My investment strategy: Boglehead adapted for Chile

I’m 24 and I just recently feel like I have something that resembles an investment strategy. I’m not a finance expert, I’m a software engineer who started reading about the topic because I realized that leaving money in a checking account was basically gifting returns to the bank.

My first attempts were back in 2021, buying Bitcoin because it was what everyone was talking about. I’d buy, get nervous, and sell a week later. I had no strategy, I didn’t understand what I was doing, and obviously I didn’t get anywhere with that.

What is a Boglehead (and why it convinced me)

The Boglehead philosophy comes from John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. The idea is simple: instead of trying to beat the market by picking individual stocks, you buy the entire market through index funds, keep costs low, and let compound interest do its thing.

The basic principles:

• Invest regularly, regardless of whether the market is up or down
• Diversify into low-cost funds
• Don’t try to time the market, nobody can do it consistently
• Stick to your strategy long-term and don’t panic

I’m currently reading “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” by Bogle (which is actually on my bookshelf) and it’s clicking. The data is clear: most actively managed funds don’t beat the index over the long term, and the ones that do in a given year probably won’t repeat it the next.

The Chilean reality

Applying this in Chile isn’t as straightforward as in the United States. Over there you open a Vanguard account, buy VTI, and you’re done. Here there are some important differences:

• We don’t have the same cheap index funds that exist in the U.S.
• The APV (voluntary pension savings) has tax benefits worth taking advantage of
• Management fees on Chilean mutual funds are quite high
• Access to international ETFs is possible but requires a bit more effort

I use Fintual for everything. I know there are cheaper options out there, but for me the simplicity is worth the difference. I’d rather have something that makes it easy to be consistent than something cheaper I’ll never open.

What I actually have in my portfolio

This is where I stray a bit from Boglehead orthodoxy. A pure Boglehead would tell you to buy a total market fund and forget about it. I do that as my base, but I also have exposure to sectors I find interesting.

My current portfolio:

• VTI (40%): U.S. total market. This is the foundation of everything
• VXUS (25%): International market outside the U.S. So I’m not depending only on American companies
• APV (20%): Voluntary pension savings, Regime A. The government gives you a 15% bonus on what you save, with a cap. Basically free money
• SMH (10%): Semiconductors. I work in tech, I understand the sector (I think), and I believe chips will continue to be important
• XBI (5%): Biotech. A small bet on something I find interesting long-term

Is this purely Boglehead? No. A purist would tell me that SMH and XBI are active bets disguised as passive investing, and they’d have a point. But they’re 15% of my portfolio, and the remaining 85% follows the index. I think that’s a reasonable balance.

Everything is long-term. I’m not pulling that money out for anything.

APV and why you should use it

If you’re in Chile and not taking advantage of the APV, you’re leaving money on the table. I use Regime A: the government gives you a 15% bonus on what you save, with an annual cap. If you earn less, this is probably the one that works best for you.

The other one is Regime B, where you deduct from your taxable income. That’s better if you’re in a higher tax bracket.

Figuring out which one works for you is one of the best hours you can invest in your finances.

What I wish I’d known sooner

If I could go back to 2021, I’d tell myself to stop buying and selling Bitcoin every week and just put that money in an index fund. That’s it. If I had done that, I’d be in a much better place today. I’m 24, it’s not like I’m old, but I still wish I had started at 18 with some discipline instead of figuring all this out just now.

The hardest part for me was not touching the money. When the market drops 10% in a week, the urge to sell everything is real. Having my strategy written down before that happens helped a lot, because in the moment you don’t think straight.

I was also surprised by how much fees matter. 1% sounds like nothing, but over 20 years it’s a ridiculous amount of money gone to that. And the other thing, putting money in every month, even small amounts, works better than waiting for the “perfect moment” that never comes.

If you want to chat about investing or have questions, you can find me on my socials. And if you found an error in something I said, even more reason to reach out. I’d rather be corrected than keep saying something wrong.