Investment Help

agent_red

Hi, I am 26 and in fulltime employment and I'm looking at investing for the long term.

I used to hold a portfolio of HSBC tracker funds that approximated the world index and the L&G emerging markets fund. However since iii have changed their fee's structure and now charge to buy funds I have changed my strategy.

From January I have moved into two ETFs:

60% IShares MSCI World Inc (IWRD)
40% IShares MSCI AC Far East Ex-Japan (IFFF)

I figured by moving into just the 2 funds I can then pay in quarterly using the £20 charge for the trade fees.

I am looking for some advice. In order to mitigate some of the risk as it seems many markets are well overpriced just now I am looking at adding another fund or so. Blackrock Gold and General, Troy Trojan and Ruffer IT are what I'm looking at but I welcome any suggestions. Does this make sense? Does anyone have a better suggestion? Any help is greatly appreciated.

robtgossard

I must appreciate your keenness to invest and that too wisely. Surely just investing in one single source is not advisable especially with market being so erratic. I have taken help of a professional financial planner who has distributed my savings in various investments which seem lucrative after a thorough study, research and analysis. I would advise you the same. Good luck to you.

jimjames

robtgossard wrote: »

I must appreciate your keenness to invest and that too wisely. Surely just investing in one single source is not advisable especially with market being so erratic. I have taken help of a professional financial planner who has distributed my savings in various investments which seem lucrative after a thorough study, research and analysis. I would advise you the same. Good luck to you.

A world tracker isn't really a single source and although the company running it could go bust it is very unlikely to affect the value of the fund.

dunstonh

now I am looking at adding another fund or so. Blackrock Gold and General, Troy Trojan and Ruffer IT are what I'm looking at but I welcome any suggestions.

Your selection doesnt indicate they strategy or consistency. At least not one I can identify. What strategy are you following? It looks a little like fashion investing.

agent_red

Hi, wow now almost 2 years have passed and I still only have the 2 ETFs in the portfolio. I am still in for the long term 20+ years. Looking at it now the 3 funds I had mentioned didn't really make much sense or look like they would compliment what I already hold.

I like the idea I read on here of having 50% of each holding in the index and 50% in an IT that follows that index and would like to explore that further. eg 30% MSCI World Tracker and 30% World IT. Any suggestions of suitable ITs?

I am also considering an IT to gain a bit more UK exposure as it is rather small at the moment. Would there be much benefit from buying something like say Finsbury Growth and Income as opposed to just buying a FTSE100 tracker?

As for Bonds/Gilts I am happy with 100% equities at the moment with a view to phasing them in slowly after around 10 years.

Ryan_Futuristics

Are you still with iii and do they still have those fund charges? (That would probably be the first thing I dealt with - 'frictionless' dealing gives you a feeling of flexibility to experiment with strategies and take profits ... I think as long as you're at least 50-60% long and disciplined, you can play around a bit)

Combining active and passive is a great way to diversify - both tend to favour different market conditions

Right now the smart money seems to be in dividend-paying stocks - and on that my favourite global IT (which has had a bit of rough performance recently and is available on the cheap side) is Murray International (MYI) ... Over a 4.2% dividend, choppy short-term performance, very diversified, but over 10+ years the performance tends to shine, with great protection from market crashes and drawdowns

For growth I like The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) - it's a very different approach to Murray ... Where Murray focuses on value (which is one of the best long-term strategies), Scottish Mortgage focuses on the kind of huge global firms that are likely to dominate their markets and be solid long-term holdings

You could look further afield and look at emerging markets and Asia exposure, but what I like about those two ITs is that they'll do a pretty good job of giving you the right level of exposure to those regions as things change

And I'd also wait before adding bonds - we have uncertain interest rate rises on the way which could hurt bond funds ... May be a good few years before the market's got bonds reasonably priced again ... In the interim I'm using P2P platforms

agent_red

Thanks for the reply. I'm still with iii and the charges are still there, it is not an issue as I aim to trade a couple of times a quarter anyway.

I agree that frictionless dealing would be nice though wouldn't that apply to OEICs only as ITs incur sharedealing fees etc? I am not too keen on the OEIC direction due to higher fees.

Murray International does look a good choice, the global nature of it is ideal and would also increase my UK exposure. My only concern would be buying at that premium however I guess it wouldn't be an issue if buying in tranches over the long term. I will add to the shortlist for next quarter.