A Few Comments and thoughts...
I'm glad this isn't turning into another debate on if we need international or not. I totally understand that one could be just fine with US only, and that a domestic only portfolio might end up with a better end result for some than a Global portfolio. To each their own.
I am a big fan of this fund. I want to once again point out Siamond's paper:
https://finpage.blog/2017/03/25/investi ... ld-part-3/
This describes the merit in investing 25% in your home country and 75% at the world market weight. So yes, there is overlap, or a domestic tilt. An example for the US investor would be 25% VTI/VTSMX and 75% VT/VTWSX.
Which would put you at 36.5% International overall, pretty close to what Vanguard recommends.
In regards to the ER of VTSMX. I read this forum about non Admiral Share funds....One solution I have found is this:
I am totally ok with either .19 for the index fund and .1 for the ETF, but it does bug me that If I wanted to use index funds I would be paying much more than for the ETF. So I just hold $3000 in the Index fund, then keep contributing to it, then when I reach a certain dollar amount say $5000 I convert $2000 to ETF's. Then I'm still at the 3K minimum and can still buy the index fund at NAV. If I remember correctly, they conversion from Index fund to ETF happens at the NAV as well at the close of market the day you convert. You cannot however convert from ETF to Mutual Fund.