In this article, I would like to quickly introduce the various asset classes and how they might fit into your portfolio. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but just to give some ideas when building your portfolio.

Towards the end of each section, I would provide some example ETFs of each class.

This is a continuation from my previous article “Portfolio Building Basics: Asset Allocation“. So if you are unfamiliar with asset allocation, I would recommend giving it a read.

To quickly recap, there are 4 main asset classes

Bonds are debt securities issued by government, municipals, corporations or other organizations sold to investors

Basically, when you buy a bond, you are lending money for a time period to the bond issuer and usually you receive coupons (interest) as payments for it. When held to maturity, you will get back your