International

Given the decline in the dollar over the last year, it is a great idea to keep between 15-40% of your portfolio in overseas companies. One might also include Mulit-national corporations like GE or Coke because they derive over 50% of their revenues from countries other than the US. This should help balance the value of your dollar denominated assets with other assets that generate the revenues in other currencies like the Euro. For many, one idea is a Global Fund that allows the manager to decide where to invest. Emerging markets should only be a small percentage of the International allocation due to the risk inherent with their economies. Just remember what happened to Brazil and Russia in the 90's. There are many ways to make money investing and having a portion overseas will help with diversification.