Our Super Performing Hots and International Value Replacements

Our Super Performing Hots and International Value Replacements
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The international equity and hot ETFs featured in our sample pie charts have doubled, tripled and quadrupled the returns of the S&P500 in 2025. Is your plan performing at par, above the market, or are you suffering from poor performance and paper losses?

Sources: MSN.com and Coinbase. Used with permission.

Here are the topics we’ll cover in this blog.
 
Back to an All-Time High
The S&P500 Has Doubled in 5 Years
Hot Funds
Value Replacement Funds
Income Strategies
Asia
 
And here is more information on each topic.
 
Back to an All-Time High
The S&P500 is back to an all-time high, hitting an intraday peak of 6,215.08 on June 30, 2025. However, it’s important to put this in context, as 5.5% year to date return in the market is not as impressive as many of the other rallies we’ve seen in:
 

• Gold, Silver, Bitcoin,
• Countries like Peru, Ireland, and Australia, and,
• Sectors such as The Magnificent 7, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and breakthrough technology.

 
These are all sectors we’ve been focusing on in our hot slices and value replacements for years. (Click on the blue-highlighted words to read my blogs on these industries and countries.)
 
The S&P500 Has Doubled in 5 Years
Has the at-risk (stock) portion of your wealth plan doubled in the last five years? Conservative investors are often missing large cap growth funds, where the Magnificent 7 stocks are overweighted. Without the Magnificent 7 stocks, the S&P performance would have been half as powerful. This is one of the reasons why the S&P500 has trounced the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past three years. If you don’t know what you own, now is the time to get better diversified – and hot.
 
Conservative investors can overweight more to the safe side to satisfy their risk appetite, while still participating in the spectacular returns of Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These trillion-dollar+ companies have embedded themselves in our daily lives. It’s silly to think that Dow components, such as Boeing and 3M, are more stable.
 
Hot Funds
It’s a great idea to add hot funds to increase the performance of our wealth plan. If this is done in an age-appropriate, diversified way, then we are not adding much risk for a potentially higher performance. When we rebalance regularly, we’re capturing gains at the high, taking some of our money off the table, while ensuring that we are still properly protected from volatility and from stocks sinking. This simple strategy earned gains in the Dot Com and the Great Recessions and outperformed the bull markets in between, and is less time and money of most managed plans.
 

Email [email protected] if you'd like to personalize your own pie chart using our free web app.

Most of the managed wealth plans that I look at (to provide an unbiased 2nd opinion), do not have enough safe (protected from losses), are heavily overweighted in large cap companies, do not have enough of the Magnificent 7, and are missing the hots altogether. If a conservative investor has been given value funds and bonds for “income,” they are more likely to be suffering from paper losses, high fees and illiquidity, in addition to underperforming the S&P500.
 
Are you reading the fine print of your managed plan? Are you aware of the fees you’re being charged, or of the paper losses? Are you factoring them in to discover the true income you’re earning (perhaps half of what you think)? Learn more in my blog, “Is Your Income Strategy Losing Money?”
 
Value Replacement Funds
Value funds are supposed to contain stocks that are on sale. However, equities are very expensive today, by many measurements. Prices are high. Debt is outlandish. This makes U.S. value funds problematic. For that reason, we’ve been using value replacement funds for years. Peru, Australia and Ireland have all been on fire this year.
 
Income Strategies
The Australia ETF offers a higher yield than most U.S.-based value funds, while also enjoying a higher credit rating in many of the banks and companies. The Peru ETF’s yield is 4.52%, compared to the 2.5% yield of the Morningstar Mid Cap Value ETF (symbol: IMCV). So, in addition to superior returns, we might be taking on less risk for more income. That sounds like a win-win.
 
On the safe side of our wealth plan, it’s tricky to earn income without the paper losses, but doable, if we adhere to a few fundamental rules (which are outlined for a full day on Day 3 of our Financial Freedom Retreat). Check out some of the strategies in my blog, “Top Income Strategies for 2025.” Email [email protected] to learn more about our next retreat. Register by July 31, 2025, to join us for the best price.
 
Asia
There is a lot of conflict in the world – outright wars, but also economic shifts. As I’ve discussed in many BRICS blogs, China and Russia are trading amongst themselves using the Chinese yuan in an attempt to break the U.S. dollar’s dominance as a global reserve currency. (And no, gold has not just become a Tier 1 currency.)
 
Is this the reason U.S. investors have mostly abandoned Chinese equities? It has more to do with their unaudited financial results and that their economy is considered to be repressed (source: Index of Economic Freedom). Most Chinese-based ETFs are still down -43% from their February 2021 highs, even though they have enjoyed a little rally so far in 2025.
 
Indonesia is one of the countries that I’ve been featuring. There are many reasons why this country could enjoy breakout performance again, as it has many times over the past 15 years. Check out my Indonesia blog for details. Indonesia’s economy is growing at one of the highest rates in the world. The country is the top producer of nickel – an essential mineral in electric vehicles.
 
The 2025 pullback of -7.0% in the iShares Indonesia ETF (symbol: EIDO) is a reminder of the importance of 1-3 times a year rebalancing. EIDO enjoyed gains of 67% between March 2020 and March 2022. Rebalancing and capturing gains allow us to keep our wealth and have liquidity, in case a pullback creates a buying opportunity (assuming we still believe the investment is a good idea).
 
Bottom Line
We can get safe, hot and diversified in one easy plan. (Click to read that blog.) This increases performance and protection. So far in 2025, most of our value replacement and hot funds have been super performers!
 
 
Register now to join us at our online Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 where you'll learn how to protect your wealth, save thousands annually in your budget and how to hedge in a volatile Debt World. If you'd like a life-changing adventure of a lifetime, be our guest at a royal manor house in Cornwall, England, March 12-19, 2027. (With just eight rooms available, this exclusive, private, bucket-list adventure sells out a year in advance!) Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] to learn more. The 2025 Restormel Retreat was a magical and royal experience. Click to learn more. 

Receive the best price when you register for the Financial Freedom Retreat Oct. 11-13 2025 by July 31, 2025. Request testimonials at [email protected]. You can also view some on the flyer page of the retreat. 

Learn how to:

* Invest in hot industries, such as Nvidia, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing,
* Hedge against a weaker dollar,
* Invest and compound your gains,
* Green your retirement plan,
* Easy and efficacious nest egg strategies,
* Get hot and diversified (including in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and crypto),
* Evaluate stocks,
* Avoid capital gains and financial predators,
* Keep an age-appropriate amount safe, and,
* Know what's safe in a Debt World.

You'll even discover how to save thousands annually with smarter big-ticket choices. Yes, it's a complete money makeover. 
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Email [email protected] or call 310-430-2397 to learn more and register. Learn the 15+ things you'll master and read testimonials in the flyer on the home page at NataliePace.com. Register with friends and family to receive the best price. ​

"Ten minutes into the first day I was already much smarter about investing than I ever thought I would be in my life and I knew I was in exactly the right place at this retreat. I am amazed at how EASY and FUN it is to make my money work for me and those I love. I think this kind of information should be compulsory in schools. I wish I'd learned this sooner." CM

If you’d like an unbiased 2nd opinion on your current wealth plan, email [email protected] for pricing and information.

Receive the best price when you register by July 31, 2025. Visit NataliePace.com to learn more. Call 310-430-2397 or email [email protected] for pricing, additional information and to register.

Join us for our Restormel Royal Immersive Adventure Retreat. March 2027. Email [email protected] to learn more. Click for testimonials, pricing, hours & details. Register now to receive the best price, the best room and eight private, prosperity coaching sessions. There are only 8 rooms available. This retreat includes an all-access pass to all of our online training for a full year for two. Considering the perks, you're receiving a 65% discount to learn the life math that we all should have received in high school, and the room is free! Email [email protected] to learn more. The best rooms at the 2025 retreat were sold out in 2024! Yes, it's a great idea to register and start transforming our lives now!

Natalie Pace in Powerscourt, Ireland. Photo: Marie Commiskey.

Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, Financial Literacy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The ABCs of Money (6th edition) and The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us, and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 6th edition of The ABCs of Money and the 2nd edition of Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is (2nd edition) are the most recent releases of these books. Follow her on Instagram. 
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Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden.​​

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Check out Natalie Pace's Substack podcast on Apple and Spotify.
Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube.

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Important Disclaimers
Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly-traded companies, funds or projects mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations.

ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect an age-appropriate, diversified wealth plan, which has been designed strategically, with the assistance of financial professionals who are familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge, patience and diversified strategy.  
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Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument.