Stock Talk · by Paolo Garcia · 2026-09-17

am I diversified if my S&P 500 ETF and world ETF overlap a ton?

Newbie question that probably gets asked every week. I started with an S&P 500 fund because it was familiar, then added a world ETF because everyone said 'go global'. Then I looked closer and realized I'm probably doubling up on the same giant US companies.

Is overlap automatically bad or just messy?

13 sparks · 10 comments

Comments

Paolo Garcia · 56 likes

That last line is me 😅

Emma Tremblay · 1 likes

Welcome to the club. dues are payable in spreadsheet hours

Sofía Hernández · 7 likes

I had this exact combo. Turned out I mostly wanted 'more America' without admitting it.

Elsa Andersson · 4 likes

This was my experience too, just with fewer tabs open.

Curious Marauder · 2 likes

Messy is the bigger problem for beginners. If you can't explain it in one sentence, simplify.

Rohan Mehta · 1 likes

Yep. local reality beats imported advice more often than people like to admit.

Camille Dubois · 1 likes

Overlap isn't a sin. accidental overlap because reddit told you two different slogans... very common though.

Lotte Jansen · 0 likes

Very much this. the cleanest plan is the one you can keep doing tired.

Danylo Kovalenko · 0 likes

Not automatically bad. You just need to know what exposure you're intentionally overweighting.

Pixel Comet · 0 likes

The less heroic version of investing is usually the survivable one.