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> you could buy into an ETF in one currency and own part of a diversified stock portfolio across multiple countries.

Because this is what you should be doing…

> something that will not be affected by Brexit.

… this isn't really possible.

The passive approach (Bogleheads etc) is to globally diversify, investing in funds that track indexes in major world markets (probably plus emerging markets).

The US is about 50% of the world economy, by market cap; the UK is about 7%, emerging markets about 12%, so the rest of the developed world would be about 30%.

You could buy these as individual trackers - you might buy an S&P 500 tracker, some FTSE all-share, developed Europe-ex-UK etc - but it's more commonly recommended to buy only one or two funds.

The Vanguard Lifestrategy series are a bunch of "funds-in-a-package", or you could buy a tracker for an all-world index, and then maybe add in some small proportions of other funds, to add emerging markets exposure or tilt towards the UK.

You diversify because different markets perform differently - you don't know whether the US, UK or Europe will perform best over the next 50 years until your retirement, so you buy a wide spread of shares in each. You are inherently exposed to currency fluctuations, but that's a fact of life - it's better than investing only in your home market, if your home economy tanks.

I wrote a bit more about exchange rates here today and someone liked these previous comments I made about equity investing in general.

Read Tim Hale's Smarter Investing, subscribe to /r/UKPersonalFinance, read it every day and ask questions when you don't understand. If you do this you can develop a very thorough layman's understanding of personal investing in short order IMO. This is what worked for me - I only wish I'd read Hale sooner.

Disclaimer, I was recently made a mod of that latter sub, but I was only eligible because I'm active there, and I'm active there because I think it's a great sub.

David Swensen manages the Yale endowment which has had excellent returns.

Real estate is one of Swensen's core asset classes. A so-called Yale portfolio tilts towards real estate (I've typically seen between 10% and 20% allocated to real estate):

https://www.bogleheads.org/blog/2014/09/07/david-swensens-portfolio-from-unconventional-success/

I'm a big fan of Swensen's book "Unconventional Success" and would recommend reading it:

https://www.amazon.com/Unconventional-Success-Fundamental-Approach-Investment/dp/0743228383

 

On the other hand Charlie Ellis (another one of my favorite investors):
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1gj523tmfl2tt/David-Swensen-Is-Great-for-Yale-Is-He-Horrible-for-Investing

said that the Yale portfolio did really well mainly because of Swensen's genius and cautioned investors and to avoid blindly copying his portfolio.

The book that got me started was I Will Teach You to be Rich

It's run like a 6-week personal finance course and is wonderful. Thanks to that book I found Vanguard, understood why passive-investing is investing correctly. Investing is only a small part of the book as it covers banking, loans, credit cards and lots more. However, it's very information dense and easily understandable.

You need to study up. Investing $20 in a book or two won't kill you when you have $1M in investments.

I recommend this http://smile.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398314109&sr=8-1&keywords=bogleheads+guide+to+investing

Then call Vanguard and ask them for assistance. With that kind of money you get free help from a financial planner.

I like to recommend [Investing Made Simple] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0997946539/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_0997946539) to new investors. It's short, to the point, and gives solid advice.

Start by buying yourself a copy of the Boglehead Guide to Investing. It will be the best $20 expense you'll ever have in investing. Beyond that, we don't know much about you or what your investing goals are.

i enjoyed bogleheads guide to investing

I mean considering the sub reddit https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365.

In Jack Bogle's book he's strongly against them. Basically the same reason you don't pick individual stocks... you're very unlikely to beat the market, and very likely to chase past performance, buy high, sell low, pay higher fees, etc.

When you do own broad US or International index funds, you DO own those hot sectors you're imagining or those hot countries... as well as the ones you never thought of that are going to go blow up in the future. And you pay lower fees. On this subreddit, you should only get advice to buy and hold the broad index funds with low fees.