Advice rebalancing portfolio

pt1188

bostonerimus wrote: »

My allocation is probably not good for the UK as I live in the USA;

Thanks for your revelation, I should have guessed the New England connection. I shall try to keep things as simple as you and resist the temptation to tinker and tweak my portfolio.

All your comments and suggestions gratefully received. It's helped me to focus on what I need to do. Sam's comment on the dollar sterling exchange also gives me something to reconsider - whether being overweight in U.K. is necessarily a bad thing.

bostonerimus

pt1188 wrote: »

Thanks for your revelation, I should have guessed the New England connection. I shall try to keep things as simple as you and resist the temptation to tinker and tweak my portfolio.

All your comments and suggestions gratefully received. It's helped me to focus on what I need to do. Sam's comment on the dollar sterling exchange also gives me something to reconsider - whether being overweight in U.K. is necessarily a bad thing.

I'm a bit of an evangelist for indexing, but whether you decide to do indexing, active or a combo of both I believe it's most important to understand what you own and to keep things simple enough to easily manage your portfolio.

darkidoe

bostonerimus wrote: »

Indeed.

My allocation is probably not good for the UK as I live in the USA; I'm also 56 and have been retired for 4 years. In marketable investments I have approximately 50% Vanguard Total US Stock Market, 25% Vanguard Total International Stock, and 25% Vanguard Total Bond Market. I also have a deferred annuity paying 4.75% interest that I started back in 1987 that I plan to pass on to my heirs, a defined benefit pension and a rental property. I will get state pensions from both the US and the UK. Given my diverse sources of retirement income I'm ok with 75% equities in the rest of my portfolio.

I like the simplicity of a "Vanguard/Bogle/Kroijer" approach and if I was in the UK I would probably use a global equity tracker and a global bond tracker.

I can see the similarities to Jlcollins's proposed approach to simplified investing from a US perspective. Just out of interest, what's your decumulation strategy? Are you managing to live off the dividends?

bostonerimus

My drawdown strategy has always been to have various income sources and to minimize withdrawals from my portfolio. So I bought a rental property about 20 years ago and now that it and my own home are paid off the rental income and my small defined benefit pension cover my expenses. I'm still reinvesting all the income and dividends from the portfolio and the gaol is to pass on a substantial estate to my heirs.

Audaxer

bostonerimus wrote: »

My drawdown strategy has always been to have various income sources and to minimize withdrawals from my portfolio. So I bought a rental property about 20 years ago and now that it and my own home are paid off the rental income and my small defined benefit pension cover my expenses. I'm still reinvesting all the income and dividends from the portfolio and the gaol is to pass on a substantial estate to my heirs.

Why not enjoy some of it yourself. I'm sure you will still have a substantial amount to pass on.

bostonerimus

Audaxer wrote: »

Why not enjoy some of it yourself. I'm sure you will still have a substantial amount to pass on.

I have more than enough income and did things like buying new furniture, a new car and putting a new roof on the house before I retired. I do make annual transfers from my DC accounts for tax planning purposes, but I don't need it for regular income and when US and UK old age pensions start that money will probably go straight into my investment account. I am now doing some estate planning and making gifts to heirs and charities

Audaxer

bostonerimus wrote: »

I have more than enough income and did things like buying new furniture, a new car and putting a new roof on the house before I retired. I do make annual transfers from my DC accounts for tax planning purposes, but I don't need it for regular income and when US and UK old age pensions start that money will probably go straight into my investment account. I am now doing some estate planning and making gifts to heirs and charities

I didn't know you could qualify for both US and UK old age pensions.

bowlhead99

Audaxer wrote: »

I didn't know you could qualify for both US and UK old age pensions.

Simply spend time making contributions under both systems, enough to qualify.

bostonerimus

Audaxer wrote: »

I didn't know you could qualify for both US and UK old age pensions.

If you become an expat you can choose to make voluntary NI contributions. When I moved to the US at age 25 I decided to make those contributions as part of my long term retirement planning. I wasn't sure if I'd return to the UK, but it seemed like a good idea to keep up my contributions. So now I have 35 years of NI and 20 years of US social security contributions and I'll get pensions from both countries. I think this shows that it's never too early to start saving and planning for retirement.