Transfering UK Growth to Bonds?

nnop

Hello All,

Your comments would be welcome.

I have a stock and shares ISA, with 100% invested in shares with Hargreaves Lansdown (Value £10k).

Reading information on having a balanced portfolio, the recomended investment should have maybe 20-25% held in Bonds.

If this is the case, would it be wise to transfer 20% of my existing investment into Bonds? I am looking at the Artimis Stratigic Bond through Hargreaves Lansdown.

If, yes should I wait until the market recovers the lost ground over the last few months?

My investment will be hopefully long term 10years+ so I would not like to make a switch and limit potential growth.

Thanks.

ixwood

It's only part of a "wise" portfolio, if you understand what you're investing in IMHO. I'd either read up big time or choose something I knew something about.

dunstonh

Reading information on having a balanced portfolio, the recomended investment should have maybe 20-25% held in Bonds.

If you are using the term balanced to suggest medium risk then 20-30% is about right to hold in non stockmarket based funds. This can be bonds and property.

Different risk profiles would dictate the amount you would hold with lower risk portfolios holding more and higher risk portfolios holding less or none at all.

If, yes should I wait until the market recovers the lost ground over the last few months?

What happens if it doesnt recover and goes down more?

My investment will be hopefully long term 10years+ so I would not like to make a switch and limit potential growth.

What about limiting your potential losses?

Are you going to rebalance your portfolio at least annually? That is when you get the main benefit of a diverse portfolio.

purch

I would not like to make a switch and limit potential growth.

Any switch you make could limit your future gains or losses, thats the nature of 'Investing'

The key to Fund investing is to decide on your strategy and allocations, and the funds that best meet your objectives, with an eye on re-balancing the portfolio every 12months or so.

The decisions should be well reserched and well thought out, as continually second guessing yourself is a sure fire way to minimise your returns over time.

hyposmurf

I have invested mainly in natural resources and emerging markets.Dunstonh suggested that investing in bonds would help balance out my portfolio and reduce the volatility.One thing I have noticed is that although the gains with my other funds are higher the bond chuggs away,its hepled ease my blood pressure. :-) On a number of occasions its been the only fund to stay blue,which offers that small ray of sunshine.Thanks Dunstonh.

baldbloke_2

purch wrote: »

Any switch you make could limit your future gains or losses, thats the nature of 'Investing'

The key to Fund investing is to decide on your strategy and allocations, and the funds that best meet your objectives, with an eye on re-balancing the portfolio every 12months or so.

The decisions should be well reserched and well thought out, as continually second guessing yourself is a sure fire way to minimise your returns over time.

I'll be honest and say that the ability to make instant investment (and even 'savings') decisions online at the press of a key has been one of the major downsides to the internet. That's a sweeping statement and a gross generalization and over simplification but when I see - from my own experience - how many times I have absorbed the information in a forum and then in a quiet moment sat in front of my computer thought 'yes,why not?!' and gone ahead with transferring a couple of hundred or a thousand pounds just because it seemed like a good idea - only to realize a few days or a month later that the decision was flawed ... my experience must be repeated many many times over.

Your response just sums up the futility of it all. The opening post is typical of the general cry for help that all of those (us) DIY investors encouraged by the financial sites and their forums generate.

Democracy is really only a good thing if the public is informed and educated - and the dempcracy of the internet shows this up only too well.

Investments were never meant for the great unwashed - me included - before this age of ours. Sadly significant money can be lost which is a great blow to many ordinary decent people just trying to improve on a savings account for the long term.

We're all doomed!

dunstonh

I'll be honest and say that the ability to make instant investment (and even 'savings') decisions online at the press of a key has been one of the major downsides to the internet

Or known locally in this forum as "doing a wombat".

baldbloke_2

I had set aside £30k for an investment portfolio - about 12% of what I have and don't use and don't need short to mid-term. An IFA will not touch me with a barge-pole for that amount but it is in fact a massive amount of money.

I would never have dreamed of investing such an amount as opposed to just 'saving' it before reading forums and threads such as this a few years ago - now I hover at the sea's edge dipping a toe and then pulling it back and then walking a little before trying again. I have gained a tiny amount and lost a little bit more due to ignorance, bad luck and bad advice wrongly taken over the past couple of years. My natural caution has prevented me from making significant losses but L&G, H-L and Fidelity might well wonder why I appeared on their radar and then disappeared so quickly.

Where on earth are ordinary people with modest amounts to invest - as opposed to save - supposed to go in order to avoid real heartache?

Doomed indeed ...

dunstonh

Where on earth are ordinary people with modest amounts to invest - as opposed to save - supposed to go in order to avoid real heartache?

The FSA proposals under the RDR are likely to mkae this worse.

With the downgrading of primary advice (tied agents mainly from banks) and the upgrading of IFAs (higher qualifications, meaning less IFAs will be around) they have admitted that the lower end of the market and the top end will be well served but the middle ground may not have access to the sort of advice they need.

baldbloke_2

dunstonh wrote: »

The FSA proposals under the RDR are likely to mkae this worse.

With the downgrading of primary advice (tied agents mainly from banks) and the upgrading of IFAs (higher qualifications, meaning less IFAs will be around) they have admitted that the lower end of the market and the top end will be well served but the middle ground may not have access to the sort of advice they need.

That is quite worrying really. A person with a few thousand sitting in their Barclays, Nationwide or Halifax account -for example -will be offered the 'tied' products sold by their bank or BS at any review or sales opportunity and the wealthy will continue to require the level of expertise from a trained IFA that their investments merit. For those in between - say £20k to £100k they will face a dilemma. What you say is interesting.

purch

Where on earth are ordinary people with modest amounts to invest - as opposed to save - supposed to go

I agree with your sentiments regarding the 'Intergoogle'. Whilst there is a wealth of highly important and reliable information (knowledge) available, there is also just as much unreliable tosh available to mislead and confuse. And of course the ability to almost immediatly buy or sell virtually anything is just as much a curse as a benefit.

We appear to have developed a new sub-species of homo-sapien infected with the newly discovered 'Wiki-Gene', that turns previously uneducated clots into experts on all things known, unknown and totally made up.

There are many sources of information both websites and books/magazines that can help you find your way through the 'Investment Maze' Many of them have been mentioned on this site often. DIY investment doesn't have to be a minefield of potential mishaps.

The most important thing IMO is to understand the phsycology required to be successful, and try to acquire some or all of it. All the knowledge in the world, is useless, unless you can put it into practice.