Hargreaves Lansdown

dunstonh

I do plan to invest into various index trackers every month, like the Vanguard Life Strategy 60 & 80, and a few others like that.

VLS are not index trackers. They are fettered multi-asset funds with underlying passive funds making up a managed strategy.

Zola.

Oops! I meant to include some like FTSE All Share Index,MSCI World Index and then mention Vanguard offerings.

Essentially, I aim to be spreading money out into a much wider net rather than individual companies etc.

Doshwaster

Zola. wrote: »

I do plan to invest into various index trackers every month, like the Vanguard Life Strategy 60 & 80, and a few others like that.

I am in it for the long haul..... 20 years or more. :beer:

Just how many are you thinking about? Most of the tracker funds will have a minimum monthly investment of £25 or £50 so you could easily find yourself spread too thinly and find it hard to keep track of everything.

Zola.

I plan to build up the Vanguard LS 80 for a while to get a couple of thousand in, and then look to others.

Would investing in LS 60 at a later time be a little unwise .... i.e. would I be buying more eggs from the the same basket, just with a different ratio ?

Mirno

Unless you're trying to emulate some sort of "DIY VLS 70" why would you want both VLS60 and VLS80?

bowlhead99

Zola. wrote: »

I plan to build up the Vanguard LS 80 for a while to get a couple of thousand in, and then look to others.

Would investing in LS 60 at a later time be a little unwise .... i.e. would I be buying more eggs from the the same basket, just with a different ratio ?

To answer your question, it isn't really 'unwise' as such to add a very similar fund with the lower equity component. Think of it this way - if VLS is generally fine for the first £2k (ie a multi asset diversified global fund achieving its exposure by using equity and bond trackers), it is just as fine for the next £2k after that , and the next £2k and the next £2k and probably the £40k after that!

If you merely want to decrease your % of equities versus bonds, but don't want to simply switch the whole of your fund for a 60%, then sure, add a bit of the 60% to the 80% and make your own 75%. But as you're probably not targeting a hyper-specific risk and volatility rating, and might be holding the thing for decades anyway, there is perhaps no need.

Usually if people are adding something to an existing core holding they would look to add something that is not represented well (or at all) in their core holding. Like for example, smaller companies (which you might not bother with when you're trying to build basic general exposure to markets) or perhaps direct real estate (as a less-correlated holding).

However, to start to make it more complex when you've only got £2k invested might just be jumping the gun. The odd tweak here or there on a small piece of your small portfolio makes little practical difference.

bigadaj

Zola. wrote: »

Oops! I meant to include some like FTSE All Share Index,MSCI World Index and then mention Vanguard offerings.

Essentially, I aim to be spreading money out into a much wider net rather than individual companies etc.

Lifestrategy includes investments from across the world. So there's no need to us ftse all share, Msci world index etc, the companies within those indexes are already represented Within the fund you've purchased.

Once you've built up a decent sum of a few thousand you might think about including some elements that vanguard doesn't include, such as emerging markets, property, commodities etc

HVe a look at the fund fact sheet for your vanguard fund and it'll tell you which if their funds you are invested in and what percentage, and if you want more detail you can look at how those funds are actually made up as well.

Zola.

Thanks for the replies, very useful info :beer: