Critique my planned portfolio please

ColdIron

The Aberdeen EM Bond is quite new and I'm hoping for some benefit as an early adopter but it could go either way. You might want to check out M&G EM Bond, similar in many ways but more established plus I like M&G for fixed income

kidmugsy

Before you dash off in this direction I suggest that you consider the entirely different investment approach of Personal Assets Trust; read their quarterly reports and you'll see the that they saw the Global Credit Crisis coming and took intelligent action in good time. Active management of part of your wealth may be a good idea if the managers are as intelligent as that mob have proved themselves to be.
http://www.patplc.co.uk/Qreport.php

Shaolin_Monkey

Tiglath wrote: »

I haven't looked at ETFs - I don't know much about them. Worth considering for one or more of the above?

IMO, where near identical ETF's and conventional open ended funds are available, ETF's don't really offer anything extra for longer term investors who don't need to trade instantly. For example, I don't think iShares FTSE100 ETF offers anything over HSBC's FTSE100 tracker fund for most people. Costs are about the same, except you will usually pay a dealing charge for buying and selling ETF's and re-investing dividends. Of course there are some ETF's where no equivalent exists.

Totton

kidmugsy wrote: »

Before you dash off in this direction I suggest that you consider the entirely different investment approach of Personal Assets Trust; read their quarterly reports and you'll see the that they saw the Global Credit Crisis coming and took intelligent action in good time. Active management of part of your wealth may be a good idea if the managers are as intelligent as that mob have proved themselves to be.
http://www.patplc.co.uk/Qreport.php

I'd be a little careful as although I am a Personal Assets holder as well as Troy Income & Growth, the OP's post suggests seeking growth whereas PNL is primarily wealth preservation and then growth. Over the long term PNL under-performs the likes of Scottish Mortgage, it depends on investment horizon and objectives. I'm happy with PNL despite its poor performance of late, it is the nature of that particular beast :-)

Forever

I like the way you have spread your funds out for long term investing. It looks very balanced.

I would just say that there is now a Blackrock global property tracker so if you haven't already done so, it might be worth investigating alongside the FS global properties fund.

I don't actually hold many of your chosen funds so I can't comment on them. As for EM debt, I do hold the Threadneedle along with one other (Investec - so that I get the average results of two EM bond debt funds). The Threadneedle EM bond fund recently has been doing well.

Good luck with it OP!

Ark_Welder

Tiglath wrote: »

EM bonds - 5% - Threadneedle or Aberdeen EM Bonds?

A further consideration with any emerging markets bond fund - whether active or passive - is the currency breakdown of the underlying bonds. Some EM countries issue bonds in their own currency, others in hard currencies such as USD, GBP or EUR. And some funds might hedge their assets back into GBP.

So an EM fund can be about currency exposure as much as to the underlying bonds. Plus, some funds tend to stick more with sovereign issues rather than corporate.

e.g.

According to the latest factsheets accessed via Trustnet, Aberdeen EM has 79% exposure to GBP, Threadneedle has 92% exposure to USD. So there is a good chance that Aberdeen are currently hedging a large part of the portfolio back into GBP - you would need to check this out for yourself to confirm. So - at the moment - Threadneedle is also a play on the rate of exchange between GBP and USD, which might be something that is not expected.

Compare these with Investec EM Local Currency Debt where the largest exposure is 15% the the Malaysian Ringgit.

One of the problems that EM hard currency debt (i.e. denominated in USD etc) has had in the past is when USD has risen against the local currency: it has made servicing those bonds much harder, and was one of the issues that helped to propel the Asian financial crises in the 1990s.

But a problem that all types of EM debt has is that the size of the markets is much smaller than in the developed world. Combine that with excess QE cash out on the hunt for yield, and there is the potential for falls in the future [edit] once that hunt ends and turns, instead, into a withdrawal . Potential, rather than certainty. But something to bear in mind.

vickssinex

I'm of a similar age to the OP and have just put a lump sum into the 80% fund, and will transfer a portion of my cash ISA shortly. I did consider the 60% fund but then I thought that since this is money I know I can squirrel away for a long time, why not go for the riskier one. I don't see the need to diversify greatly further as the VLS already seems to have a decent asset spread, although I may put some of the cash in a smaller companies fund as well.

Tiglath

Just a quick question - how do you all track your portfolio? Online, home software, spreadsheets, other?

ColdIron

HL's website is pretty good for this sort of thing, have you registered yet?

Tiglath

Yes I have but this weekend I seem to be obsessed with my spreadsheet and playing with percentages Also flitting around Morningstar and Trustnet.