US Portfolio (less than $10,000)

In the case of a smaller US retirement portfolio, you would keep it very simple with 3 asset classes:

-Domestic Stocks
-International Stocks
-Bonds

These could be done with the following ETF’s:

-Domestic Stocks:

-IVV or SPY: Two very popular and low fee US ETF’s that track the S&P500, they are both traded on US markets

-International Stocks:

EFA – Ishares ETF that tracks much of the developed world
VWO – Vanguard’s Emerging markets fund, traded on US markets

-Bonds

BND – Vanguard ETF that tracks the total bond market in the US (public, corporate, etc)
AGG – ETF that provides exposure to investment grade bond market
LQD – ETF that provides exposure to investment grade bond market

As you can see, there are many different possibilities even for a simple portfolio that only includes 3 ETF’s. I think the first step would be to select what you want in each of those asset classes. When you will combine that with your investor profile, you will get a very good idea of what to include in your portfolio. Here is the table again: