-Traded Funds

Today's date: Mar-20-10.