With the local and global economy looking more uncertain than a few years ago, it's getting harder to know whether to buy or sell most shares.
Falling interest rates also make it hard to know what to do these days.
It might be easier to take the guesswork out of individual shares by investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) where you can own dozens or even hundreds of businesses through a single investment.
I think it could be possible to invest in just two ETFs to get the right mix of income and growth:
Vanguard Australian Share ETF (ASX: VAS)
Australia is famous for its high dividend payout ratios and high dividend yields, so allocating half of your portfolio to this ETF would give you access to the mostly-franked dividend yield of 4.2% of this Australian ETF, according to Vanguard.
With the ETF you get large exposure to many of Australia's biggest blue chips which offer bigger dividend yields including Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) and Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES).
With a very low annual management fee of 0.10%, this ETF is a good way to be invested across the Australian share market.
BetaShares NASDAQ 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)
What the Australian ETF lacks in growth options, this ETF would make up for it. It's invested in 100 of the biggest businesses listed on the NASDAQ which includes businesses like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook.
A lot of the change in our lives is being developed by these technology businesses – just think where more of our time and money is being spent. What I'm getting at is a lot of the new economic value is being created by the US tech businesses.
If the other half of your portfolio is focused on this global tech growth then this half of your portfolio could do very well over time.
However, the ETF is more expensive with annual management fees of 0.48%, but that's still cheaper than most other active investment manager costs.
Foolish takeaway
A portfolio split between these two ETFs would provide good diversification with exposure to 400 businesses with fairly good growth and income prospects.
