Cheapest Vanguard LifeStrategy S&S ISA

guitarman001

I will check those other funds for comparison, thanks.

I'm looking at Vanguard LifeStrategy 40% (acc) Equity GBP Income, for example. It's composed of the funds shown here:

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-40-equity-income/fund-analysis

To me those funds seem to be performing better than the one fund that invests in all of them! I'm obviously reading it wrong... which brings me to the question of HOW to read these fund graphs with percentage on the y-axis. Percent of WHAT? The previous day, some pre-determined date that I should know (the start of the financial year)?

I tried to compare on Morningstar but I can't find the ticker for the fund.

Any help greatly appreciated! The charts aren't like stocks (price vs time) which are easy to understand...

EDIT - managed to find it on Morningstar. Now for the comparison. I assume the ones gadgetmind mentioned are similar to Vanguard? I keep hearing that Vanguard are one of the best to get into due to low fees and diversification, but if there are alternatives..... I'll see if Morningstar can list similar products. (Crikey, Vanguard definitely looks the cheapest!).

Vortigern

guitarman001 wrote: »

.. which brings me to the question of HOW to read these fund graphs with percentage on the y-axis. Percent of WHAT? The previous day, some pre-determined date that I should know (the start of the financial year)?

The charts aren't like stocks (price vs time) which are easy to understand...

It's the percentage of the price on the date at the start of the graph. So it always starts at 100%. For HL's charts, if you look below the graph under "Chart Options" you'll see a checkbox labelled "Chart axis: Display price rather than percentage" If you tick that box you'll see prices instead of percentages - but the shape of the graph will not change.

gadgetmind

guitarman001 wrote: »

I'm looking at Vanguard LifeStrategy 40% (acc) Equity GBP Income, for example. It's composed of the funds shown here:

That's designed for those either closer to retirement or very risk averse. (And again, if looking at income variants, always choose the total return option.)

If that does describe you, then fine, but in that case, you might also want to consider a more income-based approach, or a multi-asset cautiously managed fund such as Troy Trojan or Troy Spectrum. There are hundreds more. Yes, the fees are higher than Vanguard, but if you're not going to be investing in them for long, the fee drag doesn't have long to build.

I keep hearing that Vanguard are one of the best to get into due to low fees and diversification, but if there are alternatives.....

The theory is that active management works sometimes yet fails dismally at others, so over the long-term, you're better going for the average of all of them but with low fees.

You'll always be able to find something that will out-perform a passive approach, but only by looking after-the-fact.

jem16

guitarman001 wrote: »

I will check those other funds for comparison, thanks.

I'm looking at Vanguard LifeStrategy 40% (acc) Equity GBP Income, for example. It's composed of the funds shown here:

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-40-equity-income/fund-analysis

Nothing on that page shows the performance of those funds though so where are you going to look up their performance?

which brings me to the question of HOW to read these fund graphs with percentage on the y-axis.

I've already answered that in the other thread.

Percent of WHAT? The previous day, some pre-determined date that I should know (the start of the financial year)?

It's relative to when you are looking at the chart. So if you choose daily over one week it will show you the percentage growth in the last week so 10th June back to 3rd June. As suggested you can change the y axis to prices if that means more. To get individual days you would have to subtract one from the other.

EDIT - managed to find it on Morningstar. Now for the comparison. I assume the ones gadgetmind mentioned are similar to Vanguard? I keep hearing that Vanguard are one of the best to get into due to low fees and diversification, but if there are alternatives..... I'll see if Morningstar can list similar products. (Crikey, Vanguard definitely looks the cheapest!).

I would have thought it would be very difficult to compare the Vanguard Lifestyle funds with most of the others as it hasn't been going long enough.

guitarman001

Think I understand now, thanks... so it's always relative to when you put the money in.
jem - the HL page does show how the fund has grown over the last couple months or so, so not a great amount of info, but something to go on.

All your help has been greatly appreciated, thank you!

jem16

guitarman001 wrote: »

jem - the HL page does show how the fund has grown over the last couple months or so, so not a great amount of info, but something to go on.

Yes I know it does for the actual fund itself - ie 0.84% in 3 months and 4.02% in 6 months.

However you were saying that the individual funds mentioned on this page http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-40-equity-income/fund-analysis were better than the fund itself.

It was that I was asking about as all that page shows is the percentage weighting of each fund with the LifeStyle fund.

guitarman001

I clicked on those funds that it is composed of and checked their returns and compared.. unfortunately I compared wrongly, looking over non-matching timescales... so I think it all works out.

What is the difference between 'price' and 'total return' on the chart tab options?

jem16

guitarman001 wrote: »

What is the difference between 'price' and 'total return' on the chart tab options?

Good question - I don't know.

gadgetmind

guitarman001 wrote: »

What is the difference between 'price' and 'total return' on the chart tab options?

The former is without dividends/income re-invested and the latter is with. For the "acc" versions of funds, it makes no difference as they re-invest intermally. If you have a mix of accumulation and income, or some equities and ETFs in there, then you need total return.

jem16

gadgetmind wrote: »

The former is without dividends/income re-invested and the latter is with.

Thanks. Obvious now when I think about it.