International fund for taxable account

[RU4SCUBA]

Good day everyone! Thank you for all the great info on the site. Student loans are paid off. Tax advantage accounts are maxed for the year and I'm looking at the taxable account now.

My 401K is with fidelity so for simplicity I would like to keep everything the same.

I'm looking at 3 different international funds and just wanted some advice, I'm a beginner at this, so I appreciate any knowledge I can gain.

Total international index fund (FTIPX) ER-0.1 turnover 1%

Global ex US index fund (FSGDX) ER-0.1 turnover 1%

International Index fund (FSIVX) ER- 0.06 turnover 2%

 

I'm leaning towards the international index fund (FSIVX) for the lower ER and it has been around a lot longer than the other two. I don't really know how to interpret turnover. I get the feeling that a 1% difference is not really big enough for me to want to pick a fund with a higher ER. Just want to make sure that a 1% increase in turnover isn't going to make that big of a difference being in a taxable account.

 

Not sure if it matters, but eventually my taxable account will be the largest account for my retirement, as I'm an employed physician with the 18k cap on 401K, so this account will be buy and hold for me. Eventually I will to TLH, but haven't completely wrapped my head around how to do it quite yet.

 

Thank you all!

[Lithium]

What do you want in your international holdings?  Do you want emerging markets? Do you want small or mid cap? Do you want certain geographical regions?  If so, do you want them at market weight or do you want to tilt?

Those all look like fine funds.  Much more important to figure out what your international asset allocation is and how each one fits than pick the one with the slightly lower ER and turnover.  Once you know what you want, you can look under the hood by going to a site like morningstar and clicking on the portfolio tab.

[VagabondMD]

I would probably choose the FTIPX because you get the most diversification (small caps and emerging markets) in one package. That said, the performance difference over time will likely be minuscule, and I would not be concerned about ER differences, turnover, or fund longevity in this example.

[Hatton]

I use vtiax which is Vanguard's total international index fund.  I also have a small position in VSS which is Vanguard's small cap ex us etf.  I agree that the small differences in er and turnover in fidelity , Schwab, and vanguard indexes are not worth fretting about