A few months ago, I decided to get back into investing. We had sold our apartment years ago and the proceeds had just been sitting in an online savings account. The fact that interest rates were getting lower and lower in Australia prompted me to look for alternative places for our savings and I had been reading up and listening on podcasts about exchange traded funds (ETF).

ETFs are investment funds that are traded on a share market, such as the ASX.  In this post, the words “ETF” and “share” can be used interchangeably.  When I refer to buying an ETF, I’m referring to buying a share of an ETF on the ASX.

While I had invested in a managed fund in the past,  I had never bought shares directly before. This post sets out the steps I followed to set up my ETF portfolio. (more…)