Advice for a dithering clueless dummy.

bostonerimus

Eco_Miser wrote: »

That's your decision.
SMT is not only an actively managed fund, or rather, Investment Trust(IT), it is a specialist niche product. As mentioned above, it has had very good returns recently, tripling over 5 years; the flip side is that it could lose 66% (returning to original value) over the next five years.

The VLS funds will be less volatile, especially the lower numbered ones, having increasing proportions in fixed interest securities.

Whatever you do, know why you are doing it (and not just because it was mentioned on an internet forum).

SMT is an actively managed closed end fund......as an investment trust it has to comply with some special rules. It has had very good returns over the last few years, but it also has the potential for high losses and will be significantly more volatile than a multi-asset fund made up of tracker like VLS60. I would not recommend SMT for a neophyte investor or every buy it myself. It has good recent returns, but that is just one criteria for why you'd include a fund in your portfolio and maybe not a particularly good one.