Feedback & comments on Portfolio requested

Linton

As others have indicated, your portfolio is far too complex for the amount of money you have invested.  If you are going to seriously invest in individual companies you should spend the time and effort required to understanding and regularly reviewing the chosen companies' business and finances.   If you are using funds there should be a clear reason why each fund is required and what it brings to the prtfolio as a whole.  In my view it simply is not worth doing this level of analysis for a few £100s invested.

Until you have been investing for say 10 years the increase in the value of your investments will mostly come from your contributions rather than the returns.  So just invest in one or two broad funds at least until you have a sizeable pot.  By that time you should have the experience to extend your portfolio if required.

ChesterDog

I'm another voice to add to the Simple is Best mantra.

I have seven figures invested over six funds, and more than half of the total is in VWRP (a global index tracker). I find that more than enough to do the job required and to keep track of.

nick5990

El_Torro said:

Your portfolio is certainly pretty unorthodox compared to many of the posters on this forum, myself included. Whether that’s a bad thing or not only time will tell. 

ok noted ta.

El_Torro said:

"Some of your investments look pretty scary to me." - please provide some examples?

MK62 - "scattergun approach" & "no discernable strategy". I've added further details in edited post. I hope that provided some further info on my reasoning.

IvanOpinion - "complex" & "overlap" - how best for me to see the overlap?

Masonic - Notes re tear up & start over. However a few of the funds & stocks if I do this will be selling at a loss. Eg some are 15% to 40% down currently. I would prefer to hold and give them a chance of recovering and / or buying when they are cheaper & hoping in a few years time to get a recovery & sell at a profit.

Jimjames - Why 10 years? - As I've previously been advised to invest for 10+ years rather than short term in the stockmarket.
My age is 36, and started investing at 33.

Dunstonh - Noted re comments on structure and process, and also re shares & news articles thanks. How can I tell which are equity funds - eg does fund factsheets list this clearly? 

Redpete;

Why hold more than one SIPP? I started with HL, then opened one with AJ Bell since it had lower charges. At some point in future I plan to sell all holdings in HL SIPP and transfer to AJ Bell.

Why L/T ISA instead of putting money in SIPP? HL has a higher cap on shares re charges, also I recall another MSE poster in past suggesting that I fill up L/T allowance first, and SIPP second. Is that not a sound strategy?

Why is a SIPP more tax efficient that a L/T ISA? I'm a basic rate taxpayer. I understand that gives 20% gov bonus on money invested until circa 50 year old, so around 14 more years to go. Wheras SIPP gives 20% on investments past 65+, so my thinking is it doesn't matter much - more about in the end what I'll be using the money for. Also I recall that the times I can access the money are similar now. Around 60+ for L/T ISA, but state pension age for SIPPs?

Why GIA instead of holdings in an ISA? Due to charges eg Wombat's GIA has no charges except for FX transactions afaik, and Standard charges 0.1% + £1/month currently. my thinking is in the long term using Wombat will keep balance charges down.

My attitude to risk? High. Willing to take higher risks for longer term returns in long run. Due to volatility currently I am putting new investments into income stocks eg Lloy, and Vaguard 60% equity currently.

Bostonremus - Re simplicity. Yes thanks noted. I agree with you, I'm not sure I want to see a lot of holdings at a loss though.

Noclaf - complexity, overlap, reviews, maintenance, rebalancing - yes noted & agreed thanks. This is something I'll be considering over next few months. Re your 3 funds mentioned - why did you choose them?

Bostonremus - thanks for example. Why did you choose those 3?

Linton - Thanks for info. Re "sizeable pot" - what would this be? Eg £50k in total SIPP accounts? Or rather total portfolio eg £200k?

Chesterdog - thanks for example

masonic

nick5990 said:

Masonic - Notes re tear up & start over. However a few of the funds & stocks if I do this will be selling at a loss. Eg some are 15% to 40% down currently. I would prefer to hold and give them a chance of recovering and / or buying when they are cheaper & hoping in a few years time to get a recovery & sell at a profit.

If you didn't already own these losing stocks, would you buy them now? If the answer is no (and it must be no, right, otherwise they'd not be at risk from a 'tear up & start over), then you should cut your losses and redeploy your capital into the investments that are most suitable today. Remember that when you bought them, you presumably did so because you thought they were going to be above average performers, yet they have turned out to underperform many other investments. I note that you are essentially saying you have a desire to sell them when you could do so without crystallising a loss, so it doesn't seem like you really believe in them as long term holdings.

Think of the opportunity cost of this money languishing in a bad investment when it could be used more productively. Yes, you might eventually be able to get out of loss territory and by doing so you might be able to avoid admitting to yourself that it was a bad investment, but will this give you a better financial outcome than cutting your losses and moving on sooner rather than later? What if they continue to underperform? How long are you willing to wait?

InvesterJones

^ completely agree with the 'would you buy them now' approach. Of course, if the OP thought they were fair value when they bought them originally then perhaps they're even better now they've fallen and they'd come to the conclusion that actually, yes, they would buy them now, in which case stick. But either way, you can't do anything about the past - look to what you think is going to perform right for you going forwards.

Sebo027

I like Hargreaves Lansdown as a platform generally. It’s quite swish and almost fun to play with data and tinker. They also make it very easy to “go shopping” and pick funds and come away thinking you’ve done a bit of sensible investing. It’s almost a bit too easy to be lulled into a false sense of investing confidence. 

I would strongly advocate you pick up this book, it’s by far the best starting point a person in your shoes can read:

Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results (Financial Times Series)
https://amzn.eu/d/ff6THIQ

Once you read it, all above questions will be clear. 

bostonerimus

nick5990 said:

Bostonremus - Re simplicity. Yes thanks noted. I agree with you, I'm not sure I want to see a lot of holdings at a loss though.

Bostonremus - thanks for example. Why did you choose those 3?

I chose the equity index funds because they had low fees and followed large mainstream US and international indexes. So the choice to go with index trackers and to keep things simple and inexpensive was well considered, but the actual portfolio construction was a "no brainer". The bond heavy multi-asset fund is a popular active income fund that has performed well over many years, and I have owned it for many years, but it is also relatively inexpensive (0.16% total fees).

So I'm cap weighted and I'm not over weighting regions or individual sectors. Within those funds I'm 85% equities and I can keep that high equity percentage as I have rental income, DB pension and a deferred annuity which are "safe" sources of retirement income.

noclaf

nick5990 said:

Noclaf - complexity, overlap, reviews, maintenance, rebalancing - yes noted & agreed thanks. This is something I'll be considering over next few months. Re your 3 funds mentioned - why did you choose them?

I chose funds/ETF's based on ongoing fund charges, size/liquidity of the funds and the diversification offered e.g: all my investments are typically global or Developed world passive funds or ETF's. My work pension scheme has a limited selection of funds so am using a mix of Active and Passive global equity funds but there isn't really a need, I could easily just use cheap global passives across all my investments and that would be fine.

I don't invest in any individual shares at present, don't have the time to dedicate to research and ongoing review and monitoring hence cheap passives allows for a hands-off approach apart from selecting/changing funds or annual rebalancing.

Albermarle

Why is a SIPP more tax efficient that a L/T ISA? I'm a basic rate taxpayer. I understand that gives 20% gov bonus on money invested until circa 50 year old, so around 14 more years to go. Wheras SIPP gives 20% on investments past 65+, so my thinking is it doesn't matter much - more about in the end what I'll be using the money for. Also I recall that the times I can access the money are similar now. Around 60+ for L/T ISA, but state pension age for SIPPs?

Some corrections needed here.

The LISA has a 25% bonus, and the Pension has a 25% uplift for a basic rate taxpayer.

LISA is available at age 60, without any tax to be paid. £4K pa limit and contributions stop at 50.

Pension is currently available from 55, soon rising to 57. With 25% tax free and 75% potentially taxable. Much higher potential contribution limit.

There are pros and cons for both, and maybe even best to have both ( many people have a pension with their job anyway)

Suggest you read the latter part of this article 

Lifetime ISA (LISA): how they work & best buys - Money Saving Expert