My portfolio and future plans - some advice

KP24

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback. Having thought through this, i think i have perhaps gone for too similar funds (fundsmith/SMT and Vanguard). The original aim was to look for international exposure but these 3 are heavily weighted towards the US/UK and don't have enough around India/Japan where i would really like some exposure.

The shares were just down to individual preferences/companies i thought will do well.

The tracker - Because i wanted something a bit broader than just the few shares i owned.

So i'm a bit lost really. If i ditch one of the funds, which should it be? Or should i just keep them because the performance (particularly Fundsmith) has been very good for me.

Thanks

cashbackproblems

bigadaj wrote: »

It may be sensible in theory but in the vast majority of real life cases it just indicates someone who has cobbled together a range of punts with little thought.

You've slightly dented your argument immediately by stating that you can hold the ftse 100 and individual comoany shares, restricting your investments to 5% or so of global equity and a historically poorly performing index is unlikely to provide optimum performance.

Obviously im not saying only to hold a uk ftse tracker, its just if he wants uk exposure

I personally have no uk funds all global

bostonerimus

The OP is a great example of someone with no strategy. What's the plan if there is a 50% drop in the market, why the fixation on Japan and India?

I'd either put everything into VLS60 or buy a Global Equity and a Global Bond tracker and rebalance........you could even buy a little of an asian tracker, but I wouldn't bother.

AnotherJoe

KP24 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for the feedback. Having thought through this, i think i have perhaps gone for too similar funds (fundsmith/SMT and Vanguard). The original aim was to look for international exposure but these 3 are heavily weighted towards the US/UK and don't have enough around India/Japan where i would really like some exposure.

The shares were just down to individual preferences/companies i thought will do well.

The tracker - Because i wanted something a bit broader than just the few shares i owned.

So i'm a bit lost really. If i ditch one of the funds, which should it be? Or should i just keep them because the performance (particularly Fundsmith) has been very good for me.

Thanks

I don't think they are similar at all. FS is consumer, SMT is tech, Vanguard is a tracker with no conviction

Also FS and SMT are no particularly US biased as a matter of conviction, they are biased as a matter of outcome. So it may change in future.

To me the issue with your portfolio is (a) far too many components given its size, and (b) it's too hands on if you want to have something you can forget about, which was one of your requirements. Something that hasn't been discussed in this thread.

Because with all those individual shares, I'd see the need to be selling and buying some of those companies over the next 5-10 years. Fair enough if you want to do that but I read your post as saying you thought this would be your portfolio for the next ten years or so and that doesn't fit with a bunch of individual company shares. That fits with a small number (might be one) of trackers, perhaps in your case either one global tracker, or three - one global, one India, one Japan. Then leave well alone

If you picked the latter three fund option, I'd say trackers for global and Japan since they are well established, and an active fund for India.

EDIT: or since you seem to really like FS and SMT a compromise might be
Fundsmith
SMT
Global
India
Japan

Dump everything else, you'll be selling them at some point anyway. Then this is a portfolio you can leave, perhaps just every couple of years rebalance it.

OldMusicGuy

KP24 wrote: »

The shares were just down to individual preferences/companies i thought will do well.

This is the flaw in your strategy IMO. You are just selecting stuff randomly here and with a small portfolio that is putting much higher risk in your portfolio. I am not an expert investor but I am someone that understands finance and I do not have the time or knowledge to analyse the financials of individual companies to make informed stock picks. If you are doing it just on "individual preference" you might as well just throw darts at a board. Fun, but not what I would want to base my investment decisions on.

Isn't the answer in the performance of your portfolio so far? Fundsmith and the tracker have done best. Why not spread your risk by selecting multi-asset passive funds that have the balance of investments in the sectors/regions you want?

What I have done is split my portfolio (which is pretty big btw) between actively managed and passive funds. Rather than pick my own stocks, I have invested in a managed fund which is focused on dividend paying stocks. I am paying higher charges for that fund but my logic is I am paying the experts to do the stock picking.