Vanguard Life Strategy

latecomer

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I hold it through another platform.

My lifestrategy 100%, bought first week of August is up 19.1% ; The global smallcap bought first week of December is up 20.8%. If you must do all your investing through index funds, I think a global smallcap one is worth having and a good complement to a Lifestrategy. Of course they are well correlated to each other and as of end of day today, both FTSE100 and DJIA are at fresh highs so I wouldn't recommend piling in with your life savings...

This is the one thing thats holding me back from getting started - I want to move £10-15k from my cash ISA and add a regular small monthly amount. I should just get started with the monthly amount as I understand the benefit of averaging but the lump sum worries me sufficiently that I would be buying in at a peak that I cant quite take the leap.

JohnRo

The dilemma is that some analysts are saying this market has all the signs of a sustained equity bull run especially as there is very little reason to hold bonds and if you're not in the equity market you'll miss out.

As with all things though it's about striking a balance you're happy with, and being honest with yourself about what you can stand to "lose" in the short term. Longer term I think most agree a diversified portfolio of equities is definitely the place to be with a substantial part of your wealth.

I'm sitting on a chunk of cash in a savings account, waiting for the big market correction that probably won't happen, that's just treading water in terms of buying power and it irritates me but I'm not prepared to use it all on top of what I have already invested even though my gut tells me I should. All together I'm about 80% invested and about 20% cash deposits.

Robie

JohnRo wrote: »

Vanguard funds don't have a commission element, or perhaps a better way to describe it is that there is no component in any of the price you pay for Vanguard funds that includes a commission payment to anyone.

Consequently there is nothing for anyone to pass back, which is why the likes of HL (and others) charge a specific fee for holding them. It is also why Vanguard index tracking funds have (historically) had a much lower OCF (ongoing charges figure) than you would see elsewhere.

That's starting to change now with the RDR and clean index fund classes from the likes of Blackrock and HSBC who also remove any commission element from the price you pay to hold the fund.

** on second reading I assume you're referring just to Charles Stanley; the reason there is no explanation or detail from them about commission rebates, is because they don't have any funds available to purchase on their platform that pay any commission so there are no rebates to be had. All the funds they list are "clean" and a sight cheaper than the old commission paying varieties to boot.

Thanks for clearing that up.
Cheers
Robie

Robie

JohnRo wrote: »

The dilemma is that some analysts are saying this market has all the signs of a sustained equity bull run especially as there is very little reason to hold bonds and if you're not in the equity market you'll miss out.

As with all things though it's about striking a balance you're happy with, and being honest with yourself about what you can stand to "lose" in the short term. Longer term I think most agree a diversified portfolio of equities is definitely the place to be with a substantial part of your wealth.

I'm sitting on a chunk of cash in a savings account, waiting for the big market correction that probably won't happen, that's just treading water in terms of buying power and it irritates me but I'm not prepared to use it all on top of what I have already invested even though my gut tells me I should. All together I'm about 80% invested and about 20% cash deposits.

Same here. 70/30 split.

I am waiting for the market correction but that hasn't happened for while which I expected.

latecomer

Thanks guys - the problem I have is mental - I could afford to lose it all but I dont like losing anything in monetary terms . Once its invested I can deal with the fact that it goes up and down as I've had technology shares my entire working life , including in 2000-2001 when it all went pear shaped.

I know I should just do it - thinking about it since the end of last year has already meant missing out on the recent gains - but that just makes me think its more likely to have a correction...... arrggghhhhhhh

atush

There is no reason you can't drip feed in your lump sum over 6/12 months?

donniej

latecomer wrote: »

This is the one thing thats holding me back from getting started - I want to move £10-15k from my cash ISA and add a regular small monthly amount. I should just get started with the monthly amount as I understand the benefit of averaging but the lump sum worries me sufficiently that I would be buying in at a peak that I cant quite take the leap.

I had the same problem when I first started out - I kept worrying about investing at the wrong time, and so took a good 1-2 years longer getting started.

Looking back though, I think that was a mistake; if (like me) you're investing for the long term, the type of bump you'll get will likely ride out over the years - particularly as the amount you're investing now is likely to be small compared to the amount you'll be investing over your entire life.

This being said, setting the regular saver up now and moving the cash ISA over at a 'good time' doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Worth bearing in mind that moving the cash ISA is likely to take a while - 7 days to 4 weeks - which makes it difficult to timed investments with a transfer.

latecomer

atush wrote: »

There is no reason you can't drip feed in your lump sum over 6/12 months?

Very true and probably exactly what I should do. I need to look at doing regular partial transfers from my cash ISA although obviously need to get the S&S ISA account set up first.

donniej wrote: »

I had the same problem when I first started out - I kept worrying about investing at the wrong time, and so took a good 1-2 years longer getting started.

Looking back though, I think that was a mistake; if (like me) you're investing for the long term, the type of bump you'll get will likely ride out over the years - particularly as the amount you're investing now is likely to be small compared to the amount you'll be investing over your entire life.

My problem is that if I bring it over as a lump sum and there is a big correction it could take a long time to recover from that, before any gains could be seen. And while I appreciate its a long term investment, getting stuffed near the start of the process could negate an awful lot of steady long term growth.

JohnRo

Well, you can't have your cake and eat it

Glib responses aside, you either take the chance on further strong gains short term or you don't, a regular investment with a slightly larger amount than you might otherwise make, rather than a big lump, is one compromise or double up a regular contribution every two months or something like that.. the options are as complex as you want to make them I guess.

latecomer

I know, I know

I'm going to look at opening an account later on tonight as at least that would be a start. Thanks for the replies again folks