JonD

Two Concerns With the New ETFs Hitting the Market

you can build your own (I did) Timber REIT Index by buying PCL, RYN, PCH, LFB, TWF.UN, and ADN.UN. PCL is the biggest by far and the most diversified - they all trade together, really - so even just buying PCL would give you solid Timber exposure. oh, and a nice tax-advantaged (deferred) dividend, too. Income from cutting trees is considered a capital gain (the IRS considers trees to be capital assets - pretty cool) so Timber REITs are the ONLY REITS whose distributions are not taxed at marginal income tax rates. that's pretty cool.

great call on infrastructure with MGU - i like it better than MIC or MFD b/c it's more diversified.

also, if you want to get oil and gas exposure WITHOUT the exposure to oil and gas prices, buy TYG - it's a closed end fund holding a diversified portolio of oil and gas *PIPELINE* MLPs like Kinder Morgan, Energy Transfer Partners, etc. The pipelines have are not levered to the price of what they are transferring. and TYG takes care of all the K-1 paperwork.

finally, I totally agree with you re: DFA. they are the original index+ guys - Siegel et al are pretenders and their models are embarassingly simple.