ETF Portfolios: Even In This Economy — Everyone Has To Eat!

It’s hard to decide where to place your investments these days with some of the traditional safe bets not feeling so safe. One thing is for certain, people will continue to need staple products, even if they’re finding them more inexpensively or they’re purchasing less of them.

Some staples that will always be in demand, no matter what the economic environment is, are food stock and beverages. If you’d like to find a way to invest in food and beverages, consider making a purchase of and exchange traded fund (ETF). Exchange traded funds are a collection of stocks bundled together so you are not purchasing one single company, but you’re diversifying across a sector, thereby limiting your risk. And they are usually 80% less than a mutual fund that uses active management.

The ETF PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage (PBJ) is an excellent way to diversify your investment in the food and beverage industry. PBJ seeks to replicate the performance of an equity index called the Dynamic Food & Beverage Intellidex. PBJ does this by investing in about 30 of the largest U.S. food and beverage companies. Some of their holdings include such noted and popular companies as General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) among many other well known brands.

If you’re thinking that an investment in the food and beverage industry is right for your portfolio, consider making the investment in PBJ which charges only 0.63% to give you a strong basket of holdings in the food and beverage industry.

FLOWERS FOODS INC 3.54%
GEN MILLS INC 6.11%
HEINZ HJ CO 4.94%
KELLOGG CO 5.11%
KROGER CO 6.41%
MCDONALDS CP 6.07%
MONSANTO COMPANY 4.44%
PEPSICO INC 5.3%
RALCORP HOLDINGS INC 3.56%
SYSCO CP 4.72%