Is a Vanguard Lifestrategy investment all you need

Zola.

This is a good thread, I am glad it sparked a debate.

I think the bottom line is: All investments are a form of gambling. Only put in what you are capable of losing without destroying your financial stability.

Personally, I will continue with VGLS80 for the long haul (I am only direct debiting £200 a month anyway), I believe in the product and the broad scope of what it covers.

Malthusian

Zola. wrote: »

I think the bottom line is: All investments are a form of gambling.

Not true. Investment has a positive expectation (unless you do something stupid you will make money on average). Gambling has a negative expectation (you will lose money on average). Put £10,000 in 1,000 shares and over a long (but unknown) time period you will make money. Put £10,000 in 1,000 slot machines and over a long (but unknown) time period you will lose the lot.

Zola.

Positive expectation, absolutely, which is why we invest.

Yet we don't know what tomorrow brings: Crashes, Trump, War etc.

To me its rolling the dice with much, much better odds if you are prepared to be patient, but you are still rolling a dice

jdw2000

BananaRepublic wrote: »

Words are cheap. What is your past record of timing the market?

I was joking.

BananaRepublic

Zola. wrote: »

I think the bottom line is: All investments are a form of gambling.

Not so. In the long term you will lose by placing bets on a fruit machine, or in a casino. Historically it has been shown that you will win big time by placing money into stock markets, as long as you diversify, invest for the long term, and avoid volatile stocks and/or funds. Investing is all about managing risk, it is quite different from gambling.

Zola. wrote: »

Only put in what you are capable of losing without destroying your financial stability.

Yes. Make sure you have access to enough ready cash to allow for unexpected events, to avoid having to crystallise (sell) your investments, and potentially lose money.

jdw2000

When you gamble and lose your money is gone.

When you buy shares and invest, and the shares go down in price, you still own the shares. They have not gone. You can wait for them to recover.


Two very different things.

JohnLondon

JohnLondon wrote: »

Do Hargreaves Lansdown not offer the L & G Multi Index funds? I've got an account with them but cannot see that these funds are available on their platform

Does anybody know if they are available at Hargreaves Lansdown?

chockydavid1983

For me, VLS was a decent start once I'd done some questionnaires to work out my attitude to risk. Now my pot is starting to get bigger and my knowledge better, I can reevaluate and maybe add more funds.

polagon

Yep I agree. Very similar for me. Once you get used to this type of investment, and you start reading up more on the different alternatives you will end up more experienced after time. And somewhat wealthier.

ChopperST

Linton wrote: »

VLS 100 has underperformed against the Fidelity World Index Fund every single calendar year since the Fidelity fund started, perhaps because of VLS's high UK %.

I have often wondered why this is and is the reason I don't hold any VLS, opting to use individual geographical trackers and re balancing every quarter to their broad market caps.

Does anybody have any idea why the UK weighting is so high versus its market capitalisation?