Vanguard Life Strategy

takesyourchances

gadgetmind wrote: »

Yup, lots of flexibility *but* you can't hold individual corporate bonds or gilts with them.

Sl and Henderson are both good for small/micro cap but I prefer Investment Trusts (ITs) for these kinds of areas.

Regards my Euro timing, it played out well. I bought JEO and HEFT (both ITs) on big discounts during the depths of Eirozone melt down and then sold out for very tasty gains. Of course, they have continued to soar, but I have other European holdings so I was really just reducing my exposure.

Guess each platform has its up and down sides. The SL fund looks a decent coverage from looking over it all on the Global Small Cap. I looked at Henderson but couldn't find a global small cap on it, looked at investment trusts (ITs) for the first time tonight, checked both SL and Henderson but could'nt find a Global Small Cap one. I would need to learn more on IT's, but interesting.

Well done with your Euro timings, a crisis can be a good time to buy! I found that out with currencies, when a melt down happened or unrest etc happened the currency fell with it and I often fixed rates then and it paid off thankfully. If you sold for very tasty gains and they continued to soar, it is better to get out when you feel it is the time rather than hold for longer into the unknown and at the same time you were balancing your exposure, very good indeed.

At these early stages I am going to leave a main European holding a lone, I have had my fun with Eurozone over the last few years for a while

At the moment I worked out tonight that so far as I have two funds going the VLS 60% and the Aberdeen Asian Small Cap, my early portfolio stands at 85% VLS 60% and the Aberdeen Global Small Cap at 15%.

I put the amounts I have in so far into an online pie chart to get an idea. So not to far off running the Asian Small Cap fund at a 10% overall holding.

I feel a next strategy move could be adding the Standard Life Global Small Cap fund. This seems to be the best I have found so far on HL for a Global Small Cap exposure, which I think would be a nice diverse from the VLS Large Cap holdings.

I put some more figures into the online pie chart again and if I was to go for this Standard Life Global Small Cap in the new tax year, say in April after my next drip feed of £250 into VLS 60%, £50 to the Asian Small cap and possible £500 opening of a Standard Life Global Small cap a projected portfolio percentage in April could be around:

VLS 60% - 74%
Aberdeen Asian Small Cap - 14%
Standard Life Global Small Cap - 12%

A bit more adding over the months to the VLS 60% would reduce the overall percentage of side funds to towards 10% each in the portfolio to keep the VLS 60% as the core which could be increased again depending.

While it is early days, I am trying to form an early strategy for this.

Any thoughts on this anyone?

Best regards.

Carpi09

takesyourchances wrote: »

Guess each platform has its up and down sides. The SL fund looks a decent coverage from looking over it all on the Global Small Cap. I looked at Henderson but couldn't find a global small cap on it, looked at investment trusts (ITs) for the first time tonight, checked both SL and Henderson but could'nt find a Global Small Cap one. I would need to learn more on IT's, but interesting.

Well done with your Euro timings, a crisis can be a good time to buy! I found that out with currencies, when a melt down happened or unrest etc happened the currency fell with it and I often fixed rates then and it paid off thankfully. If you sold for very tasty gains and they continued to soar, it is better to get out when you feel it is the time rather than hold for longer into the unknown and at the same time you were balancing your exposure, very good indeed.

At these early stages I am going to leave a main European holding a lone, I have had my fun with Eurozone over the last few years for a while

At the moment I worked out tonight that so far as I have two funds going the VLS 60% and the Aberdeen Asian Small Cap, my early portfolio stands at 85% VLS 60% and the Aberdeen Global Small Cap at 15%.

I put the amounts I have in so far into an online pie chart to get an idea. So not to far off running the Asian Small Cap fund at a 10% overall holding.

I feel a next strategy move could be adding the Standard Life Global Small Cap fund. This seems to be the best I have found so far on HL for a Global Small Cap exposure, which I think would be a nice diverse from the VLS Large Cap holdings.

I put some more figures into the online pie chart again and if I was to go for this Standard Life Global Small Cap in the new tax year, say in April after my next drip feed of £250 into VLS 60%, £50 to the Asian Small cap and possible £500 opening of a Standard Life Global Small cap a projected portfolio percentage in April could be around:

VLS 60% - 74%
Aberdeen Asian Small Cap - 14%
Standard Life Global Small Cap - 12%

A bit more adding over the months to the VLS 60% would reduce the overall percentage of side funds to towards 10% each in the portfolio to keep the VLS 60% as the core which could be increased again depending.

While it is early days, I am trying to form an early strategy for this.

Any thoughts on this anyone?

Best regards.

I like your thinking, I was also looking at those two extra funds but also i keep getting drawn to the LionTrust Special Situations fund. There is something about it that is shouting at me to fund it!

Would be good to get thoughts from a experienced investor though to explain if this route makes sense.

I have already used my limit for this tax year but come April, I think I will be adding a few other funds.

snowcat53

Just to ask if you have looked at other Global smaller company funds/ITs before jumping in to Standard Life? Was looking at F&C Global smaller companies Investment Trust recently and this looks a good performer, with lower charges too (1.08% cf 1.82%) .
http://www.fctr.co.uk/fandc-global-smaller-companies-trust/
See comparison below.
As always though DYOR.

takesyourchances

Carpi09 wrote: »

I like your thinking, I was also looking at those two extra funds but also i keep getting drawn to the LionTrust Special Situations fund. There is something about it that is shouting at me to fund it!

Would be good to get thoughts from a experienced investor though to explain if this route makes sense.

I have already used my limit for this tax year but come April, I think I will be adding a few other funds.

Thanks! While the general holding of side funds was in my head, the portfolio holdings became much more clearer when you actually see them broken into percentages over all and it became more thoughtful.

The last few days the Aberdeen Asian Small Cap fund has been doing really well, it will be an interesting watch in the long run, I am aware it could quickly go the other way and then go back up again etc etc.

I am going to print the holdings out as well of the funds and look over them with the possible Global Small Cap fund and maybe keep them in a file so I can refer to them off the site.

The LionTrust Special Situations fund your looking at looks to have performed very well in the graph, some reason on HL's site the holding data did not come up so could not see it fully. Will check again.

April is not that far away really for a new tax year and you can look at other options etc

Best regards.

takesyourchances

snowcat53 wrote: »

Just to ask if you have looked at other Global smaller company funds/ITs before jumping in to Standard Life? Was looking at F&C Global smaller companies Investment Trust recently and this looks a good performer, with lower charges too (1.08% cf 1.82%) .
http://www.fctr.co.uk/fandc-global-smaller-companies-trust/
See comparison below.
As always though DYOR.

Thanks for the information, my S&S ISA is with HL, I had difficulties locating a Global Small Cap fund on it and after searching I found the Standard Life and the holding areas and countries seem to diverse well in the areas I was thinking of against my VLS 60% Fund.

I also looked at the Vanguard Global Small Cap, but I cannot get it in my S&S ISA on HL.

I checked there and could not find the F&C Global smaller companies Investment Trust on HL's site, I looked at it on another site and it does seem to be good!

IT's, I looked after gadgetmind mentioned them, but again couldn't find the area when checking HL. I am starting to understand trackers and funds now, the IT I never looked at until tonight.

Thanks.

Best regards.

westy22

I checked there and could not find the F&C Global smaller companies Investment Trust on HL's site, I looked at it on another site and it does seem to be good!

The ticker is FCS and it can be found on HL at http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/f/f-and-c-global-smaller-companies-it-ord-25p

innovate

I wouldn't buy a thing from F&C, after the scandalous charges they added to their CTFs.

takesyourchances

Thanks for the link Westy on HL, I looked over it and the structure looks to be good for the small cap coverage. The IT is new to me so was interested to see how this was structured and bought etc. I see there is a £5.95 trade etc.

I was wondering how this would work on the idea of a monthly drip feed like the tracker and fund I have, the side funds to the VLS I would want to drip feed at lower monthly amounts at the moment of £50 to say £75 a month, am I correct in thinking that each purchase (Small or large) is a £5.95 trading fee? ....I am not sure how the drip feeding principle I would like to do would apply to an IT so excuse me on this

Would the Standard Life Global Small Cap be more set up towards the monthly drip feeding process etc?

The F&C Small Cap IT looks to have a long and steady growth, the Standard Life Global Small Cap although a year old looks to have risen well also, the trade fee threw me on the IT for the monthly drip feed plan.

While writing this, I just noticed Innovate's post there about F&C adding high charges to CTF's....food for thought...

If anyone can shed any light on the drip feed per month, is a tracker or fund better for this low monthly investing approach rather than an IT?

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards.

grey_gym_sock

an IT counts as a share, rather than a fund.

with HL, share dealing charges start at £11.95, only reducing when you have a larger number of deals - http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/share-dealing/dealing-charges

so regular purchases of share are rather expensive with HL - unlike funds, which don't have dealing charges.

some other providers offer regular dealing in shares for about £1.50 or £2. (but that's just to buy - it's usually more to sell.)

takesyourchances

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

an IT counts as a share, rather than a fund.

with HL, share dealing charges start at £11.95, only reducing when you have a larger number of deals - http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/share-dealing/dealing-charges

so regular purchases of share are rather expensive with HL - unlike funds, which don't have dealing charges.

some other providers offer regular dealing in shares for about £1.50 or £2. (but that's just to buy - it's usually more to sell.)

Thanks very much for clarifying this to me, it is appreciated.

I thought after looking over this IT this morning it was classed a share and that a dealing charge would be applied each time and trading costs of this type of share I was not sure of on HL so thank you. I looked at the costs on HL's site for shares deals in the link you provided and this is way to much for what I would be wanting to do

With a smallish opening amount and low monthly drip feed idea for a global small cap it seems that the IT would not be suited for this type of investing idea for me.

This brings me back then to the Standard Life Global Small Cap fund on HL looking the most suitable which I was thinking after looking over it all for the regular monthly drip feeding of lower amounts.

Good to learn a bit on IT's though, it seems that the tracker / funds are most suited to me at the moment.

Thanks again.

Best regards.