Vanguard

whatstheplan

Without divulging anything you don't want to, folk on here can better advise if you give some background/context e.g. what are you essentially hoping to achieve by investing (goals), what age are you, when do you intend to retire, do you have other investments, a pension, roughly how much are you looking to invest, what's your attitude to risk, what responsibilities do you have e.g. family wise, do you have a mortgage, all that sort of stuff.

I've recently started investing and, given my goals and circumstances, I opted for the Vanguard LS100 fund as for me, holding 20% bonds didn't make much sense.  I put cash into my stocks and shares ISA at the tail end of tax year 20/21 and will put more in during 21/22.  I've decided to invest all of my 20/21 allocation into the LS100 fund and in parallel will continue to educate myself on other options.  I might then elect to invest my 21/22 allocation into something different or it might end up also going into the LS100 fund if I conclude that's best for me.

What you'll notice as you compare and contrast different funds from different brokers is there's often a degree of crossover i.e. they invest in some of the same companies so look out for that.  To me there's little point investing in two 'different' funds if a significant % of their investments are the same.

I would say don't be afraid to be quite open on here about investments and strategies you're interested in.  If it broadly makes sense people will reply accordingly, similarly if it doesn't make sense you'll be told, sometimes in no uncertain terms, however don't take it personally Example, I was contemplating investing 50% of my cash into an emerging markets fund, until I was advised the high majority of people never go above 10% exposure for a number of reasons.  Lesson learned.  I can then make a more informed choice from there.  However to advise, a bit more info on you is required.

I'd say if you're unsure about all this but want to put your money to work asap, you could do worse than Vanguard's LifeStrategy funds.  What you need to decide is what one's correct for you.  That gets your money working, you're exposed to various markets and if you decide x months/years down the line it's not a good fund for you, you can make the necessary changes.

Baoser

We have a similar background. Used to dabble in penny shares too on the iii forum. Got burnt several times and just had to write it off.

Nearly 2 decades ago now, my bank (Halifax) asked me in for a 'savings review'. Didn't know much about what I was doing so opted for a couple of products. I now know that they were investsments and not savings. I would have had those investments now for 20 years next year. In that time, I haven't added to them and they've nearly tripled in value. I was looking to add to them last tax year and it was only when I looked into them that I realised how much the fees were. Tripling my investments sounds like a good deal but they could have done better with lower fees.

So at the end of March I used my remaining ISA allowance and bought some funds from Vanguard into an ISA wrapper. Happy to say that I've already made £100 within one week. (It's so addictive that I keep checking my portfolio). I read somewhere active funds rarely do much better than tracker funds so I have 5 trackers in my ISA with low fees. I don't intend to cash them anytime soon and if they brew for another 20 years then so be it.

I can't remember who said it but 'time in the market is better than timing the market' or something to that effect.

Alexland

Baoser said:

Happy to say that I've already made £100 within one week.

It has been a very good week for equity investors.

[Deleted User]

whatstheplan said:

I've recently started investing and, given my goals and circumstances, I opted for the Vanguard LS100 fund as for me, holding 20% bonds didn't make much sense.  I put cash into my stocks and shares ISA at the tail end of tax year 20/21 and will put more in during 21/22.  I've decided to invest all of my 20/21 allocation into the LS100 fund and in parallel will continue to educate myself on other options.  I might then elect to invest my 21/22 allocation into something different or it might end up also going into the LS100 fund if I conclude that's best for me.

I am similar - opted for LS100 last year and it was a great decision. Can't comment on the other funds held by Vanguard but I did some research beforehand and Vanguard LS was very often praised. LS60 or LS80 might be preferable but I'm in it for the long haul (also, I had very little knowledge of investing but found LS to be easy to navigate. Good luck!

agent69

I have a Vanguard query and thought it best to add it on here, rather than start yet another Vanguard thread.

I am mostly invested in the LS funds, but also invested a small amount in 3 of their other funds. Recently I noticed that the amount of cash in my acount has increased. Is there any way of tracking where it came from?

dunstonh

Deleted_User said:

whatstheplan said:

I've recently started investing and, given my goals and circumstances, I opted for the Vanguard LS100 fund as for me, holding 20% bonds didn't make much sense.  I put cash into my stocks and shares ISA at the tail end of tax year 20/21 and will put more in during 21/22.  I've decided to invest all of my 20/21 allocation into the LS100 fund and in parallel will continue to educate myself on other options.  I might then elect to invest my 21/22 allocation into something different or it might end up also going into the LS100 fund if I conclude that's best for me.

I am similar - opted for LS100 last year and it was a great decision. Can't comment on the other funds held by Vanguard but I did some research beforehand and Vanguard LS was very often praised. LS60 or LS80 might be preferable but I'm in it for the long haul (also, I had very little knowledge of investing but found LS to be easy to navigate. Good luck!

Although VLS100 is the weakest of the VLS range. It is the only one that isn't a multi-asset fund. Instead it is a global managed fund and that means it is compared with other global funds, in particular global trackers.  It doesn't do so well up against them as the rest of the VLS range does against other multi-asset funds.

Nurse2047

agent69 said:

I have a Vanguard query and thought it best to add it on here, rather than start yet another Vanguard thread.

I am mostly invested in the LS funds, but also invested a small amount in 3 of their other funds. Recently I noticed that the amount of cash in my acount has increased. Is there any way of tracking where it came from?

Hi I believe you cannot buy partial funds in ETFs so if your deposit doesn’t cover the price for the whole share price it will go into your cash reserve 

eskbanker

MFW2026 said:

agent69 said:

I have a Vanguard query and thought it best to add it on here, rather than start yet another Vanguard thread.

I am mostly invested in the LS funds, but also invested a small amount in 3 of their other funds. Recently I noticed that the amount of cash in my acount has increased. Is there any way of tracking where it came from?

Hi I believe you cannot buy partial funds in ETFs so if your deposit doesn’t cover the price for the whole share price it will go into your cash reserve 

Or it could perhaps be dividend payments?  Either way, it should be possible to work it out from wherever the account documentation is published, including statements, contract notes, etc....

agent69

eskbanker said:

MFW2026 said:

agent69 said:

I have a Vanguard query and thought it best to add it on here, rather than start yet another Vanguard thread.

I am mostly invested in the LS funds, but also invested a small amount in 3 of their other funds. Recently I noticed that the amount of cash in my acount has increased. Is there any way of tracking where it came from?

Hi I believe you cannot buy partial funds in ETFs so if your deposit doesn’t cover the price for the whole share price it will go into your cash reserve 

Or it could perhaps be dividend payments?  Either way, it should be possible to work it out from wherever the account documentation is published, including statements, contract notes, etc....

I purchased 3 ETF's in January, and this resulted in me having about £50 remaining in my cash account. It's been at the same level until the last few days when it went up to £75.

I assume it is some form of dividend payment, but it would be interesting to know where it came from.

Spiggle

agent69 said:

I have a Vanguard query and thought it best to add it on here, rather than start yet another Vanguard thread.

I am mostly invested in the LS funds, but also invested a small amount in 3 of their other funds. Recently I noticed that the amount of cash in my acount has increased. Is there any way of tracking where it came from?

Hi agent69,

Presuming you're holding only ISA on the Vanguard platform? If so, Log in to Vanguard> on the left hand side of screen scroll and select Investments> at top of that page (under My ISA Value) click Performance> below the values/rate of return figures there ae four selectable tabs, click the right hand one that says Investments> you should then see a list of your investments including any ETFs and the fourth column from right is headed 'Income'> scroll through your investment lists across from your ETFs and if there has been a distribution of dividends it will be noted there.

Higher up the page you may toggle the dates between showing 1 year results and results since Inception. If you also have a SIPP with Vanguard the same process may be followed but select 'My Pension' rather than 'My ISA'

Hope that helps. I'm a relative newbie but have found the site with in my account very easy to 'play' with to find out various forms of information. If I'm ever in doubt I will not hesitate to call Vanguard and their agents have always been hugely helpful.

Good luck,
Spigs