Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 acc ...plus Blackrock or others?

cuthbertlilly

Evening MSErs,

I have committed £500 lump sum , then £50 a month to VLS80 acc with CSD.

Have been toying with the idea of running another £50 a month Blackrock Consensus 35 or 60,.... Or adding a few hundred pounds to 2/3 side funds.

any thoughts? Or is anyone doing similar? Or is just 1 vls80 better ?

Linton

The VLS80 fund manager has decided that the fund should be allocated to the geographic areas in particular %s. As you have bought the fund presumably you agree with those %s. Why would you then want to buy another broad fund with different %s?

If you want to buy something different you should look at what the VLS80 fund doesnt invest in, or doesnt invest in enough to your satisfaction and buy niche funds to fill the gap.

However, whilst your investments are relatively small (I assume you havent been putting £600/year away for 30 years!) it wont make a lot of difference so I would see adding different funds to be more useful as an education than financially.

SomeUser

The VLS funds are popular on here. Personally I prefer something like the L&G international tracker because it follows an established benchmark, includes a wide range of companies in something like 100 countries, but it does have limitations. It doesn't include UK and it doesn't include bonds.

The VLS funds have their own benchmark, developed by Vanguard. That puts me off slightly, however if you want a diversified, "set it and forget it fund" it's not a bad option.

cuthbertlilly

SomeUser wrote: »

The VLS funds are popular on here. Personally I prefer something like the L&G international tracker because it follows an established benchmark, includes a wide range of companies in something like 100 countries, but it does have limitations. It doesn't include UK and it doesn't include bonds.

The VLS funds have their own benchmark, developed by Vanguard. That puts me off slightly, however if you want a diversified, "set it and forget it fund" it's not a bad option.

Cheers. I guess I'm a bit nervous about going all-in to one fund, having spent years building up my 97k cash savings. Was thinking of putting more in stocks and shares isa, but not just vls80.
Thinking of putting a big chunk of my 97k in to a flat, which would be circa 110k to buy.
Maintained reasoning for looking at additions to vls80 is a desire to be slightly 'defensive' whilst putting more of my money in to S+South and not all in cash (high paying current accounts and Reg savers).

SomeUser

Buying a flat is a huge concentration of risk. If interest rates rise and house prices crash, your flat may take a while to recover its value.

The thing about the VLS is you're not putting all your money in one fund, technically, it's going across a number of underlying funds.

cuthbertlilly

SomeUser wrote: »

Buying a flat is a huge concentration of risk. If interest rates rise and house prices crash, your flat may take a while to recover its value.

The thing about the VLS is you're not putting all your money in one fund, technically, it's going across a number of underlying funds.

I've got £97k cash in total atm, so would be looking to almost purchase a flat outright.

However, it is a catch-22 on what to do with regards saving/investing etc. Therefore, I'm looking for others thoughts on whether to continue with high-paying current accounts but dip more in to VLS80 or other S&S??