Where to put the rest of this years ISA allowance?

Annie1612

Deleted_User said:

Annie1612 said:

Though I know anything can be just around the corner, I am planning to get to at least 95 if possible!

This makes a nice change from the many people who vastly underestimate how long they will probably live ... I'm only planning on reaching 90.

My kids say I will live to 100. I can outrun them all. If I do, I know with absolute certainty my husband will be long gone unless he can manage 114 (and he definitely won’t!).

Annie1612

Thank you for everyone’s contributions and I am sorry if it has caused any disagreements but I have found the information very useful. I have been doing some reading, including the article suggested by Masonic. I have a little better understanding now, especially the fund of funds comment. My initial thoughts are to compromise a bit; invest about £5k in a global index tracker alongside the VLS 60 to raise my equity a bit to about 68% ( managed to delve into the deep recesses of my brain to find my O level maths to work that one out. Took a while haha) and reduce the home bias, both of which I am comfortable in doing.

Put some of the allowance left in a cash isa and transfer next year to another fund/platform on which I can hold another 25k. This gives me my 50k target and a bit of allowance leftover if I want a bit  more. Whilst i do see the logic of having just one fund/platform, I am not so confident in my investment choices, even though they are quite bland, that I can psychologically just choose one thing. Anyway, I have time to sit down and work out my finances later. 

Then I will leave it alone for a bit and not peek at it. That’s the right thing to do isn’t it? 😊

masonic

Annie1612 said:

Then I will leave it alone for a bit and not peek at it. That’s the right thing to do isn’t it? 😊

Yes, it is best to take your time and decide on a plan that can weather the next decade. Then resist temptation to fiddle. Reviewing yearly or half-yearly should be more than sufficient, and unless your circumstances have changed, there would not normally be any need to make changes other than rebalancing (if required).

Albermarle

Thank you for everyone’s contributions and I am sorry if it has caused any disagreements

Don't be sorry, it is not your fault if the thread digressed away from your original questions. It happens quite often .....

Thrugelmir

Annie1612 said:

 I am cobbling together funds that I can use for pension income in the future. 

Why not switch to VLS80? Cobbling together suggests there's no coherent strategy in place. Which could result in an unbalanced and far riskier portfolio. Set your aims and objectives. Then work towards them. As these are the only numbers that matter to you. 

Annie1612

Thrugelmir said:

Annie1612 said:

 I am cobbling together funds that I can use for pension income in the future. 

Why not switch to VLS80? Cobbling together suggests there's no coherent strategy in place. Which could result in an unbalanced and far riskier portfolio. Set your aims and objectives. Then work towards them. As these are the only numbers that matter to you. 

Thanks for replying. I actually meant I was cobbling together a pension income of sorts including a very small DB pension, very small stakeholder pension, state pension (not full), cash and an isa. Just to give me enough to live on a long way in the future hopefully. Trying to plan ahead. I didn’t mean actual investment funds. Though you make a good point. I also think though it might not be a bad idea to have less uk weighting. From what I have read at least. 

I believe I have a strategy of some sort ie. to have 50k invested by the end of next tax year. To stop dithering and put the money in. Don’t want to get rich. But don’t want everything in one fund so that I am fretting too much I have made the wrong choice. Which I am at the moment.

masonic

Not wishing to upset the apple-cart it is interesting to see the new products Vanguard is launching, specifically their LifeTarget Model Portfolios: https://intl.assets.vgdynamic.info/intl/uk_pro/assets/documents/lifetarget-model-portfolio-moderate-uk-en-pro.pdf

These are not available via the Vanguard Investor platform, but the asset allocation looks quite appealing, with roughly 60:40 equities to bonds and within equities 30% UK, 20% USA and 25% Europe. This is considerably different to VLS60 mainly in its allocation to the USA (VLS has a 48% USA allocation). It's not alone in looking to reduce exposure to the US, which is a market that looks pretty overvalued. L&G has taken a similar view in its Multi Index series of multi-asset funds (it's at around 26% USA within its equities and just over 20% UK).

Of the three I think I like the allocations used by L&G the most.

Stargunner

masonic said:

Not wishing to upset the apple-cart it is interesting to see the new products Vanguard is launching, specifically their LifeTarget Model Portfolios: https://intl.assets.vgdynamic.info/intl/uk_pro/assets/documents/lifetarget-model-portfolio-moderate-uk-en-pro.pdf

These are not available via the Vanguard Investor platform, but the asset allocation looks quite appealing, with roughly 60:40 equities to bonds and within equities 30% UK, 20% USA and 25% Europe. This is considerably different to VLS60 mainly in its allocation to the USA (VLS has a 48% USA allocation). It's not alone in looking to reduce exposure to the US, which is a market that looks pretty overvalued. L&G has taken a similar view in its Multi Index series of multi-asset funds (it's at around 26% USA within its equities and just over 20% UK).

Of the three I think I like the allocations used by L&G the most.

I have been looking at the Vanguard retirement funds. They vary between 80% equities/20% bonds to 50% equities/50% bonds depending on what retirement date you select.

As an example below is the portfolio of the target retirement date for 2030 which is 65% equities and 35% bonds

Allocation to underlying Vanguard funds

As at date 31 Jul 2021

Vanguard Global Bond Index Fund GBP Hedged Acc	19.0%
Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-U.K. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc	18.9%
Vanguard U.S. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc	12.8%
Vanguard FTSE U.K. All Share Index Unit Trust GBP Acc	12.1%
Vanguard U.K. Government Bond Index Fund GBP Acc	6.6%
Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF GBP Hedged Accumulating	6.3%
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund GBP Acc	5.2%
Vanguard FTSE North America UCITS ETF	4.2%
Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (GBP) Accumulating	4.2%
Vanguard U.K. Investment Grade Bond Index Fund GBP Acc	4.2%
Vanguard FTSE Developed Europe ex-U.K. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc	3.8%
Vanguard Japan Stock Index Fund GBP Acc	1.8%
Vanguard Pacific ex-Japan Stock Index Fund GBP Acc	0.9%
Total	100%

Total allocation percentages shown may not equal 100% due to rounding.

 

Thrugelmir

Annie1612 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Annie1612 said:

 I am cobbling together funds that I can use for pension income in the future. 

Why not switch to VLS80? Cobbling together suggests there's no coherent strategy in place. Which could result in an unbalanced and far riskier portfolio. Set your aims and objectives. Then work towards them. As these are the only numbers that matter to you. 

I also think though it might not be a bad idea to have less uk weighting. From what I have read at least. 

I'd focus on your appetite for risk and leave the choosen fund manager to decide upon the actual investment allocation. Unless you invest in the smaller companies segment of the UK markets. Listed UK companies will in themselves be international in terms of where they generate their revenues.  

Annie1612

Thrugelmir said:

Annie1612 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Annie1612 said:

 I am cobbling together funds that I can use for pension income in the future. 

Why not switch to VLS80? Cobbling together suggests there's no coherent strategy in place. Which could result in an unbalanced and far riskier portfolio. Set your aims and objectives. Then work towards them. As these are the only numbers that matter to you. 

I also think though it might not be a bad idea to have less uk weighting. From what I have read at least. 

I'd focus on your appetite for risk and leave the choosen fund manager to decide upon the actual investment allocation. Unless you invest in the smaller companies segment of the UK markets. Listed UK companies will in themselves be international in terms of where they generate their revenues.  

I think I would like a bit more risk. It is only a portion of my overall savings. I started off with Vls 80 then lost my nerve very early on and dialled down the risk 😂 I feel a lot calmer now as I have sorted my finances a bit better and discovered I had 28 years of state pension (wow!) that I didn’t know I had so not overly reliant on my isa and will be able to leave it alone for a long time.