How to Invest Like an Endowment

FXA yields over 5%.

Foreign bonds, both emerging-market and developed, have been available through closed-end funds for years. Soon there will be ETFs in this space, too. The first one to come is likely going to be the PowerShares Emerging Market Sovereign Debt (PCY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Also in the registration pipeline is the iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Market Bond Fund (no symbol yet). State Street has two very interesting products in the pipe line as well: the SPDR Lehman International Treasury Bond and the SPDR Barclays Capital Global TIPS ETF.

I have been a big believer in the water theme, as this is obviously a scarce resource. There are four ETFs available that are direct water plays; PowerShares Water Resouces Portfolio (PHO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), First Trust ISE Water Index (FIW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), PowerShares Global Water Portfolio(PIO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Claymore S&P Global Water ETF(CGW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

Water speaks to the very heart of the modernization behind the boom going on around the world. These ETFs, or the stocks they invest in, are likely to benefit from infrastructure build-up in developing markets, which will bring them new business. Their share prices could also benefit as they attract big investors looking to profit from the boom. China seems like a perfect example of a sovereign wealth fund that would invest in the water theme.

PowerShares offers access to food, another scarce resource, with the DB Agriculture ETF (DBA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). Van Eck recently listed the Market Vectors AgriBusiness Fund (MOO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) to access the companies working to solve the world's food shortage.

There are also investment vehicles tracking energy and metals commodities to choose from. PowerShares has eight commodity ETFs, Barclays has three ETFs and three ETNs and there are a few other commodity products out there from other providers and many more in registration.