S&S ISA's; how has yours performed?

bri160356

It’s very easy to see how much one would have made in various cash IAS’s but is anyone willing to furnish ‘real’ figures on how their own personal S&S ISA’s have actually performed in recent times?

I heard several people wax-lyrical about how well their S&S ISA’s have done but if asked for specifics (i.e. Fund name, percentage increase, time-scales, charges etc) nothing ever seems to be forthcoming. They suddenly turn very coy (for whatever reason) or their ‘claims’ are little more than bluster........it’s hard to know which.

Anyone willing to reveal all and share the secret of their good (or bad!) fortune?

dunstonh

There are nearly 30,000 conventional investments to put in an ISA and a near infinite variation. Why not look at the published data on those?

vectistim

The 5 funds I drip fed into for the whole of the last calendar year their unit prices did the following:
1st State Glob Emer Mark -3%
Franklin Uk Mid +29%
Marlborough UK Micro +34%
Newton Asian Income -9%
Shroeder Balanced Managed +12%

I'm not sure that tells you a lot, except there's a much wider variety of results available than haggling over an extra 0.1% on a cash ISA.

With the higher ISA limit we have this year I'm now doing 8 - year to date they seem to be roughly within +/- 10%

bri160356

dunstonh wrote: »

There are nearly 30,000 conventional investments to put in an ISA and a near infinite variation. Why not look at the published data on those?

30,000!.... amazing; that wasn’t really the gist of my question, but thanks anyway.

BLB53

I think you are correct to be wary of some of the claims made as there is no way of verifying what comments are posted on discussion boards.

With the above in mind and to answer your question, I invest in a mixture of income investment trusts - City of London, Edinburgh, Temple Bar, Murray Intl. etc and also some higher yielding shares - Unilever, Reckitt, Sainsbury, Centrica etc

The income returns each year are fairly steady - around 4.5% rising with inflation or a little ahead. The capital returns fluctuate with the rise and fall of the markets but I try not to take a lot of notice as the investment is for the long term.

The total returns (income and capital gains combined) in recent years are:
2009 34%, 2010 14%, 2011 -3%, 2012 16%, 2013 15% and 2014 to date 4.5%. The average over the many years I have been investing is around 7%.

In contrast, my interest on cash savings with the Coventry have been gradually reducing over the same period from 3.5% in 2009 to currently 1.5%.

Archi_Bald

bri160356 wrote: »

30,000!.... amazing; that wasn’t really the gist of my question, but thanks anyway.

It will be more valuable if you look at the performance of available investment instruments than knowing which of the instruments people have chosen to be part of their ISAs. Also read some books and websites about investing so you can decide what you want in your portfolio and why. It is irrelevant what decisions other people have made / are making because they are not likely to have the same requirements as you have. It would be downright dangerous to just copy other people's portfolios.

bri160356

BLB53 wrote: »

I think you are correct to be wary of some of the claims made as there is no way of verifying what comments are posted on discussion boards.

With the above in mind and to answer your question, I invest in a mixture of income investment trusts - City of London, Edinburgh, Temple Bar, Murray Intl. etc and also some higher yielding shares - Unilever, Reckitt, Sainsbury, Centrica etc

The income returns each year are fairly steady - around 4.5% rising with inflation or a little ahead. The capital returns fluctuate with the rise and fall of the markets but I try not to take a lot of notice as the investment is for the long term.

The total returns (income and capital gains combined) in recent years are:
2009 34%, 2010 14%, 2011 -3%, 2012 16%, 2013 15% and 2014 to date 4.5%. The average over the many years I have been investing is around 7%.

In contrast, my interest on cash savings with the Coventry have been gradually reducing over the same period from 3.5% in 2009 to currently 1.5%.

Thank you so much for your very detailed and concise reply; your frankness is very refreshing.

P.S. my wife has just transferred her entire cash ISA pot from VirginMoney to the new Coventry ISA Reward account; 2.5% var with no penalties or notice reqd for withdrawals. Available to existing Coventry BS members who held a cash ISA at the end of 04.02.2013................sadly, I don’t qualify.

bri160356

Archi_Bald wrote: »

It will be more valuable if you look at the performance of available investment instruments than knowing which of the instruments people have chosen to be part of their ISAs. Also read some books and websites about investing so you can decide what you want in your portfolio and why. It is irrelevant what decisions other people have made / are making because they are not likely to have the same requirements as you have. It would be downright dangerous to just copy other people's portfolios.

Would it be dangerous to copy yours......if 'yes', then why?

ColdIron

bri160356 wrote: »

Would it be dangerous to copy yours......if 'yes', then why?

Well just to pick one scenario, if Archi was a young whipperspapper with a 40 year investment horizon a growth profile would be appropriate and it would have time to overcome the inevitable troughs. However if you were retiring and needed income to pay the bills, Archi's portfolio may be next to useless to you. Or vice versa

Archi_Bald

ColdIron wrote: »

Well just to pick one scenario, if Archi was a young whipperspapper with a 40 year investment horizon a growth profile would be appropriate and it would have time to overcome the inevitable troughs. However if you were retiring and needed income to pay the bills, Archi's portfolio may be next to useless to you. Or vice versa

Yep, just one of the many reasons why it is dangerous to try and copy someone else's portfolio. Probably the most dangerous reason is that someone who thinks copying a portfolio quite clearly is generally uninformed about investments and really shouldn't be investing. They have two basic options - to listen to experts such as dunstonh, or to learn the hard way.

bri160356

ColdIron wrote: »

Well just to pick one scenario, if Archi was a young whipperspapper with a 40 year investment horizon a growth profile would be appropriate and it would have time to overcome the inevitable troughs. However if you were retiring and needed income to pay the bills, Archi's portfolio may be next to useless to you. Or vice versa

Thanks for that; very informative.

With so many S&S ISA’s to choose from (30k according to dunstonh) would an independent FA always give each client a totally unique and individual portfolio, or do they have a set of favourite ISAs that could be tailored to suit several ‘generic groups’ of people?