I do the same, although I have had mixed results.
@OP, a fair amount of my portfolio is individual stocks. I try stick to the 1% rule (only keep up to 1% of my portfolio in an individual stock), however in most cases I have failed miserably because I only thought of doing this way after I started investing, and some have really climbed. I would say at least 60% of my portfolio is in ETFs. Less risk because you're holding more companies. That's how I see it.
I have had some luck with good stock picks, all of them really US ones like Nvidia, With my kind of investing skills, it's really a gamble. So if I know something about a company that's of use, like "AMD is releasing some good stuff, they might do well", I will buy stock. That's as far as I go. For the most part, this philosophy has worked well, in others, not so much. Often the poor decisions I've made with these have come out on top if I've waited long enough. I am of course not talking about a Steinhoff or Enron scenario though - those are a different level of bad decisions
I am a fan of the ETF method, but I also recommend spending some time thinking about where you want your money to go, what sort of growth you expect from it, and if you have a lot to through around - what currency you want your money to be in. As an example, a large portion of my portfolio is in S&P 500, but in dollars. The thinking here is I am trying to protect my money from the rand tanking. Is that a good plan? No freaking clue
You could achieve the same growth (if you exclude currency swings) by investing in an EFT that tracks the S&P 500 on the JSE though.
Also read the MDD for each ETF you plan on investing in so you actually get an idea of what companies you're investing in and in what sectors. Another thing to bear in mind is overlap - there might be a few of the same companies in the SATRIX China ETF as there are in the MCSI World one (don't know for sure, using it as an example).
Another thing to look out for is cost. Now this I am not 100% sure of, but I have seen a lot of companies (local and international) track the same index. So I usually look for the cheapest one. But again, the MDD is important here, as Satrix 40 and Coreshares Top 40 may hold the same companies, but the ratios differ between then. Costs might differ too.
Another option is Ashburton 1200. More exposure, but at a bit of a higher cost I think. It's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not. I have seen people mention that Ashburton 1200 or Satrix MSCI is the only ETF they invest in.
I really only started my journey in 2017, and it's been constant learning since then. I made lots of mistakes by investing in some random ETFs that IPO'd and lost money or just didn't go anywhere. Since then I've been trying to regroup with a more simplified approach in terms of the amounts of ETFs I hold, but is a timely process as I am waiting to hit the break even point before I bail.
Bonus part of the speech: If this is a serious long term HODL for you, I recommend prioritising your TFSA when it comes to holding ETFs. What I wish I had done from the start is go all out on international exposure there, and only hold local in my ZAR account. But that may not be the best for you though.
