Building an investment portfolio

Ben12345

Hi, was hoping someone could give me a bit of wisdom please.

Currently hold:
A small amount (£2k) of shares in couple of listed entities.
S&S ISA (£5k) in Global High Income Retail Accumulation Units


Looking to invest:
2011/12 S&S ISA (£5k), possibly a FTSE tracker
2 S&S ISAs (me and OH) for 2012/13 tax year.

Would really appreciate some pointers on where I should put the 2011/12 and 2012/13 investment please given current holding to make sure i am holding and building a balanced portfolio

Thank you very much inadvance

Rollinghome

A 'balanced portfolio' tends to mean different things to different people. The general idea is that should one asset class fall then it's balanced by another rising. Those different classes could be equities, corporate bonds, government gilts, property, hard and soft commodities including gold, cash, and various alternative investments. You could also balance holdings in UK markets with holdings in non-UK markets.

Many people will have just a mix of equities and bonds but, as was seen in 08/09, rather than balancing each other both pretty much went down like synchronised swimmers.

Possibly a better use of balancing is to adjust the amount of risk to the level you're comfortable with. The simplest way to balance the risk of your equity exposure is by holding a suitable amount as cash, or you could invest in a fixed interest fund, possibly a strategic bond fund.

You might want to look at http://monevator.com/2009/02/26/portfolio-diversification/ Also several of the fund supermarkets provide examples of what they consider to be balanced portfolios including http://www.chelseafs.co.uk/EasyISA/choose.html and http://www.bestinvest.co.uk