Hargreaves Lansdown "FTSE Global All Cap Index" or "Life Strategy 80%"?

solidpro

We've got £15k burning a hole. Can afford to lose it. Can afford to leave it there for 2 years +.... Which one would you go for pre-no deal brexit, pre-covid-winter and pre-USA elections?

Albermarle

Few points here:
Firstly these are not HL investments. HL is a like an investments supermarket and they offer these for sale but so do many other similar companies . 
Presume you mean Vanguard FTSE global all cap index and Vanguard Life strategy 80?
one would you go for pre-no deal brexit, pre-covid-winter and pre-USA elections? 
neither of these topics should influence your decision as you ( or me ) have no idea how each will influence the markets which by their nature are unpredictable.

eskbanker

It would be more typical to compare LifeStrategy 100 with the global all-cap, rather than the 80 variant, as that would be more analogous, both being entirely equities rather than bonds, etc - it would be normal to take a view about risk tolerance and capacity for loss before looking at specific products, rather than comparing two products at different risk levels.  The LifeStrategy range has a significant bias to the UK whereas the all-cap has a purer alignment to global market cap, and the latter also has a more significant small-cap content, hence the name.

However, neither of these (nor any other investment) would fit "Can afford to leave it there for 2 years +" - the absolute minimum you should consider is five years, but 7-10 would be better....

bowlhead99

eskbanker said:

However, neither of these (nor any other investment) would fit "Can afford to leave it there for 2 years +" - the absolute minimum you should consider is five years, but 7-10 would be better....

Well, they already said they "Could afford to lose it", so it doesn't really matter that they could also afford to leave it there 2 years or more.  Though if as they say, the money is just burning a hole and they can afford to lose it, either of the options seem a bit boring and don't really give them the opportunity to lose it.  Probably more fun to spend it on a trip to the casino, and then you don't need to wait 2+ years to find out if you lost it or made a bunch of money from it.

tel_

I have been pondering whether-or-not to trade my Vanguard LS 100 fund into the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap recently, so was intrigued to read the comments thus far on this particular post.

Apart from the greater UK exposure in the LS fund, and the greater small-cap for the All Cap fund, are there any fundamental factors to consider before changing to the All Cap fund?

I am tempted to change the fund as currently the LS 100 is only 1.48% up on last year, compared to the All-Cap's +5.91%. (Although past performance is not a reliable indicator etc).

Ongoing charge 0.22% compared to 0.23%, so not much in it.

Please feel free to add your thoughts. 

carry_on_saving2

You should never make an investment decision based on the last year's performance. To quote Warren Buffett, just looking at the price is not investing. In any event, both are global equity index funds. The only difference is VLS100 has a bit of home bias. Whether you want more exposure to the UK is upto you. The difference in smallcap exposure is negligible.
Common thoughts in the forum in the UK range from me "omg UK so cheap and undervalued buy buy buy" to "the UK is DONE, it's finished, were turning into Japan, get your money out, dead money walking value trap".
You'll have to make your own mind up 🤷‍♂️

solidpro

UK is dead for 5 years whilst we burn our regulations and sacrifice the lower income population on the bonfire of cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and unaffordable healthcare whilst working them to death in unsafe, underpaid workplaces for max. profit.

In the meantime I think the smart money is to invest money in global companies who are poised to make a killing on cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and amazing/expensive healthcare on a new market of 70m people, and use the money to retire to Peru where we will all surely live like kings on an amazing exchange rate with the peruvian peso.

We voted for it. It's the will of the people. Lets go (if you can afford it)!
"FTSE Global All Cap Index" it is!!

eskbanker

solidpro said:

UK is dead for 5 years whilst we burn our regulations and sacrifice the lower income population on the bonfire of cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and unaffordable healthcare whilst working them to death in unsafe, underpaid workplaces for max. profit.

In the meantime I think the smart money is to invest money in global companies who are poised to make a killing on cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and amazing/expensive healthcare on a new market of 70m people, and use the money to retire to Peru where we will all surely live like kings on an amazing exchange rate with the peruvian peso.

We voted for it. It's the will of the people. Lets go (if you can afford it)!
"FTSE Global All Cap Index" it is!!

If that's more than just bluster and bravado, and you genuinely feel you have enough knowledge and conviction to base an investment strategy on ignoring the UK and focusing on some specific sectors, then the global all-cap index fund won't be the way to deliver that....

carry_on_saving2

solidpro said:

UK is dead for 5 years whilst we burn our regulations and sacrifice the lower income population on the bonfire of cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and unaffordable healthcare whilst working them to death in unsafe, underpaid workplaces for max. profit.

In the meantime I think the smart money is to invest money in global companies who are poised to make a killing on cheap legal drugs, cancerous food and amazing/expensive healthcare on a new market of 70m people, and use the money to retire to Peru where we will all surely live like kings on an amazing exchange rate with the peruvian peso.

We voted for it. It's the will of the people. Lets go (if you can afford it)!
"FTSE Global All Cap Index" it is!!

That sounds like what happens about 5 years before one of those Daily Mail articles about people who retire to really obscure places with risky retirement portfolios and ended up having to come back to the UK to start working again.
That said, the global all cap is fine but I'm exploiting the UK pessimism shared by you and a lot of domestic investors to take a contrarian approach and buy up as much UK equity as I can while it's still on sale 🤷‍♂️

Johnnyboy11

Have a look at the Vanguard Developed World ex-UK Equity Index Fund. I hold this alongside VLS60 to end up with something nearer 'VLS70' with less UK bias.

eskbanker

Johnnyboy11 said:

Have a look at the Vanguard Developed World ex-UK Equity Index Fund. I hold this alongside VLS60 to end up with something nearer 'VLS70' with less UK bias.

Or for those wanting a multi-asset approach without a UK equity bias, buying one off the shelf from someone other than Vanguard is always an option!

https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/