Whats your S&S ISA Portfolio? (Winners and Losers)

Jim_B_3

pennyspounds wrote: »

I just want my money to be as safe as possible and make as much interest as it can.

Assuming that by "interest" you also mean capital gain and dividends on any money invested in shares, those are conflicting requirements and you will have to decide how much risk you're willing to take.

Linton

You cannot have your money as safe as possible AND with as high a return as possible. The safer it is the less return you get. So you have to accept a balance that keeps you happy.

What do you mean by "not safe"? If you mean could you lose the lot then it is very safe barring global Armageddon. If you feel "not safe" means possibly dropping in value by perhaps a small amount at some point then your investment is not safe at all.

Your portfolio is based on reasonable funds and in the overall scheme of things is pretty cautious for a total timescale of 14 years assuming the % allocation of the different funds is sensible so if you are happy with its performance so far then I see no reason not to continue. You have kept with it through the large stock market crash of 2007-2009 so that cant have frightened you too much.

pennyspounds

Jim_B wrote: »

Assuming that by "interest" you also mean capital gain and dividends on any money invested in shares, those are conflicting requirements and you will have to decide how much risk you're willing to take.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your reply. Is it worth keeping for a further 7 years. I want low risk and highest return possible.

Thanks.

socrates

This is the up to date Portfolio Analysis with holding/weight percentage in red

I still have £2000 to spend - can anyone see any gaps?

Its growth over 15 years I am after

1 Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-U.K Equity Index GBP 19.0% Global

2 Aberdeen Asia Pacific Class A 16.0% Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

3 MFM Slater Growth Class A 13.9% UK All Companies

4 Vanguard Lifestrategy 100% Equity 11.9% Global

5 Vanguard Lifestrategy 60% Equity 10.8% Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares

6 Cazenove UK Smaller Companies Class B 10.6% UK Smaller Companies

7 Standard Life Investments UK Equity Unconstrained Class R 5.3% UK All Companies

8 Newton Asian Income GBP Inc Shares 4.8% Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

9 First State Asia Pacific Leaders Class A 4.7% Asia Pacific Excluding Japan

10 Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% Equity 3.0% Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares

bowlhead99

pennyspounds wrote: »

I just want my money to be as safe as possible and make as much interest as it can. ?

pennyspounds wrote: »

I want low risk and highest return possible.

Did you read posts 122 and 123? The highest return possible comes with the highest risk possible. The lowest risk possible delivers pretty much the lowest return possible.

If you put the money in cash, it would be covered by FSCS insurance, and by some measures it would have the lowest risk possible, almost nil. Of course this 'low risk' disregards inflation and whatever goal you actually have to make money off your investment.

Are you looking to have the lowest risk possible (savings) and get the best return for that? See the savings account comparisons elsewhere on this site. Or, are you looking for the highest return possible (100%+ annual investment return in the good years) and the lowest risk for that? An emerging markets fund is lower risk than shares in a single biotech company, and could top 100% return, but still might not outperform the biotech company in a really good year when it quadruples in price.

Perhaps tell us:
What is it you don't like about the existing investment? Is it too volatile (might swing up or down a large amount in a year)? Or is it not averaging a high enough return (in which you might actually need a more volatile and risky investment)? Generally higher income funds, like you have a couple of, have done quite well in recent years (after obviously losing quite a bit in 2007/8 to early 2009, along with other equity-based funds).

What is it you actually need/want from your investment? Hint: do not simply repeat that you want the money to be lowest risk possible and the highest return possible. We heard you and we get it. But no investment has the highest return in the market while simultaneously having the lowest risk. In case of emergency, how much could you afford the investment to be down, from today's prices, at some point over the next 7 years?

bowlhead99

socrates wrote: »

This is the up to date Portfolio Analysis with holding/weight percentage in red

I still have £2000 to spend - can anyone see any gaps?

Its growth over 15 years I am after

While a 15 year horizon gives plenty of opportunity for equities growth, the fact that some of the developed equity markets (including UK where you've focussed some of your holdings, and US which is a large part of the global ex-UK indexes) are at all-time highs would probably lead me to put something in assets which are not so strongly correlated with equity markets.

Your Vanguard funds together give you about 5% in bonds and that's it? Some bonds, real estate, commodities etc would widen your investment up rather than just picking more equities funds for your next 2k. Also your emerging markets exposure, beyond a small amount in the Lifestrategies, is purely weighted to AsiaPacific and not to Latin America, South Africa, Russia or elsewhere in developing economies or frontier markets... This might be personal preference but it doesn't come off as beautifully balanced.

Finally I'm not convinced by using 3 Lifestrategy funds which give you a blended average of 80.5% rather than just buying the 80%. No real need to switch I suppose, just a bit strange and probably due to some historic quirk of your choices.

At the end of the day, all those funds could grow nicely over the 15 years. I do think some other non-equities would give you a store of wealth to allow you to switch into equities more wholeheartedly at some later market drop.

socrates

bowlhead99 wrote: »

While a 15 year horizon gives plenty of opportunity for equities growth, the fact that some of the developed equity markets (including UK where you've focussed some of your holdings, and US which is a large part of the global ex-UK indexes) are at all-time highs would probably lead me to put something in assets which are not so strongly correlated with equity markets.

Your Vanguard funds together give you about 5% in bonds and that's it? Some bonds, real estate, commodities etc would widen your investment up rather than just picking more equities funds for your next 2k. Also your emerging markets exposure, beyond a small amount in the Lifestrategies, is purely weighted to AsiaPacific and not to Latin America, South Africa, Russia or elsewhere in developing economies or frontier markets... This might be personal preference but it doesn't come off as beautifully balanced.

Finally I'm not convinced by using 3 Lifestrategy funds which give you a blended average of 80.5% rather than just buying the 80%. No real need to switch I suppose, just a bit strange and probably due to some historic quirk of your choices.

At the end of the day, all those funds could grow nicely over the 15 years. I do think some other non-equities would give you a store of wealth to allow you to switch into equities more wholeheartedly at some later market drop.

2k is from last years allowance I do have another 11k to spend from this years allowance

I am waiting for a deal to go through which means I can drip feed that in @ 1k per month - so I will take your advice and look at some other options

Your input is much appreciated

Doshwaster

pennyspounds wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Is it worth keeping for a further 7 years. I want low risk and highest return possible.

Don't we all?

If you find out a way of doing this then please let us all know.

IronWolf

Low risk/high return are rare but they are around.

I can tell you plenty of high risk/low return investments though