Santander Balanced Portfolio

cardsharps

The_Pixi wrote: »

and the ter is just under 2%

.

Truly shocking. Money for old rope.

The_Pixi

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

A High risk investment is Santander themselves according to the market. That means they relatively 'cheap'.
It is just one single company but its one of the largest in the world and they have banks from Poland to Brazil so theres a growth potential.
You could look for a fund that features them maybe and see if the rest fits, trustnet will show fund details and companies held within them

Interesting idea, but would I be risking the potential fro all eggs in one basket as I have now?

If stander does badly my external fund including them would fall along with my stander investments?

I'm think growth markets like Asia, Africa because I'm willing to risk the money over a long term.

I think I'll look at H&L but I do find it confusing what some stuff means, I'm still unsure what a cheep fund is compared to an expensive ones:)

The_Pixi

cardsharps wrote: »

Truly shocking. Money for old rope.

Thanks, how so.

I'm not sure i understand. The ter is taken away before the price presented to me. So what I see is what I get right?

If that's the case then on my £1.5k profit I have lost £30?

Or am I misunderstanding?

Newbie2saving

The_Pixi wrote: »

I think I'll look at H&L but I do find it confusing what some stuff means, I'm still unsure what a cheep fund is compared to an expensive ones:)

The TER is what you need to look at, indexes are very cheap as they are passive investments, active investments are more expensive as you are paying someone to manage the fund for you rather than just follow the 'FTSE' for example. Remember anything you are paying in TER is money you are 'loosing' from your overall profit.

The_Pixi

Newbie2saving wrote: »

The TER is what you need to look at, indexes are very cheap as they are passive investments, active investments are more expensive as you are paying someone to manage the fund for you rather than just follow the 'FTSE' for example. Remember anything you are paying in TER is money you are 'loosing' from your overall profit.

Thanks I'll have a look up on indexes. This is the kind of help I'm looking for because I can go away and read up on this stuff, it's just hard to know where and what to look at until someone says or points you at something:D

Newbie2saving

If you want to do some reading (word of warning it can be a little dull in places if like me you are 'new' to the financial world) I was recommended the following books by a fellow MSE poster http://www.amazon.co.uk/Financial-Times-Guide-Investing-Definitive/dp/027372374X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293144579&sr=8-1 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293144666&sr=1-1 I really enjoyed Tim Hales book which made things very simple, but he really sells passive funds over active so you may have to make your own decisions once finished.

I am also looking to a more 'risky' portfolio, have Indian and Chinese funds and an index to see how it performs. Adding Fidelity EMEA and another couple this year. You need to assess how happy you are with risk. We are all pleased with growth, but if your funds fell by 20-30% even 40% would you be happy to ride out the storm? I have made the decision that this pot of money is money I am prepared to risk.

All the best.

The_Pixi

Newbie2saving wrote: »

If you want to do some reading (word of warning it can be a little dull in places if like me you are 'new' to the financial world) I was recommended the following books by a fellow MSE poster http://www.amazon.co.uk/Financial-Times-Guide-Investing-Definitive/dp/027372374X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293144579&sr=8-1 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293144666&sr=1-1 I really enjoyed Tim Hales book which made things very simple, but he really sells passive funds over active so you may have to make your own decisions once finished.

I am also looking to a more 'risky' portfolio, have Indian and Chinese funds and an index to see how it performs. Adding Fidelity EMEA and another couple this year. You need to assess how happy you are with risk. We are all pleased with growth, but if your funds fell by 20-30% even 40% would you be happy to ride out the storm? I have made the decision that this pot of money is money I am prepared to risk.

All the best.

My profit from the current bunch I'm willing to risk on, along with small monthly investments (least I can cancel those if it goes wrong) growth is good but I'd be willing to leave the money in hoping for a re bound, thanks for the book ideas I'll definatley give them a look.

Loughton_Monkey

From Personal experience, I would avoid all 'Bank' funds like the plague. They are well towards the 'expensive' end and their investment approach tends to complacent and lacklustre in the extreme.

Glance at Trustnet. You will see Santander's range of funds having grown in the last 12 months by anything from 4.5% to 13.5%.

Now go to any dedicated fund manager, who have more funds available, but just picking two at random (Jupiter and Fidelity) you will find ranges of -2.8% to 30.2% and -1.1% to 34.2%. Or maybe punch in "Global Growth" to find most 12 month returns in the 20%/30% range, whereas Santander have come in at 180th out of 254 with a miserable 12.8%

jimjames

For TER, it is the expenses taken from the fund covering managers fees and all other associated costs.

Your fund had TER 2%, HSBC trackers have TER 0.27% so your fund will need to grow by 2-0.27 = 1.73% more per year just to cover the additional costs. It might not sound a lot but over the long term it can really add up.

If the growth is 40% then you might not notice it but at 5% or 10% annual growth it will certainly be much more noticeable.

https://www.fool.co.uk is a good place to learn some of the basics of long term investing.