Obsessed with investments?

Legacy_user · 30 March 2013 at 4:33PM

Has anyone ever got obsessed with their investments?

I have a small amount of money in S+S ISAs, however most of my money is in cash ISA/offsetting my mortgage.

However I find I am obsessed with my funds and am checking fund prices daily. I get nervous with anything that might cause a drop in the market e.g. Cyprus / possible N Korea war etc etc.. I also find that I keep switching between funds all the time because I obviously cant make my mind up. (NB all my funds are aggressive, equity based.

Has anyone else got like this and is there anything that can help. I'm just wondering if some people do not have the right sort of personality/temperament for investing and whether I should just encash all of it and stick it in my offset mortgage account for an easier life!

sorcerer · 30 March 2013 at 4:36PM

If you are doing this then theirs a good chance you have taken on too much risk for yourself. When I had this feeling I reduced my investments by £30,000, and I much happier for doing it. Take a look at your risk, and ask yourself are you happy with this. If not get out and you will sleep better at night.

I have 12 funds in my ISA and I only stop investing in one, if their it is performing very badly, or I feel I need to change up my portfolio, try not to let a single event like Cyprus effect your judgement, especially if you are in it long term.

Ash1982 · 30 March 2013 at 4:43PM

I had quite an agressive portfolio, bought in the summer last year. I was tracking it daily and I ended up deciding to sell the majority of the funds around christmas at a profit of approx 8/9% and I put my money in cash. Now I look at the funds I had and they are up 25-30% (one was Japan!) on when I bought them originally. Nevermind, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Anyway, I've learnt two things 1) my attitude to risk is not as high as I thought and 2) just invest and forget (well only check every month or so).

I still have one of my agressive funds (JPM Morgan Natural Resources) but the lions share of my money is now in Troy Trojan, less volatile and hopefully providing steady returns that I am struggling to get with my cash.

Borrowedtune · 30 March 2013 at 5:05PM

I am saving for the long term, and I drip feed into my ISA and SIPP via monthly direct debits and that way there are no timing decisions to worry about.

In fact, if the market is down I like to think of it as a "sale" and try to enjoy the fact that I'm getting more units for my £ that month.

I do check the value of the portfolio regularly, but on a monthly basis only.

I recently did a spring clean and reduced my number of funds by quite a bit. I would really like to lose another 3-4 net, but I want to see how the next few months go before having another purge.

redbuzzard · 30 March 2013 at 5:13PM

I think you've answered your own question with the pre-Christmas liquidation. The more you tinker, the worse you are likely to do. The problem with timing is that, other than by fluke, you never sell at the top, never buy at the very bottom, and you lose the income when you are out of the market.

I confess to a bit of tinkering. I have 'rebalanced' and moved some equities into Standard Life GARS, Newton Real Return and Troy Trojan to try and 'bank' some of the over-achievement of the equities.

System · 30 March 2013 at 5:17PM

Overall the money ive got in S+S ISAs is low compared to cash (<20%). So I could afford to lose my S+S money and have cash to fall back on.

Problem with me is its not just about risk. I have held 'safe' funds in the past like Troy Trojan which was mentioned. The problem is when I saw other funds rapidly rising I ended up selling this (i.e. I get jittery in falling or rising markets,I hate missing out on growth as much as making losses).

I've also read about the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds and wondered if I would be better off putting all into one of these and then I won't be able to tinker about the same? At the same time however I don't know if it would solve the problem of me checking active fund prices and seeing if I had missed out.

atush · 30 March 2013 at 5:26PM

The switching is probably costing you money, and does show you are investing above your risk level.

Have you thought of drip feeding in instead of LS? that may lower your anxiety levels a bit.

redbuzzard · 30 March 2013 at 5:30PM

I like the VLS idea, because of the automatic rebalancing.

Sorry to mention it yet again, but if you read Smarter Investing, assuming you haven't, then you should find it much easier to stand back.

System · 30 March 2013 at 5:32PM

atush wrote: »

The switching is probably costing you money, and does show you are investing above your risk level.

Have you thought of drip feeding in instead of LS? that may lower your anxiety levels a bit.

I have yes, although I have concentrated on putting spare money each month into my offset account. Im not actually adding to the S+S ISA, so that's how I try to 'justify' having very aggressive funds.

Perhaps what I should be doing is having a much safer portfolio and start drip feeding instead and treat it more as a long term regular saver than a chunk of money that I am aggressively trying to grow the capital of? Perhaps I have answered my own question, but needed a few opinions to guide me!

atush · 30 March 2013 at 5:49PM

No reason you can't have a little high risk fund in your mix, but yes it is probably best for you to drip feed into more defensive funds perhaps.

Ark_Welder · 30 March 2013 at 6:12PM

teepee83 wrote: »

Problem with me is its not just about risk.

...I get nervous with anything that might cause a drop in the market...

... I have held 'safe' funds in the past like Troy Trojan ...The problem is ...I ended up selling this ...

Investing is all about risk. The problem is in identifying which type of risk is the most important to you. Is the risk that your investment might fall 30% in a year more important or less important than the risk that your investment might lag others when markets are rising?

...I hate missing out on growth as much as making losses...

Don't treat these as being equal, prioritise them. To do that it might help to be sure of what your objectives are and the timescale for them to be met. e.g. is it to generate an income now; is it to help to pay off the mortgage in 10 years' time; is growth now more important, but with a view to using it to generate an income in 30 years' time? Knowing your objectives and timescales, combined with knowing which type of risk is of most concern, might also help to decide on an appropriate type of fund - or if a fund is even appropriate.

I've also read about the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds

So you decide to invest in VLS80. After six months, you see that VLS60 has performed better. What do you do?

Objectives and timescales.

Obsessed with investments?

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