Vanguard Life Strategy

thechief1979

Thanks everyone for the advice. Think we're going to set up a monthly £25 d.d into 1st direct's 6% regular saver and revaluate the S&S isa in 12 months time when we have a bit more to invest.

ExMugPunter

Hi everybody,
I have been lurking around this thread for a while and would appreciate a few opinions.

Without going into the reasons why, I currently find myself with around £7500 in the 80% Life Strategy in a SIPP at HL. I am also paying into the teachers pension so this is in addition to that.
Again at Hargreaves Lansdown, I also have £3.5k in the 60% and around 1.5k in the 100% Life Strategy.
Whilst I am happy with my overall stocks/bond split ( of around 25%) I am beginning to think I have unnecessary duplication in several areas and almost no exposure to small caps, property or commodities.

I have a nagging idea that I would be better to switch the 100% LS to the Vanguard Global Small Cap. This would keep my bond/stocks ratio but also increase my exposure to Small Cap Stocks. I am aware that Small caps are more volatile, but am more than prepared to accept that in the hope for a slightly better return.

As the amount of money is only small (around 13k) I dont want to spread myself too thin and pay unnecessary charges. I know its only £2 per months per fund, but even so, that is why we use Index's isn't it?

I am pretty sure I am going to do it, but would appreciate any opinions.

stardust09

ExMugPunter wrote: »

Hi everybody,
Without going into the reasons why, I currently find myself with around £7500 in the 80% Life Strategy in a SIPP at HL. I am also paying into the teachers pension so this is in addition to that.

Again at Hargreaves Lansdown, I also have £3.5k in the 60% and around 1.5k in the 100% Life Strategy.
Whilst I am happy with my overall stocks/bond split ( of around 25%) I am beginning to think I have unnecessary duplication in several areas and almost no exposure to small caps, property or commodities.

I have a nagging idea that I would be better to switch the 100% LS to the Vanguard Global Small Cap. This would keep my bond/stocks ratio but also increase my exposure to Small Cap Stocks. I am aware that Small caps are more volatile, but am more than prepared to accept that in the hope for a slightly better return.

As the amount of money is only small (around 13k) I dont want to spread myself too thin and pay unnecessary charges. I know its only £2 per months per fund, but even so, that is why we use Index's isn't it?

I am pretty sure I am going to do it, but would appreciate any opinions.

I'm not at all financially savvy but am not sure of the benefit of having three VLS funds when two of them have such small amounts in them, especially as you're paying the £2 platform fee for each one. I can understand you want one in a SIPP and one outside though.

I agree that it sounds a good idea to move the 100% one to the VLS Global Small cap fund as that gives you more variety in your portfolio. I've got a VLS 60, VLS Global Small Cap and an emerging markets fund in my small S&S isa portfolio and that's what I'm developing.

I considered property and commodities too as this was suggested on another website, but the majority of things I've read about them don't make them sound a good long-term investment. I decided that investing money in those areas was too much of a gamble for me but small caps offer a spread of investments, which suits me.

Good luck!

ExMugPunter

stardust09 wrote: »

I'm not at all financially savvy but am not sure of the benefit of having three VLS funds when two of them have such small amounts in them, especially as you're paying the £2 platform fee for each one. I can understand you want one in a SIPP and one outside though.

I agree that it sounds a good idea to move the 100% one to the VLS Global Small cap fund as that gives you more variety in your portfolio. I've got a VLS 60, VLS Global Small Cap and an emerging markets fund in my small S&S isa portfolio and that's what I'm developing.

I considered property and commodities too as this was suggested on another website, but the majority of things I've read about them don't make them sound a good long-term investment. I decided that investing money in those areas was too much of a gamble for me but small caps offer a spread of investments, which suits me.

Good luck!

Thanks for reply.

Yes, it was a mistake to have both the 60% and 100% together in the ISA. I bought the 60%, then wanted to reduce the bond holding so I bought the 100% to dilute the bonds. It made sense to me at the time!!

However, I know that I need to change it and I guess its not the biggest mistake to make. I like your plan of a 60% LS, Global Small cap and Emerging Market. But I think I will stick to the 60% and small cap untill the pot gets a lot bigger. I am currently paying in £200 per months so that will take a while!

At least I seem to be heading in the right direction, if only at tortoise pace.

d4v34

Hi,
I have a sum in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 Accumulation under my S&S ISA wrapper with HL.
I'm looking to be invested with this for the long term 10 - 15+ years adding my entire ISA allowance each year.
I started investing earlier in the year when the price was around the £119 mark, now it's up at £125 but more importantly the market is doing quite well at the moment.

Obviously this is good for my investment but I have a sum sitting as cash on account in HL waiting to be invested.
Ideally this will be put in this year to benefit from the accumulation in April/May but it would mean a monthly investment of several thousand to meet the deadline.
So I have a couple of questions for you.

Since the fund is a tracker and that the market is riding quite high at the moment I'm expecting it to fall, so apart from the profit or loss made as the market fluctuates does the investor have to wait until the accumulation is processed in
April/May to make any money?

How exactly does the accumulation work? I have searched for the answer but I cannot get a definitive clear picture
of what to expect.

I understand that it's time in the market not timing the market that counts. I'm quite prepared to weather the storm for the long term gain.
I'm also aware that my purchase of Tim Hale's book is painfully overdue but I thought I'd ask anyway, someone else may benefit.

Thanks

d4v34

How accumulation funds work:

http://monevator.com/income-units-versus-accumulation-units-difference/

d4v34 wrote: »

Hi,
I have a sum in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 Accumulation under my S&S ISA wrapper with HL.
I'm looking to be invested with this for the long term 10 - 15+ years adding my entire ISA allowance each year.
I started investing earlier in the year when the price was around the £119 mark, now it's up at £125 but more importantly the market is doing quite well at the moment.

Obviously this is good for my investment but I have a sum sitting as cash on account in HL waiting to be invested.
Ideally this will be put in this year to benefit from the accumulation in April/May but it would mean a monthly investment of several thousand to meet the deadline.
So I have a couple of questions for you.

Since the fund is a tracker and that the market is riding quite high at the moment I'm expecting it to fall, so apart from the profit or loss made as the market fluctuates does the investor have to wait until the accumulation is processed in
April/May to make any money?

How exactly does the accumulation work? I have searched for the answer but I cannot get a definitive clear picture
of what to expect.

I understand that it's time in the market not timing the market that counts. I'm quite prepared to weather the storm for the long term gain.
I'm also aware that my purchase of Tim Hale's book is painfully overdue but I thought I'd ask anyway, someone else may benefit.

Thanks

minimumcost

Me and my partner have 2 ISA portfolios and a SIPP in tracker funds with Cavendish. The asset allocations is similar to VLS 80. As far as it can ascertain the he total cost (annual management plus TER) is around £7k per year on £700k(ish) of investment. If I transfer it all into 3 x VLS 80 funds through HL the costs come down to less that £2k per year. There are also initial charges of around £1500.

Compounded over 10 years that's a huge difference in performance. Am I missing something? Am I taking a risk in putting all my investments in Vanguard?

Caprylate

I'm thinking of setting up a Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% accumulation fund (age 23). I would want it to be in an S&S ISA.

This will be my first S&S ISA and I can deposit maybe a few hundred pounds into it and afterwards have a monthly direct debit for at least £50, though could easily double it and go with a £100 each month.

Would HL be the best for that scenario? £2 a month charge seems quite steep a percentage when it won't be a large sum.

The other option is just to hold off until the new tax year and transfer my cash ISA from this year into an S&S ISA, if TD allow it, I could transfer enough to get over the £5,100 figure which I think reduces the charges etc?

black_taxi_2

I would keep cash isa as emergency fund/savings

As regular monthly savings into vanguard fund grow,the platform fee as a percentage will lower.

your young,get rich slowly

black_taxi_2

here's a good forum on vanguard,indexing

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php