23 year old needs your advice. lump sum to invest plus monthly payments.

john_kane_2

Love the site, my first post and I hope you can give my your advice. This is my situation
Age: 23.
Job: First year as a trainee accountant with a big accountancy firm in london.
Living arrangements: I live at home with my parents (I get on well with them, although ideally would move out and rent with friends the right situation hasn’t come up).

Money in bank: £135k from online poker whilst at university

Monthly income: £1.5k from job (after taxes and pension contribution), another £500 or so from poker affiliate work and on average likely around £2k from playing poker in spare time. So total £4k monthly after all deductions.

Currently invested in: £110k savings. £15k spreadbetting. £10k in emerging markets ISA and agriculture etf.

Does this future plan make sense?: Of the £110k in savings, My plan is to keep the £100k in savings and that’ll be a deposit for an nice apartment in London for when/if I qualify as an accountant. My salary will then (around £55k) mean I can get a mortgage of around £200k, so I’ll be able to get a nice £300k apartment when house prices are hopefully bottoming in 2 years time. I am also setting aside £10k in savings for my holidays over the next couple of years. I am keeping the £15k in spreadbetting as although high risk, I am very bullish on gold (though not a gold bug) and also that the US financials are in trouble over the remainder of the year.

That leaves £10k. I figure this should be used to start up my long term portfolio. I would put all my monthly income net of expenditure (food, pub etc) into this given I have a good deposit for a house, holiday money, pension contributions all set up.

How would you allocate this £10k and future monthly payments of around £3.5k?

I was planning on investing it in a range of funds on my online broker site, likely around:
22.5% developed equities
20% emerging markets
12.5% global equities
35% commodities (I am big jim rogers fan, would reduce this commodities position in mid 2010s)
10% bonds

These are the funds I was planning to invest in. To begin with I’ll only be able to invest £10k, so could only invest in a few of these, but each month I’d invest to balance the portfolio according.

10% First State Greater China Growth Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/3387410.hl
IC: 0.25%
AC: 1.6%

10% Allianz RCM BRIC Stars A Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/B0WDH72.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 1.425%

22.5% JPMorgan Global Equity Income Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/B1JNDX0.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 1.4%

12.5%: MFM iFunds ETF Global Growth Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/B195JJ4.hl
IC: 1%
AC:1.75% (!!!)

20%: MFM iFunds ETF Commodity Fund Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/B195JD8.hl
IC: 1%
AC:1.75% (!!!)

5%: CF Eclectica Agriculture A GBP Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/B1XGDS0.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 1.75%

5% BlackRock Merrill Lynch Gold & General Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/f...dol/0585239.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 1.425%

5% JPMorgan Natural Resources Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/3183511.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 1.25%

10%: INVESCO PERPETUAL Corporate Bond Accumulation
http://www.h-l.co.uk/fund_research/s...dol/3302877.hl
IC: 0%
AC: 0.85%


My main concern is the fees, especially the 2 iFunds, though I like their investment ideas. Your thoughts and suggestions on all or any of what I’ve posted very much appreciated

John

ncooper1974

here's a thought, forget the accountancy lark and become a professional gambler.
If you can make around £2k a month (net) by playing in your spare time then imagine what you can do if you do it full time.

john_kane_2

i could make approximately £200k-£250k tax free this year playing online. i have spent countless hours mulling over this, but i have taken the decision to go down the career route. in hindsight, i should have asked to defer my contract offer and play for a year to build up some more money, but i didnt and have decided not to quit.

please if possible im looking more for portfolio thoughts, ive spent ages in coming to the decision not to quit :rolleyes:

robpw2

im so jealous . i wanna know how i can make 135k in poker

THENOX

I persume that you are nit a bean-counter but if you consider two asset types: funds and ETFs consider two providers (HL for funds and HoodlessBrennan or other for ETFs as HL charges alot for ETFs/shares).

I still can't believe what I've just red:135k playing poker during studies? I'm just during studies and struggling to locate my 33k :-(

Serious question as I'm considering spread betting at the end how come you consider spread betting more risky than poker? For me (as a layman) spread betting can be aided by fundamental and technical analysis + news and comments + academic and professional literature whereas poker require pure skill.

Would you be able to share your experiences (experiences not techniques about both spread betting and poker) on sending post on prive or starting a new post. It would be absolutely great to hear about experiences of such a successful player.

Thanks in advance,

THE NOX

dunstonh

To be honest, with your risk profile and going DIY I cant see why you would use unit trusts. I would have thought ITs and ETFs etc would have been more down your avenue.

john_kane_2

thenox, im at work atm but ill reply to your post when im at home.

dunstonh, could you please explain why ITs > UTs? I figured with UTs if i change my mind after a couple of years it'll be cheaper without the spread of ITs.

also, with ETFs, for regular payments of say £500, isn't it a bad idea given i'd be paying say £10 for each transaction buy.

basically i want exposure to emerging, developed, and commodities, via the most efficient way, but despite my efforts with researching, i am struggling to find the best method.

your thoughts (and anyone elses), greatly appreciated.

john


edit: also i read a lot about how i should avoid managed funds and only go for index funds, but given i want exposure to emerging markets and commodities, do i just have to accept paying higher fees?

john_kane_2

bump

thoughts massively appreciated

john

Lokolo

Does it really matter when you have £135k? What I would do to have that money... (except player poker lol)

Mutton_Geoff

Why is this post not tagged as HL spam? Something isn't right about "John's" background, you know, if it's too good to be true ...

john_kane_2

thenox, sorry ill reply tonight, had work dinner last night.

mutton, sorry i just wanted to show which funds i am thinking of investing in. mods please delete links if appropriate. mutton this is all def true, google john kane poker and you'll see i post a lot on poker forums. i just would really appreaciate people's thoughts on the best way to invest in emerging and developed markets, especially the least feed based method when investing monthly variable amounts.

many thanks if you can post your thoughts

john

edit: to clarify: what is the most efficient way (ETFs/index funds/active funds -UTs/ITs) to invest in developed and emerging markets given I would like to invest an added variable amount each month? which site would be best to use based on how I should be investing? help hugely appreciated