S&S Isa portfolio ideas.

welshman83

All,

Can you please see the changes on post 10.

Guys,

Hoping you can all help.
I am looking to open this years S&S ISA and have looked at and quite fancy the below.
I believe it is a little above balaned, so am open to ideas on balancing this out.
I am looking to open up with the full £10.2k

UK Equity - 3 funds 29%
Fidelity Special Situations Acc
Cazenove UK OPS class B Acc
Schroder Income Inc

Fixed Interest - 3 funds 29%
Invesco Sterlin Bond A Acc
Baillie Gifford High Yield Bond
Threadneedle High Yeild Bond

Emerging Markets - 1 fund 10.5%
Aberdeen Emerging Markets

Europe - 1 fund 10.5%
Blackrock Continental European

US - 1 fund 10.5%
Aberdeen American Equity

Specialist - 1 fund 10.5%
Blackrock gold & general

I am new to all of this, so am all ears to learn for valued experience as I embark on these new investments.

I also intend to possibly fund another 5 funds outside of the isa with a £50/month investment.
I would look to make atleast 1 of these in a more risky area.

Thanks Again

John

sabretoothtigger

I am looking to open up with the full £10.4k]

scale in over the year is best I think or at least not all at once


I dont recognise many funds, try citywire for investigating their portfolio history maybe

I much prefer a heavier slant to emerging and commodity funds and for USA I think technology is best


Europe might be cheap, I'll take a look at your fund. I want emerging European companies because they could be cheap even if krugman is saying the euro is finished. Spainish companies could be underrated if connected to south america I think

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/opinion/30krugman.html

Linton

To help you balance your portfolio, it would be helpful to know what it's for. Growth? Income? Timescale? How much risk?

From your list this isnt clear to me as you have a wide range of sectors, with a range of risk, without any obvious theme(s).

What may be instructive is to categorise it rather differently. For example..
1) (Relatively) high risk growth
2) Middle of the road equity
3) (Relatively) Safe Income
4) Cash

Allocate a proportion of your wealth into each category such that the portfolio meets your objectives and you are comfortable with the overall risk. IMHO which particular funds in which region you go for in each category is a secondary concern.

Your balancing can then be carried out over time to keep the proportions in each category constant.

Looking at your funds, one very obvious hole is Asia-Pac.

welshman83

Thanks Guys,

I am currently looking for growth, still relatively young, and looking to put away a bit for a house with my partner in about 5 years.
I was hoping to fund the ISA and also drip feed into more riskier areas, but would it be better to drip feed into both?
Not really looking to invest in cash, I already have 100k in bonds and 50k in Structured prodcuts, Ftse tracker funds, so was hoping to fund an S&S isa to provide a better return.

welshman83

Thanks Saber,
I looked at most of the funds via morningstar and I believe most if not all were 5 star rated, but I will take a look at the citywire website.

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

scale in over the year is best I think or at least not all at once


I dont recognise many funds, try citywire for investigating their portfolio history maybe

I much prefer a heavier slant to emerging and commodity funds and for USA I think technology is best


Europe might be cheap, I'll take a look at your fund. I want emerging European companies because they could be cheap even if krugman is saying the euro is finished. Spainish companies could be underrated if connected to south america I think

Linton

welshman83 wrote: »

Thanks Guys,

I am currently looking for growth, still relatively young, and looking to put away a bit for a house with my partner in about 5 years.
I was hoping to fund the ISA and also drip feed into more riskier areas, but would it be better to drip feed into both?
Not really looking to invest in cash, I already have 100k in bonds and 50k in Structured prodcuts, Ftse tracker funds, so was hoping to fund an S&S isa to provide a better return.

I share sabretooth's preference - if you want growth, go for growth. Emerging markets, technology, special situations, small companies, raw materials, asia-pac etc. You do have safer diversification in your other investments.

But IMHO it would be risky to rely on this as providing the funds for buying a house in 5 years time. It would be somewhat risky to rely on any investment to give you a profit in 5 years.

For your £100K in bonds - do you mean real bonds (government and company debt) or fixed term cash (what the banks call bonds)? If you dont mean the latter and are serious about a house in 5 years I would suggest you set up a series of fixed rate cash savings - say take out a 5 year one now, add a 4 year one in a year's time etc.

In terms of drip feeding - it does prevent you inadvertantly buying at a short term spike. But if you are looking at a 5 year plus investment, the effect would seem to be pretty marginal. I personally dont bother.

Mikeyorks

As an incidental ....... it's £10.2k (not the £10.4k you quote).

JonnyFinancialAdvisor

You would be better, looking at a high quaility managed fund of fund. This is an OEIC investment, which the main manager will invest within a number of sub funds, ie the one you have looked at, with a long term view of capital growth.

Watch set up fee's good funds have no upfront costs and low managment fee's ie below 2%pa.

These fund can be a mixure of real bonds ie Gilts and equities ie UK, US, Asia, Eurpore etc. More bonds the lower the risk. However over longer term equities have outpreformed Bonds & cash.

Cash over the lower term in my view is a risky asset, as your Guranteed not to match inflation, along with the BBE forcasing the base rate will not pass 2% until after 2014

welshman83

Firstly to answer Linton with regards to the Bond, yes it is one of Barclays 2 year fixed rate bonds.
With reagrds to the PA charges the funds I have looked at have an average charge of 1.18%.

It might help if I try to spell out what I am hoping to do.
I am looking to obtain growth, what I am hoping to do is to use my ISA allowance to work for me in a better way than the previous cash isas (these are now wrapped with another barclays products, the 6 year kick out plan which should hopefully pay 7.5%PA)

I have a total of 170k placed separately and this seems fairly safe, so hoping to make the next years 5, at a minimum, work the best for me.
I would like to put in the full ISA allowance each year, drip feed or not and drip feed about another 250/month into other funds.

I have looked at the funds via Morning star and the YTD and the past yer have all shown good growth, and most if not all are rated 5 star, is this not a good place to be looking?

Sorry for the long post, I am trying to learn, and am more than happy for a gentle point in the right directing or full kick up the behind if I am completly misunderstanding everything.

Thanks again.

John

welshman83

On another look might I be better looking at something like the below?
Would that give me a better spread?

Asia - Aberdeen Asia Pacific - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%
Asia - First State Asia Pacific Leaders Class A - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%
Asia - Jupiter China - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

Tech - Henderson Global Technology A - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

Emerging - Aberdeen Emerging Markets - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%
Emerging - JPMorgan Emerging Markets - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

Specialist - Blackrock Gold & General - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%
Specialist - First State Indian Subcontinent -£600 - 50/pm - 5.88%
Specialist - Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

Europe - BlackRock European Dynamic Acc - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

Property - M&G Property - £600 - 50/pm - 5.88%

UK equity - Fidelity Special Situations - £1200 - 100/pm - 11.66%
UK equity - Cazenove OPS - £1200 - 100/pm - 11.66%
UK equity - Schroder Income - £1200 - 100/pm - 11.66%

Linton wrote: »

I share sabretooth's preference - if you want growth, go for growth. Emerging markets, technology, special situations, small companies, raw materials, asia-pac etc. You do have safer diversification in your other investments.

But IMHO it would be risky to rely on this as providing the funds for buying a house in 5 years time. It would be somewhat risky to rely on any investment to give you a profit in 5 years.

For your £100K in bonds - do you mean real bonds (government and company debt) or fixed term cash (what the banks call bonds)? If you dont mean the latter and are serious about a house in 5 years I would suggest you set up a series of fixed rate cash savings - say take out a 5 year one now, add a 4 year one in a year's time etc.

In terms of drip feeding - it does prevent you inadvertantly buying at a short term spike. But if you are looking at a 5 year plus investment, the effect would seem to be pretty marginal. I personally dont bother.

welshman83

Guys,

Can you please advise on the post above, looking for as much help as possible.

Thanks

John