IFA ongoing fee..Why pay?

Audaxer

Linton wrote: »

Were the income requirement from investments to be say 50% or more and include some essentials then the stress could be a significant problem. I certainly would not rule out paying for advice.

Linton, you seem to have more knowledge and experience than most on this forum, and have a good disciplined system. I am therefore surprised you would need to consider using an IFA even if your income requirement from your investments was 50% or more. I would have thought the added costs of an IFA would make it less likely that you meet your goals?

bostonerimus

LobsterMemory wrote: »

... should definitely...

Sorry, can't do quotes using the phone, but I stopped reading your post here. There's no such thing as 'definitely ' when it comes to investment. And that's the same for the previous post which claimed that success depends on the syllabus structure of a company's name

What works for one person doesn't mean that it'll work for everybody

I’ll double down on the statement that beginners should definitely start out simply.

bowlhead99

ZingPowZing wrote: »

I always start with the name. I look for a company with a strong attractive name; not keen on acronyms nor names that end on a weak stress. An example of a name with good connotations would be Disney. But there can be exceptions. Kodak. Liked the product and loved the name but the whole company tanked

I suppose people do a similar thing when they are about to watch the Grand National. Select the horse based on it having a clever, prestigious or attractive name, bonus if it comes from a good mum or dad. Sometimes this technique does pretty well. As with Kodak etc, there are exceptions of course - where the horse has a good name but you don't get enough of a win rate at long enough odds to make a decent profit. Or you lose all your money.

Certainly, you should not be burning the lamp, poring over charts, yields and "fundamentals" to try to second-guess which way a price will move. Go to the golf course while others figure out that stuff - and by others I mean market makers and brokers, not Financial Advisers.
The internet is chock full of financial news and 99% of it is hindsight, back-fitting reasons and juxtaposing events to explain why something that happened happened.

Yes, as with horse racing don't try to study the form guide and see which horses favour the ground, distance, handicap etc. Other people will have reviewed such 'fundamentals' and conspired to set the market price, and they all know more than you. As the price is fair (arbitrage ensures it), you just have to pick a good spread of runners. Six should do it.

Maybe a couple from UK/Ireland and a few more from the US so you can say you have got a reasonable mix of geographic backgrounds and have thus diversified away political, environmental, economic and regulatory risk to a satisfactory level. With the six choices you made out of literally tens of thousands. How can it fail!

I don't recognise my investment as "high-risk".

Yes, best leave that to the judgemental fools who think they know what's what on internet forums. They won't wish you luck, but don't worry, you won't need it as there's not much that could go wrong with your strategy.

.. Basically where I was in 2008: I had a portfolio of different stocks all over the wicket, half of which I never even liked the names of; so it was a very liberating day for me when I sold the lot.

Yes, lucky escape, good job you saw the error of your ways and decided from then onwards that you'd only accumulate investments in companies of which you liked the name...

. I did sell a quarter of my Apple holding just over a year ago for $180; it had declined from c $225 in three months. My rationale was that the stock was still up on the year (2018). The most important thing, for me, is the freedom to act when I feel I need to.

Freedom is good, no argument there. The freedom to make mistakes helps us learn, and if we will have sufficient capital after we make our mistakes, it doesn't hurt to make them

In your case you wanted to be in mega cap tech stocks that would produce a good long term return. Your exit rationale for a chunk of one of those stocks was that it had temporarily fallen 20% in only a quarter of a year but psychologically speaking you could call it a win because it was still up in the year. So you decided to sell at the temporary low point for 20% less than the price at which it was previously trading, and not hang on for the 50% more gains in the year that followed, only enjoying those gains on the remaining three quarters of your holdings.

It seems a funny quirk to add in to your otherwise bulletproof strategy of putting most of your wealth in six stocks issued by companies whose name you like, mostly headquartered near the Pacific coast of the US.

Still, economics and stock markets can be complicated and it takes all sorts to make the world go round -good luck with it.

bostonerimus

ZingPowZing wrote: »

I suppose I could hand control of my pension to fronty's ex-IFA for him to dilute my investment between a myriad of stocks and bonds in eighteen funds; I don't see how that would offer me protection or anything other than a feeling of helplessness if markets started to go seriously south.. Basically where I was in 2008: I had a portfolio of different stocks all over the wicket, half of which I never even liked the names of; so it was a very liberating day for me when I sold the lot. When I began to re-invest, it was with a clear strategy, I wanted to be in the tech mega-caps that did not and do not exist in the UK. Again, their spectacular gains through the intervening years give me a lot of tolerance to withstand a correction. I did sell a quarter of my Apple holding just over a year ago for $180; it had declined from c $225 in three months. My rationale was that the stock was still up on the year (2018). The most important thing, for me, is the freedom to act when I feel I need to.

I did say that IFAs could help to avoid big mistakes. If a friend came to me with this investment strategy today I'd probably try to convince them just to go with a US equity index or point them to an IFA and consider the 0.5% fee well spent...yep I think this strategy is that bad.

Zing...selling in 2008 is lucky to have found a way to recover from that mistake, but it all seems very risky to me.

dmelife

Choosing your investments based on whether you like the name. The OP is a satire account....right?
Jesus wept.

Linton

Audaxer wrote: »

Linton, you seem to have more knowledge and experience than most on this forum, and have a good disciplined system. I am therefore surprised you would need to consider using an IFA even if your income requirement from your investments was 50% or more. I would have thought the added costs of an IFA would make it less likely that you meet your goals?

If the cost of consulting an IFA, say 0.5% reduced return, made a serious difference in the likelihood of meeting ones objectives during retirement it would be good evidence that the plans were far too risky. During the accumulation phase higher risk can be managed as one can easily change objectives or contributions. Retirement is different, there are fewer options and the cost of stress is too high.

[Deleted User]

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I suppose people do a similar thing when they are about to watch the Grand National. Select the horse based on it having a clever, prestigious or attractive name,..extended analogy

A reasonable point at which to start..
"Tiger Roll," good strong name. But further analysis is recommended. What are the colours? Maroon with a white star - good, distinctive. What about form? Won last time. Another tick.

Alternatively, put your trust in Uncle Ifa, who claims to have backed every Grand National winner since the year dot. For a tiny commission, he will place a small bet on every horse in the field, all forty, with your money; thus ensuring your expectations are met, every time.
And see how that strategy works out for you over the years.

Albermarle

"Tiger Roll," good strong name. But further analysis is recommended. What are the colours? Maroon with a white star - good, distinctive. What about form? Won last time. Another tick.

Have you got any tips for Plumpton this afternoon ?;)

[Deleted User]

Albermarle wrote: »

Have you got any tips for Plumpton this afternoon ?;)

Take a brolly.

The above does not constitute advice.

[Deleted User]

To continue with bowlhead's Grand National simile:
Putting your trust in Uncle Ifa may be even more indulgent than you imagine:
It's not just that he divides all your money equally between forty horses, he may well trim your investment in those most likely to win as he "re-balances" your portfolio to reflect your "risk profile."