Vanguard Life Strategy

latecomer

stardust09 wrote: »

By 'change', I presume you mean you have to sell one VLS fund and buy another one? Just checking there's not a more simple way to do it that I don't know about!

Thanks.

The only way to change between the 2 Vanguard LS funds would be to sell one and buy the other. What mf78 is suggesting is that you could just buy more bonds and increase your % in bonds that way.

takesyourchances

mf78 wrote: »

I'm doing it similar, but the other way around. My Sipp (transferred from an old stakeholder pension) is a mix of funds and my S&S ISA is solely a VLS 80% Equity, being drip fed every month. Theres a lot to be said for the simple VLS approach. It cuts down on dealing fees for a start, when you otherwise would be investing into several funds.

As for bonds, you can either change the VLS % when you wish to, or just buy some bonds or bond funds alongside it. I'm hoping that at some point in the next 30 years bonds will be a better buy than they are now, and will put more into them then.

Yes very similar idea indeed just the other way around with the S&S ISA and SIPP. Yes I agree, looking over many options etc over the last few months and my Halifax Stakeholder I kept coming back to the Vanguard Lifestrategy, simple global spread and lower costs.

My Halifax Stakeholder is mostly made up of a FTSE All Share, Gilts etc and I think it suited my needs in my 20's for starting off low with amounts and getting a pension underway and also I just paid it and to be honest never paid much attention to what it was invested in as had other things on the go.

Now I am earning more and paying attention to investments for ahead and can put more in I am now thinking the pension side of things is better off in a VLS 80% than the present Halifax Stakeholder and now I have that SIPP underway as well the 15K transfer would give it a decent bump and I could change the rest of my payments over to it including my works.

I just don't feel that Halifax Stakeholder suits me anymore, were as it did in my 20's starting off then at £50 a month. I will have a look over the documents for transfer and employers contribution. If transferring over I might possibility add the Vanguard Global Small Cap tracker to the VLS 80%.

Also as you said there is the option of increasing additional bonds in the future, at nearly 34 now I would be happy to have a high equity exposure for a good length of time ahead.

block10

I also have VLS 80% in my SIPP & ISA portfolio. But regret not opting for VLS 100%.

With VLS 80, the 20% allocation to bonds doesnt make much sense in the current rate environment.

The VLS 100 has outperformed the VLS 80 by 5% in the current YTD period

gadgetmind

block10 wrote: »

I also have VLS 80% in my SIPP & ISA portfolio. But regret not opting for VLS 100%.

Do not have those regrets. Holding multiple assets is done for a very good reason and looking back and seeing a better allocation does no good at all. You need a portfolio that can weather whatever is thrown at it, and this can't be predicted.

stardust09

I'm not totally clear about how much of the VLS 60 is invested in the UK market. Is it a good idea to have a low cost tracker (such as the HSBC FTSE all-share) alongside the VLS or does the VLS already have enough weighting of this index in it already?

Sorry for what is probably a dumb question but I've looked at lots of VLS info and I'm still not much wiser!

Thanks.

black_taxi_2

when it comes to investing--no such thing as a dumb question---always ask

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-60-equity-accumulation/fund-analysis

black_taxi_2

the benchmark for the vanguard ftse uk equity is the ftse all-share index so you would be over lapping

Azza_1

stardust09 wrote: »

I'm not totally clear about how much of the VLS 60 is invested in the UK market. Is it a good idea to have a low cost tracker (such as the HSBC FTSE all-share) alongside the VLS or does the VLS already have enough weighting of this index in it already?

Sorry for what is probably a dumb question but I've looked at lots of VLS info and I'm still not much wiser!

Thanks.

You can download KIIDs for all their funds from their website.

https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/mvc/investments/mutualfunds

Saves you from having to search brokers to reference details in the future.

takesyourchances

black_taxi wrote: »

the benchmark for the vanguard ftse uk equity is the ftse all-share index so you would be over lapping

This is also part of the reason why I am looking at transferring my Halifax Stakeholder to my SIPP VLS 80% as most of the Stakeholder I have is FTSE All Share, with the VLS, I will get that type of exposure along with the rest of the global spread as well.

Looked at the transfer forms seems simple enough, I think I would swap my employers contribution first and when that starts to go in look to transfer the rest of the Stakeholder over and my own payments.

stardust09

Really helpful advice from everyone. Many thanks! I've got the V:LS 60, an emerging markets fund and the Vanguard Small Cap so looks like I'll be sticking with that trio in my portfolio. Am also working my way through the new Tim Hale book to improve my investing knowledge.