Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

Essentially, the question is "Are you prepared to invest in investments that can decrease sharply in value (but may go up), or would you rather see your savings gradually eroded by inflation?"

Huh!

My IFA replaces your "Essentially..." question with a whole questionaire, full of multiple choice questions and marking spots on graphs. By the end of it I've tied myself up in knots and I'm sure my answers are totally inconsistent with each other. This needs to be repeated each year; saying my attitude to risk hasn't changed is not an acceptable answer.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's all so random isn't it.

I think that about a lot of people and relationships. My parents met at a party, given by a friend of a friend of my Dad's, and attended by a friend of a friend of my Mama's, who dragged her along too.

Both nearly didn't go at all - my mother had just had a smallpox jab and was feeling rough, and my Dad had his first ever court appearance the next day, he was a very baby barrister.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Well, we've had a letter today saying telecoms are down until next week on her part of her island, so I'll see how it goes as she's got no Internet until then... so I'll ask her next week and see what she replies

£1million house and no phone, such peasants.

Back to the Isles of Scilly idea, that's one reason we love it - neither of our phones work there. So we don't get any of the random solicitors' phone calls, "I know you're on holiday, but I had a thought about that case three weeks next Tuesday....."

We've given a contact number to our clerks in previous years, and they've decided whether something was genuinely urgent or not.

Generali

sjaypink wrote: »

Thank you all very much :A If there was a double thanks button I'd hit it

I will do a bit more googling and reading, now I know a bit more about what I'm looking for. If I still can't figure it out at least I can go to the savings board sounding a little wiser than I actually am

The trap many people fall into is they choose the fund that was performing best until recently. The trouble is, if you do that you end up chasing last year's fad and often you'll pay high charges for the privilege.

I see a lot of posts like that on the investments board. "Get the Whizzo Trust Small Mining Company Fund. It returned a squillion percent last year.". The trouble is, a set of shares can no more increase very rapidly for extended periods than house prices can and for the same reason: in the end they would simply be too expensive for people to be able to afford.

Doozergirl

Generali wrote: »

One of the civilised things about Australia is that dogs live outside. I had to point out to an English temp at work recently that the RSPCAA probably wouldn't take kindly to a complaint that a dog lives outside in Sydney and 'only' has a dog basket in the laundry. Most only get to stay under the house; laundry access is luxury.

Like dogs. Prefer them outdoors though.

Was it a dog you found a while back, I can't quite remember. What happened to it?

GDB2222

STing wrote: »

That's good to know. If investing in one fund, going direct through M&G direct seems ok. I've never used M&Gs platform, is it a basic homebrew or bought from another platform provider? I generally prefer to do business with better known providers (like Fidelity), I find their platforms both more flexible and easy to use.

The TER for the M&G fund is currently 0.46%, the AMC of 0.3% understates the total charge.

It is still a good choice and inexpensive compared to most.

The question about platforms is really weird to me. because well you just buy an index tracker fund and hold it until you need the cash back.

The TER includes the cost of the trustee and other costs? The Fidelity fund that Generali posted has a lower AMC and a total cost figure of 0.3%, so that seems better, but I don't know if they charge for the ISA wrapper?

michaels

Probably best not to read the piece on momentum investing in the economist a few weeks back and instead concentrate on reversion to mean...

Generali wrote: »

The trap many people fall into is they choose the fund that was performing best until recently. The trouble is, if you do that you end up chasing last year's fad and often you'll pay high charges for the privilege.

I see a lot of posts like that on the investments board. "Get the Whizzo Trust Small Mining Company Fund. It returned a squillion percent last year.". The trouble is, a set of shares can no more increase very rapidly for extended periods than house prices can and for the same reason: in the end they would simply be too expensive for people to be able to afford.

vivatifosi

tomterm8 wrote: »

If you are going for a share isa, go for one which tracks an index, and charges the least amount of money. and doesn't charge anything up front.

It sounds more complex than it really is... (a) you can't beat the market (b) go for the cheapest tracker which doesn't try to beat the market at great expense.

Following on from tomterm's post above and those of Gen and GDB earlier, just wanted to say the passive tracker vs active investor thing is something we looked at for ages with the pension fund. Bear in mind we are talking about much larger investments. Even with the economies of scale that brings, we found that it is really hard to do significantly better with an active fund once fees were taken into account as the reality is if you invest in several funds you end up with some that under-perform benchmark.

AIUI across the pensions environment there is now more of a trend towards passivity in terms of general shareholding but with a growth in the use of diversified growth funds (active funds but with a wider remit if you like). If I was in the position to look for an investment vehicle, everything I've learned also points towards a very basic tracker with low fees being the best way forward (as Gen, GDB and tomterm suggest, though obviously as a trustee I can't advise.

vivatifosi

Caught sight of this story that one of the people in the library was reading yesterday. I thought it may indicate that some of our more - ahem - erratic posters may be back soon:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/06/06/california-to-ban-gold-prospectors-from-san-francisco-hills-115875-23182441/

silvercar

Our pension fund gets rebalanced all the time, so if one sector does well it then represents too great a percentage of the fund and adjustments have to be made. Otherwise you always overstock on things that have recently done well. Does that make sense?