Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Morning! Lovely family visit yesterday, needed my rest afterwards, of course

Today, I've done a bit already: worked out the list of possible attractions nearby to our cottage, and now I'm started on listing my dosh and where its at - good news on my ethical investments stocks and shares isa, which has grown by 10% in the last year the issue will be about when and how much to switch out of equities, being as I'm a retired lady now

beanielou

Missed the fact that you are a retired lady:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

edinburgher

KC - good news on the ISA - although that might not be too spectacular compared to broad market returns? May I ask how you chose your ethical investment? What were the main criteria, negative ones (i.e. exclude drugs, petrol and guns) or positive ones (i.e. overweight in renewables, puppy cuddling startups etc.)?

I feel that our investments might go the way of a deathbed conversion - we may go 'ethical' once we retire/reach FI, but unlikely to do so beforehand.

That probably makes me a bit contrary as regards ethics...

Karmacat

beanielou wrote: »

Missed the fact that you are a retired lady:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Yep - the Friday before the bank holibob Honey, you sent me a card, you didn't miss it!

edinburgher wrote: »

KC - good news on the ISA - although that might not be too spectacular compared to broad market returns? May I ask how you chose your ethical investment? What were the main criteria, negative ones (i.e. exclude drugs, petrol and guns) or positive ones (i.e. overweight in renewables, puppy cuddling startups etc.)?

I feel that our investments might go the way of a deathbed conversion - we may go 'ethical' once we retire/reach FI, but unlikely to do so beforehand.

That probably makes me a bit contrary as regards ethics...

To be honest, Ed, I'm perpetually surprised that any investment makes money, between the charges and the way the indexes seesaw about

How I chose ... oh dear. Well, kittens were always going to be preferable to puppies

The two investments I have that are actually *labelled* as ethical - they date from the 1980s, when I had a really good salary and rented out my little flat because I lived with my oil-survey-vessel boyfriend, and there was very little choice, I think I probably just read the list of funds in The Sunday Times (no internet back then!) and eventually picked the funds in organisations that I'd heard of and that seemed fairly ethical in themselves. Which meant Standard Life and Friends Provident. So that turned out well

:eek::eek::eek:

And I've left them there since then

:eek: the shame. Don't get me kicked off mse _pale_:cool:

One is 100% stocks and shares, the other - I don't know, their online registration form keeps kicking me off. I need to downgrade the stocks and shares a bit, thats for sure, into some bonds or something.

Save

edinburgher

Do you have any DB pensions or other guaranteed sources of income beyond your state pension? If not, you're probably right re. dialling down the equities.

Haha - I know an oil-survey-vessel person

Karmacat

No, I don't Ed. In total I have:
this house, which is probably £300k.
the French apartment, which might be £80k, but not available for nearly 10 years, and no income in the meantime (charges are too high).
Possibly might be £60-£70k from my mum, assuming she spends all her savings but doesn't have to give up the house for residential care. Assumption might be very far from reality.
Savings and pensions - unstated, after the thrills and spills the other day about the EEEEEEEEEEE on rep. But just under two thirds counting all accounts, is in stocks and shares - that's too high for someone in my age and situation, isn't it.

Way too many accounts! So, actions:
- transfer funds, within the same pension companies, to less volatile assets than stocks and shares.
- cash isas - rationalise!
- there are still two accounts I haven't got most-recent-details for, but I'm losing the will to live.
- if I can bear to look at my current year's bank statements, I'll count up how much money came in from kindle and the Amazon Associates link.

Off out for a walk now - need to clear my head of all this stuff, it's been raining so I haven't stepped outside the door yet.

edinburgher

You should audit the fees that you are paying your current provider. If they are expensive, you should give serious thought to moving elsewhere. No reason to stay with the same firm unless you have guaranteed benefits for doing so, or preferential (low) rates.

Have you got an up-to-date state pension forecast? Because that's a pretty respectable asset/income stream as well

ZTD

edinburgher wrote: »

I feel that our investments might go the way of a deathbed conversion - we may go 'ethical' once we retire/reach FI, but unlikely to do so beforehand.

Be careful of "ethics". Another person's ethics are not likely to be your own.

I believe the head of the ethical CoOp bank made a series of payments keeping rent-boys off the streets...

Karmacat wrote: »

I need to downgrade the stocks and shares a bit, thats for sure, into some bonds or something.

Karmacat wrote: »

Assumption might be very far from reality.

Hold that thought...

(and now to take you out of order...;))

Karmacat wrote: »

- cash isas - rationalise!

Be careful - we are still operating under the EC rule of the "bail in". Losing (to choose a random number) 30% of a fifth of your money in a bail in of one of your ISA providers, is preferable to losing 30% from the total from your only ISA provider.

Karmacat wrote: »

But just under two thirds counting all accounts, is in stocks and shares - that's too high for someone in my age and situation, isn't it.

Is it? The "accepted wisdom" (aka dogma) is to move to bonds when you get older. But bonds in the 70's we called "certificates of confiscation" - so certainly that has not always been true. If interest rates move higher, then bond values will drop, and their yield will remain locked in. If they fall, then the reverse is true. Given that they are at 0.25% - are you expecting them to fall?

Interest rates are currently at the lowest of the 322 year history of the BoE. Toto...we ain't in Kansas any more.

Karmacat wrote: »

Way too many accounts! So, actions:
- transfer funds, within the same pension companies, to less volatile assets than stocks and shares.

Is volatility that bad for you? As a rhetorical question, would you prefer a guaranteed loss, so long as it was guaranteed?

Karmacat

edinburgher wrote: »

You should audit the fees that you are paying your current provider. If they are expensive, you should give serious thought to moving elsewhere. No reason to stay with the same firm unless you have guaranteed benefits for doing so, or preferential (low) rates.

I didn't check out the fees, grrr, you're right, I should have. Will do, though can't do it tomorrow, thats Foam Disposal Day.

Have you got an up-to-date state pension forecast? Because that's a pretty respectable asset/income stream as well

Yes, at least that's okay - even with the number of years necessary for a full pension, I qualify. That's 30, right - even with the odd six months off here and there for skiving or travelling, I've got 37 or so.

What I do need to find out about, from the horse's mouth, is whether I still need to pay NI, given that I'm not working and I have enough years. Though I'll be working as a writer, actually, so who knows? More of that soon.

Save

Karmacat

ZTD wrote: »

(and now to take you out of order...;))

You and me, Z, always out of order

Be careful - we are still operating under the EC rule of the "bail in". Losing (to choose a random number) 30% of a fifth of your money in a bail in of one of your ISA providers, is preferable to losing 30% from the total from your only ISA provider.

Oh! This was about transferring ISAs to have fewer providers. One is really small, like £1000, I might transfer that into one of the others. But you're right about the principle of "beware the bail in" - I still think the global economy's in trouble, and when a crash happens, it always happens quickly.

The "accepted wisdom" (aka dogma) is to move to bonds when you get older. But bonds in the 70's we called "certificates of confiscation" - so certainly that has not always been true. If interest rates move higher, then bond values will drop, and their yield will remain locked in. If they fall, then the reverse is true. Given that they are at 0.25% - are you expecting them to fall?

Interest rates are currently at the lowest of the 322 year history of the BoE. Toto...we ain't in Kansas any more.

I wasn't thinking of interest rates though I think they might actually drop a tiny bit lower, the odd negative interest rate is percolating through business accounts ... I know the US is desperate to raise interest rates, but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. I just think I have too high a percentage, almost two thirds, in stocks and shares - you know how far down the stock market can go in a recession - for me, needing that money now-and-in-the-near future, that could be disastrous, I can't afford to wait very long before I need to cash some of it in, at any price.

Is volatility that bad for you? As a rhetorical question, would you prefer a guaranteed loss, so long as it was guaranteed?

Yes, volatility could be that bad for me, if my stocks etc lose 30% of their value and I have to cash in some of them that year, and again the year after that.

Woul I prefer a guaranteed loss, rhetorically speaking? Dependent on the level of the loss, maybe, I hadn't thought in those terms :eek:

Not thinking about things seems to be my forte, which I didn't expect to be the case....

Save