Early-retirement wannabe

mark55man

Marine Life


I would start reading the Investment forums on the www,fool.co.uk board (http://boards.fool.co.uk/investors-roundtable-5007.aspx). I find investors strategy useful for this type. Or you might look at defensive High Yield Portfolios or you might look at "Luniversals" Investment Trust Basket some of which focus on capital preservation and seem to return that much


I have learned a lot - although some of it is not my style and some of it doesn't meet my needs. Although the fool website is full of tosh the forum is full of nuggets

Marine_life

mark88man wrote: »

Marine Life


I would start reading the Investment forums on the www,fool.co.uk board (http://boards.fool.co.uk/investors-roundtable-5007.aspx).

Many thanks - I will take a look

mark55man

For that much money they would all say consult an IFA - not so much for investment strategy although it never hurts to listen to people, but more because if they are any good they know all the tricks at retirement. You only retire once - they see it all the time


also for that much avoid %age fees and just pay by the hour but that's probably teaching you to suck eggs

Marine_life

mark88man wrote: »

For that much money they would all say consult an IFA - not so much for investment strategy although it never hurts to listen to people, but more because if they are any good they know all the tricks at retirement. You only retire once - they see it all the time


also for that much avoid %age fees and just pay by the hour but that's probably teaching you to suck eggs

All my main pensions do not require any decisions as they are all with my company, so nothing to do there at all.

I have had conversations with a financial advisor in the past and even acted on some of their advice but as regards what was then my core investment portfolio in funds he commented that it was already fairly well balanced (I have a mixture of emerging market, sector and total return funds).

The key "problem" now is that we were using spare cash to pay down a mortgage which has now gone and when we sell that house we will suddenly have that big chunk of cash we never had before. I'm ok when money arrives in dribs and drabs but having a large sum land is a little unsettling.

Still there are worse problems to have

mark55man

No I suspect you are in a very good place in a big picture way. My suggestion around the IFA was that there may be a few small tricks that could you finesse your return.


By tricks I don't mean avoidance/evasion, I just mean things like delaying your state pension, or playing with recycling limits, or balancing income with your OH, or (for those not in the HR band the tax advantages of dividends ... Now some of the above list are general (that's because I am 12 years off retirement and not an IFA). A good IFA would know the whole range of options that could make that difference

mark55man

Plus in terms of your core worry if you have time to leave a lump sum in the market then you should put it in ASAP. Investing so you avoid loss is usually longer term less good


I suspect Europe, Japan and many EM still have a way to go.


Also you should look at the banking sector board on fool and play around with fixed income - eg Bank PIBs - some of these still return 6-7% and although the underlying assets will fall as interest rates go up I think you should be safe enough for a number of years - esp look at some of the perpetual bank related instruments, eg LLPC / LLPD

atush

Dont forget, he isn't tax resident int he UK I think (austria)?

So the IFA stuff might not be of use for him?

Marine_life

atush wrote: »

Dont forget, he isn't tax resident int he UK I think (austria)?

So the IFA stuff might not be of use for him?

That's right - at the moment tax resident in Germany although we do still have IFA's. Will be tax resident in Austria on retirement.

Marine_life

Over the last couple of months I've been thinking about starting a blog, which will be partly about travel, partly about early retirement, partly an advertising portal for our rental property and partly about random topics which I decide are interesting! I might also reveal more about the real marine_life.

I imagine it will take me a few months to get things up and running but i have at least bought the website and have set up the first page. You can find the link here:

http://adventuresinaustria.com/about-adventures-in-austria/

There's nothing else in the site at the moment but the main thing I'm focusing on at the moment is having it up and running in time for our trip to Australia / New Zealand so that I can capture the trip for family and friends. We leave of 3rd November.

Any advice from other bloggers much appreciated and please keep checking in for updates.

AlwaysLearnin

Another one for the bookmarks! Look forward to seeing it develop. Hope you'll still hang around here for a while though.

Just to point out, theres a "u" missing from "August" at the bottom.