2nd opinions on funds

Mistermeaner

Hi

I have no debts, pension sorted emergency cash fund yada yada yada.

I've got a s+s isa for no particular reason, just investing for the long term (20+ years). Pay in 300/month. Total balance about 5k.

I was doing 100quid into each of:

- vls 80
- woodford equity income
- l+g multi 5

(Logic : mainly equity, bit of bond balance, home bias, some property, slightly spicy)

Thinking of adding 2 further funds and going 60quid each per month into them all (keeping above, just adding)

- l+g property feeder
- black rock consensus 85

(Logic: I like property at the moment, black rock adds variety and interest)

I'm lazy, don't look often and want just leave my dd and monthly instructions ticking along.


Random thoughts and comments appreciated

Only thought I had was whether to add a global small caps fund - I like small caps, think the catchall funds are underweight on these but dont know of any global fire and forget type small caps. Pointers appreciated.

bottleandahalf

You sure you need VLS and LG multi 5 AND Br Consensus? Just sound similar funds.
Vanguard have a global small cap fund.
I would forget the BR 85 and go for a Pacific/ Asia fund or something for value diversification.

dunstonh

L&G MI5 is lower risk than VLS80. Woodford equity income blows your UK equity exposure higher as well as increase the overall risk.

Thinking of adding 2 further funds and going 60quid each per month into them all (keeping above, just adding)

- l+g property feeder
- black rock consensus 85

L&G property is already in the L&G MI funds.

I'm lazy, don't look often and want just leave my dd and monthly instructions ticking along.

stick to multi-asset then.

Mistermeaner

Cheers - thank s for your input and thoughts, much appreciated. Playing devils advocate to help shape my own thinking......

Appreciate the l+g property fund is already in the multi: I like property at the moment and wanted to up my skew on property.

I've since come across the vanguard global small caps so will look at adding that, again to skew my small cap exposure.

Will consider adding a specific em fund but am kind of ok with em weighting in the multi assets as is.

Get the point re vls being like l+g also being like br consensus - maybe little benefit in one over the other but also what harm?

Appreciate woodford is an oddball; that's the spice - to be fair it's ticking along nicely vs the others at the moment.

Fyi In terms of overall exposure this s+s isa is less than 5% of my overall investments so I'm not getting too hung up it - I'm seeing it as a separate 'play' pot at least until it gets a bit bigger

masonic

Why not just drop VLS80 and stick with L&G? That way you'll have more exposure to property. The issue with the Woodford fund is that you're adding it into the multi assets which are already loaded up with UK trackers. Why do you need both?

If you want to set your own asset allocations, you'd be better off avoiding the multi-assets and picking your own individual index trackers. Otherwise it is very difficult to get the balance you desire without throwing off your allocation to some other sector as a consequence.

dunstonh

There is virtually any difference in returns between L&G MI5, MI6 or VLS80 since 2013. The differences are mainly linked to risk (VLS goes up more in growth periods and down more in negative periods). BRC85 is a long way behind

Seems to be that you are putting a lot of effort in for nothing and probably compromising your returns rather than enhancing them by having unstructured bolted on funds.

Playing_with_Fire_2

Based on your logic, these look decent choices. Monevator has a good article on cheap funds to get exposure to EM, small cap, etc.

Does your ISA provider have an option where you can see the allocation of your ISA overall (ie % UK, US, EM % Large, Small; not the share of funds)? This might help you see if you are getting the right mix of each fund and help when you come to rebalance.