Investment risk for mid 30's

grumiofoundation

maxsteam said:

dilby said:

They seem to have the best track record out of any of the robo investors, but don't publish their mix of investments for each level.

Oh dear. For me alarm bells ring every time I hear a new meaningless phrase like "robo investor". My opinion is that you are better finding a few funds and investments that together have a risk profile that you are happy with and then put the money there yourself, via an established stockbroker.

If they don't publish their mix of investments (or even the top ten holdings), it's something to avoid. You will have no way to independently check the performance of your investments. They do and therefore you do 

All Wealthify will do for you, in a best case scenario, is choose a few funds, put the money in and charge a fee for doing this. There is nothing magic about applying names like "tentative" instead of putting a number to a fund's or portfolio's risk profile. The big difference between what Wealthify do and what other similar companies do is that Wealthify don't tell you which funds they will choose. They do tell you 

If you look at the link I posted in the first reply you will see you can see the holdings. 

If you invest in wealthify you can see all the holdings and % easily on the app.

Your (Unresearched) somewhat misleading claims/comments are rather unfair on wealthify.

(For clarity have only ever invested small amounts in wealthify for cashback, and moved funds elsewhere when initial period expired). Was not inherently unimpressed with wealthify’s offering though. 

Daliah

maxsteam said:

dilby said:

They seem to have the best track record out of any of the robo investors, but don't publish their mix of investments for each level.

Oh dear. For me alarm bells ring every time I hear a new meaningless phrase like "robo investor". My opinion is that you are better finding a few funds and investments that together have a risk profile that you are happy with and then put the money there yourself, via an established stockbroker.

Do you mean Stockbroker? As this would imply sharedealing, which is obviously one form of investment but not really a viable or practical alternative for someone with next to no knowledge about investing. May be you mean an investment platform?

Not sure why you think a robo investor is not a good choice for people with no prior knowledge of investing, and no intention to become knowledgeable about selecting and managing investments.

maxsteam said:

If they don't publish their mix of investments (or even the top ten holdings), it's something to avoid. You will have no way to independently check the performance of your investments.

Your Wealthify plan details your holdings down to the last penny, with the name,  the %age in your plan, the investment type, the Region, the quantity you hold, what you paid for it, and what the current value is. You absolutely do have a means to check the performance of your investments. You should have a closer look at Wealthify before you make misleading statements.

maxsteam said:

All Wealthify will do for you, in a best case scenario, is choose a few funds, put the money in and charge a fee for doing this. 

They certainly do choose a few funds, and they buy and sell according to market developments and your chosen risk profile. Of course you pay a fee for this, as you would pay a fee to an IFA if they managed your portfolio. You personally might have the skills to avoid paying a 3rd party, but not everyone does, and it is totally normal that you pay for a service that you cannot, or don't want to, do yourself.

maxsteam said:

 The big difference between what Wealthify do and what other similar companies do is that Wealthify don't tell you which funds they will choose.

That's simply untrue. 

Daliah

maxsteam said:

 The big difference between what Wealthify do and what other similar companies do is that Wealthify don't tell you which funds they will choose.

Just to add to my earlier reply: you can actually see what is likely to be in your plan without even signing up for an account.  Here is their 'ambitious' plan, for example, as of today. You can drill down into Regions and the actual funds if you so desire, and you can download a factsheet with further details. That's as much transparency as can reasonably be expected, IMO.

GeoffTF

There are cheaper options than a robo-adviser. As already mentioned, you can use Vanguard Target Retirement, when you just need to say when you want the proceeds. If you know what percentage of equities you want, you can use Vanguard LifeStrategy. (You could just copy the bond percentage from the appropriate Target Retirement fund, or from a robo-adviser.) You can save more money by using a global tracker and a bond fund. Outside a tax shelter, you can do better by using savings accounts in place of the bond fund. There are lots of options. The more you know, the lower will be your costs and the larger the likely returns for the same level of risk.

It is important to understand the risks. People on boards like this often understate them, pointing to past performance in markets that did well. There are also people who have a vested interest in persuading you to make risky investments.

Daliah

GeoffTF said: There are also people who have a vested interest in persuading you to make risky investments.

These are usually spotted instantly by Forumites who have no agenda, and who will point out the obvious. Whether the reader then takes the cautionary advice comments and warnings seriously is obviously up to them.

GeoffTF

Daliah said:

GeoffTF said: There are also people who have a vested interest in persuading you to make risky investments.

These are usually spotted instantly by Forumites who have no agenda, and who will point out the obvious. Whether the reader then takes the cautionary advice comments and warnings seriously is obviously up to them.

I was not necessarily referring to people posting here. Clearly, if anyone is taking a cut from your money, you should look for conflicts of interest. A common ploy is making things unnecessarily complicated to convince you that you need help. Of course, you may need help, but the best form of help is education.