Before you build your portfolio, ask yourself how much risk you need to take to get your desired return…and take no more risk than that.

The rationale behind the 25x Rule is this: It allows you to withdraw 4 percent from your portfolio the first year, and then adjust that amount upward each year to keep up with inflation.

SPDR Portfolio Developed World ex-US ETF (SPDW) Indexed to: S&P Developed Ex-U.S. BMI Index. BMI stands for Broad Market Index. Broad? Enough. This fund has 2,320 holdings. Expense ratio: 0.04 percent Top five country holdings: Japan, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany Russell’s review: With the lowest expense ratio in the category, heck yeah,

If, for example, the stock market takes a dive, then shorting ETFs — selling them now at a locked-in price with an agreement to purchase them back (cheaper, you hope) later on — may help keep a portfolio afloat. For that reason, ETFs have become a darling of hedge fund managers who offer the promise of investments that won’t tank should the stock

iShares International Treasury Bond ETF (IGOV) Indexed to: FTSE World Government Bond Index — Developed Markets Capped Expense ratio: 0.35 percent Current yield: 0.05 percent Average credit quality: AA Average duration: 9.22 years Top five countries: Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Spain Russell’s review: Yes, this foreign government bond fund has a

Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG) Indexed to: Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index (230 or so of the largest and presumably fastest-growing U.S. firms) Expense ratio: 0.04 percent Average market cap: $335.8 billion P/E ratio: 40 Top five holdings: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet Russell’s review: For the sake

iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Value Index (ISCV) Indexed to: Morningstar’s Small-Cap Value Index (about 1,300 companies of modest size and modest stock price) Expense ratio: 0.06 percent Average cap size: $4.0 billion P/E ratio: 16.4 Top five holdings: AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., Ovintiv, Inc., Apartment Income REIT Corp., Tenet Healthcare

Small value stocks collectively have returned more to investors than have large value stocks or any kind of growth stocks. In fact, the difference in returns has been somewhat staggering: I’m talking about an annualized return of about 14 percent over the past 94 years for small value, versus 12 percent for large value, 10 for large growth, and 9

If you are still far away from that 25 times mark, and you are not in debt, and your income is secure, and you are not burning out at work, and you have enough cash to live on for six months if you had to, then with the rest of your loot, you might tilt toward a riskier ETF portfolio (mostly stock ETFs). You need the return. If you have your 25