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STXEMG + STXWDM = ASHGEQ Well more or less...

I don't know if "bad idea" would describe investing in both, but it is certainly not the most efficient. Firstly, your fees will be duplicated, and secondly, basically ASHGEQ is almost the same as STXWDM plus additional exposure to emerging markets (ie. China, Japan, Asia, South America and Australia). Doing both kind of defeats the object as you are basically then simply cutting the emerging market exposure portion of ASHGEQ in half, which defeats the whole point of going ASHGEQ in the first place. There is an excellent article on Simon Brown's JustOneLap that I would highly recommend that you read carefully before making your choice: https://justonelap.com/etf-understanding-the-ashburton-1200-etf/ P.S. I have ASHGEQ in my TFIA and my wife has STXWDM in hers. I think you should decide whether you would like emerging markets exposure in your ETF of if you only want developed markets. Then choose the appropriate one and buy that one only, else you will be wasting money on extra fees every month. Both are excellent, and whichever way you choose, you won't be making a mistake.

ASHGEQ, hands down.

If I were to choose just one ETF to invest in, without a doubt in my mind, it would be the Ashburton Global 1200 Equity ETF (ASHGEQ). If I had to choose just one, I would never go country specific like US or Japan - this just has too much concentration risk - get a bad president or a war in that country and might just lose all your money - I'd definitely go for a world index. Therefore, from your list, I'd immediately disqualify SYGJP and SYGUS. From the two world ETFs on your list, both STXWDM and SYGWD track the same index but Sygnia charges double the fees. Therefore it gets disqualified too. So we are left with STXWDM, which is an excellent ETF and would be my second choice after ASHGEQ. There are two reasons why I prefer ASHGEQ over STXWDM: 1) ASHGEQ has some emerging market exposure, which traditionally provides better growth than developed markets over long periods, whereas STXWDM is only developed markets (safer, but less growth). 2) ASHGEQ is more diversified than STXWDM, lowering the downside risk. ASHGEQ is slightly more expensive than STXWDM in terms of fees, but I still think the possibility of better returns from ASHGEQ, as well as the better diversification, do justify the fees and will be worth it in the long run. So for your second question - what would be a good first ETF? Either Satrix MSCI World (STXWDM) or Ashburton Global 1200 (ASHGEQ) would be excellent choices, in my opinion.