comments on my CRAZY portfolio please

riskyb

DiggerUK

Thanks for your response.

a friend has been recommending cluff gold as well as pan african resources both aim listed i think. I am curious what you think about these two? As a previous poster pointed out on this thread I have been sticking with resources fund to get my gold exposure but intend to do some more research.

DiggerUK wrote: »

riskyb,
I am always puzzled, why some posters who exhibit a 'right on' acceptance of attraction to risk, and an avowed preference for a "crazy portfolio" appear to have an aversion for gold.

As gold has gone from 187GBP 10 years ago to 856GBP today, well in excess of your wish for annual growth of 15%, why do you not have any gold exposure?
http://www.lbma.org.uk/pages/index.cfm?page_id=53&title=gold_fixings&show=2000&type=daily

And don't forget, there are plenty of ways to get exposure to gold, beyond just the physical.

StevieJ

DiggerUK wrote: »

riskyb,
I am always puzzled, why some posters who exhibit a 'right on' acceptance of attraction to risk, and an avowed preference for a "crazy portfolio" appear to have an aversion for gold.

As gold has gone from 187GBP 10 years ago to 856GBP today, well in excess of your wish for annual growth of 15%, why do you not have any gold exposure?
http://www.lbma.org.uk/pages/index.cfm?page_id=53&title=gold_fixings&show=2000&type=daily

And don't forget, there are plenty of ways to get exposure to gold, beyond just the physical.

Perhaps you answered your own question

DiggerUK

riskyb, paper gold is not my speciality, but if you ask on the Buzz Lightyear thread there are plenty of players who can help you choose.

Try these sites for research.
http://www.kitco.com/
http://seekingalpha.com/
http://www.24hgold.com/english/gold_price_in_sterling_pounds.aspx

Jake'sGran

riskyb wrote: »

Hi Pressredrop,

Thanks for replying. If you were in my (unbalanced) shoes what wld you look at to 'balance' this then??

B

I would not have a clue and, as a matter of interest, we both have a few of the same funds. I used to choose them in a random way but now do some homework. The First State fund I chose was Asia Pacific Leaders A and this has gained a third in 15 months i.e. I invested £3k and it is now £4080. The First State Greater China fund has gained a third too. Looks like Anthony Bolton (my hero) is piling the pennies on with his new China SSs
Investment Trust gaining 25% in about 15 months.

Although Neil Woodford is also highly regarded, his Invesco Perp High Income and Income funds are not doing well. He issued a statement giving his views of the market and ending with a "if you don't like it......

I do appreciate that some IFAs would consider my portfolio to be unbalanced but I will carry on as it is now something of a hobby.

jamesd

You probably have ample exposure to gold already. Mining companies will be featured in at least half of the funds you're holding.

riskyb

Maybe you could avoid contributing to our 'masturbatory pleasure' by ignoring such posts in future.........

Or is this your only pleasure???

bendix wrote: »

I never understand the point of these threads? What are the OPs trying to achieve, except some kind of masturbatory pleasure from listing their asset allocation?

Does the approval of strangers mean that much to them?

jamesd

bendix, not everyone is thoroughly familiar with asset allocation and happy that they have done an appropriate job. Others simply want more options, thoughts about things that they might have missed or a view about overall risk level. When you're new to it, third party opinions are a good thing.

bendix

jamesd wrote: »

bendix, not everyone is thoroughly familiar with asset allocation and happy that they have done an appropriate job. Others simply want more options, thoughts about things that they might have missed or a view about overall risk level. When you're new to it, third party opinions are a good thing.

stop being so eminently reasonable. I'm in a bad mood.

jamesd

bendix wrote: »

stop being so eminently reasonable. I'm in a bad mood.

If it helps, I'll be happy to kick you in the shins.

riskyb

Hi Jamesd. Just to say the quote below was what actually inspired me (and continues to do so) to look at my portfolio again so thanks for that and thanks for being a lot nicer to bendix than I was.....

jamesd wrote: »

That looks like over 30% in emerging markets or Aasia-Pacific and not a lot at the low risk end to compensate for that so high to speculative is where I'd put it overall. It seems consistent with your attitude to risk, funding level and objective.

Given my - speculative or at least above high - risk tolerance I'd double or more the Aberdeen emerging Markets and JPM Natural Resources pieces. That would be a bet on continued economic recovery, so it may be quite volatile. Then perhaps reduce this exposure once the recovery is solidly in place and everyone and the sunday papers have been writing about it as a sure thing for a while.

My view is that we're in a general global recovery that will continue, but with uncertain timeline, and that I'm unlikely to see a repeat within my main retirement investing time horizon, so I should be positioned to exploit it to its maximum potential. Given your objective and timeline you might consider this view also, particularly given the amounts of money that you will be adding over the years.

This view also makes now an excellent time to be keeping spending as low as possible and investing as high as possible, so you get in relatively early in the cycle and benefit from the growth for the longest possible time. Then relax a bit after a year or two once the initial capital value is beefed up by the high initial saving rate.

If things turn out badly I, and probably you, would need to lengthen our retirement planning horizons, though it looks as though from a zero start I'll be at my basic (minimum) retirement planning target within seven years, since I'm almost there at 5.5 years. Few people would be willing to save and invest over 60% of their income to achieve the target as quickly, though, and most, including me, would ultimately want more than my minimal initial target.