Investing, 28 y/o starting out with £3000

collingbone614

Hi,

I'm starting out with investing and I'm looking for some thoughts. I'm 28, employed, and have so far put £3000 into a LifeStrategy 80%. Looking at putting in £400 a month from here. This will likely rise in future. I went for the 80% because it matches my feel for risk and the kind of time-horizon that I'm looking at for retirement.

I'm considering getting a couple of extra funds to round out my LS 80%. I'm minded to go for a property tracker and a small-cap, since neither of these are covered in the LS. This has been on my mind after reading the Monevator blog and Tim Hale's Smarter Investing.

I'm looking at the BlackRock property tracker and the Aberforth Smaller Companies. They're here:

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/b/blackrock-glbl-propty-secs.-eq.-tracker-class-d-accumulation

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/a/aberforth-uk-small-companies-accumulation

Also, I want to "lifestyle" my portfolio over time. So this means getting another LS fund, e.g. the 60%, to shift funds from the 80%. As per this:

http://monevator.com/lifestyle-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds/

This is bothering me because I would end up with numerous funds, and if I'm going to do that I might aswell go the whole way and buy the individual funds as suggested in the Tim Hale book. I am wondering whether to sell my LS 80% and just get the individual funds suggested in the Tim Hale book.

I'm on the HL platform, which I realise will draw some criticism due to the cost of it. I understand this however I want to stick with them for now because I'm willing to pay out the extra so that I can get the great website etc.

So, my main question is:

Am I getting ahead of myself with buying other funds at this stage? Given that I only have £3k.

Any other thoughts and comments from anyone would be appreciated.