Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

LydiaJ

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Yes, you describe a passive tracker.

I chose to invest in the Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 passive tracker. This basically means 80% equities and 20% more safe investments.

I invest via the Charles Stanley Direct platform as it was the cheapest for the amount I'd invested (<£9K); beyond that amount, it would have been cheaper to invest via a different platform (the monevator article you've had a link to, I think has more up to date figures).

The lower your attitude to risk and/or likelihood of having to sell up without waiting for an upturn in the market, the lower the proportion of equities (i.e. the Vantage 20 has the least amount of equities and the highest amount of safer - though probably lowest return - investments such as gilts).

Thank you. I can't answer for his attitude to risk, although I think he wants less risk now than when he was younger - life is more unpredictable when you get that old, I think. Anyway, I'll pass on what you say, and he can see what he thinks. So thank you.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd not want it on a phone. Far too small to see anything on that. I'd want any ebooks on the PC where I stand a slim chance of being able to read it

The one's from Herts Library insist on downloading to the pc and opening for reading and you have to close them to copy them to the e-reader. Don't think my reader can access them directly buy you probably could on a tablet via a browser.

Generali

LydiaJ wrote: »

Do any of the NP know anything about investing in passive tracker funds? Or can any NP tell me where to ask for further info? I don't want to venture onto the MSE investments board unless someone can first reassure me that they won't howl me down as a hopeless ignoramus (or ignorama??)

My dad, who is approaching 90, used to deal with all his own investments - buy & sell shares himself, and not bother with funds, whether managed or passive. However, when my mum got ill, he put all his investments in the hands of some kind of professional advisor, who has been dealing with all that sort of stuff for him while he was concentrating on looking after my mum as she deteriorated and died. Now he finds he is shelling out loads - for the stock broker who takes my dad's money in and out of various funds, and for the fund managers. He would prefer to put all his money in something simple that would track the market without having anybody managing it and charging fees. Am I right in thinking that this is called a passive tracker?? Or have I got that wrong? Would that be a good kind of thing for him to put his money into if he wants to minimise fees? And if so, how should he go about putting his money in? He's not looking for a major gamble, just something that will probably get returns that are a bit better than a cash savings account, accepting that that entails a bit more risk than a cash savings account too.

Thanks everyone.

If your Dad wants his wealth to rise and fall with the market plus dividends then yes, he should put his money into an index tracker. Assuming that he wants to follow the FTSE100 then I would suggest one of these:

https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/251795/ishares-ftse-100-ucits-etf-inc-fund?siteEntryPassthrough=true

or

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/etf/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=0P0000WA5M

Both have low expenses attached to them (0.07% for the ishares and 0.09% for the Vanguard), both appear to be genuinely invested into the underlying index rather than being synthetic products.

As these are ETFs you should be able to buy either one using a regular broker so can cut Mr Adviser out of the picture. FWIW, I suspect that the reason he is putting your Dad into and out of lots of products is because he is scalping your Dad for commissions.

Spirit_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

At least that one's got a low-tech method: loop some string round each of the two leg holes, drop knickers onto floor (while holding the two loops of string) .... shuffle feet into leg holes, pull on the string.

Now bras .... THERE'S a challenge!

Try it. Pretend the left side of your body is paralysed. So no feet shuffling. or fetching string, nor cutting it or threading. Keep up the experiment for at least 5 weeks. Until you can manage it, get a complete stranger to help you. As they will be there, and you will be unable to sit without support, get the stranger to wipe your bottom when you have been to the loo.

No cheating.

The bra experiment lasts for about 9 months

SingleSue

When my left shoulder is really bad, that is a fair bit of a challenge for knickers and bras (I've been known to go without if I really don't need to go out or go through the pain barrier and dislocate the shoulder to achieve the knickers/bra on status). To imagine trying to do it when you cannot move one side at all...well I can't, I know I wouldn't be able to.

It must be so demoralising, I feel humiliated enough when I have to ask one of the boys to oik my jeans off the end of my feet and then lift my legs onto the bed, let alone having to ask someone stranger or close to me to do the more personal things.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

The one's from Herts Library insist on downloading to the pc and opening for reading and you have to close them to copy them to the e-reader. Don't think my reader can access them directly buy you probably could on a tablet via a browser.

I have a tablet michaels and can do it directly on that. May be different for a device that is only an ereader though. The whole tablet revolution has pushed ereaders to one side v quickly.

michaels

vivatifosi wrote: »

I have a tablet michaels and can do it directly on that. May be different for a device that is only an ereader though. The whole tablet revolution has pushed ereaders to one side v quickly.

Being a luddite I feel that an ereader offers big advantages in terms of contrast without brightness and battery life.

SingleSue

I still use books, with paper...I can read other things electronically but books? Nope!

Far cheaper to drop a book, or have it banging about in a bag than an electronic device.

Generali

Well I saw the bloke about the TrakRs. He proposed selling them to me for A$26 a pop (plus tax). The TrackR website in the US will sell them to me for A$18 a piece for 10.

I have emailed him to ask whether he would like to reconsider he pricing structure. I did get a couple of sample though so it wasn't an entirely wasted journey.

Generali

Oh yes and I've been reading Too Big to Fail which contained the following which I think HAMISH might enjoy (I paraphrase):

A little Dutch boy was walking home one evening and he saw a hole in the dyke [stop it michaels] next to him with a little water coming through. He walked towards it but then remembered his lesson at school about moral hazard and thought to himself, 'the makers of the dyke should face the cost of their shoddy business practices in making a poor dyke and the people who built on a flood plain should be forced to suffer the consequences of such decision making' so he continued walking home.

The dyke broke that night, killing all the people living on the flood plain including the little boy.