Hints for configuring your long term portfolio -- from the Motley Fool

Excerpt -- This is where you buy growth -- Motley Fool

by Nate Weisshaar

Two thousand years ago, Rome ruled the known world. Two hundred years ago, China and India contributed nearly half of the world's wealth. In 1913, Argentina was the 10th richest country in the world. Change is, as they say, the only constant.

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Making change work for you

Smart investors are positioning themselves to profit from the changes of the next several decades. Warren Buffett and Jim Rogers have both called this China's century. Mohamed El-Erian, former investment manager for Harvard's endowment and current co-CEO of PIMCO, suggests that investors hold two-thirds of their investments in assets outside the United States.

You'd be hard-pressed to find that much foreign exposure in most Americans' portfolios. Just a few years ago, most investment advisors felt that foreign stocks should make up around 20% of your portfolio at most. My, how things have changed.

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