Is 'Vanguard LifeStrategy' enough in your portfolio?

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Some of you may remember me as the clueless investor. Others may have joined since i last posted about retirement so if you haven't seen me around before then hi i'm the clueless investor In that i don't pretend to know a lot about this & jargon makes my eyes glaze over.


But for anyone who's still kept with this post, in your own personal opinion, would you be happy to have one of these funds (or similar - not necessarily Vanguard's) as the solitary investment in your portfolio?






Also to save me creating a separate thread on it - at what point would you consider an IFA (if you'd consider one at all)?
I first started at 28 with £100pm. Nothing really but it was all i could afford at the time. I went with an IFA and after asking & reading on this forum i learned that any gains i make would likely be eroded by fees. Essentially it was a bad decision & i should 'have a go' myself while the pot is a small amount & only when it gets much larger should i consider an IFA.
So how big would your pot have to be to consider one?

I only have one multi asset fund in my portfolio at the moment. Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 and my SIPP, ISA and husbands ISA are all in the same fund. I started investing in it about 5 years ago, older than you and initially it was a monthly amount then a few lump sums then transferring old cash isas across. I chose it because there was a lot of information about it especially on here, the multi asset nature appealed to me as it was essentially a broadly diversified fund less volatile than 100% equities and cheap. I don't have the knowledge to pick managed funds or suss out the good performers from the duds. I can understand the performance charts from trustnet or morning star but as far as I could see the Vanguard lifestrategy funds performed well but it looked like the managed ones sometimes did well but then languished and the charges seemed steep. I feel that I would have to keep more of an eye on managed investments whereas I feel confident to just invest and forget with the Vanguard LS60 and in all honesty that is what I would rather do. I don't have the will to spend a lot of time trying to work out where to invest in the thousands of funds there are out there.

However our investments are now over £200k and all in Vanguard life strategy 60. We had a review with an IFA just before my DH retired two years ago and were not impressed. He did a review of our pensions and investments and made a fairly obvious mistake so I had no confidence in him after that. He based his whole report on false information given to him by my husbands company pension administrator (wrong retirement year quoted) and whilst they made the mistake he did not spot it or wonder why the calculations were so far off the figures we got 6 months earlier. Anyone who misses such a glaring error does not fill me with confidence so we carried on with me managing our investments as before and the pot was growing as we sold a property and then I retired. We are in the process of another review now with a different IFA so will see what he says.

So the answer to your second question in my view is when the pot is over £100k or you no longer feel confident you are going down the right road. Our investments have grown since I started self investing but whether they would have grown more under an IFA after their charges I don't know. For us it is not too much of an issue as we are already early retired and comfortable financially with a mix of the Vanguard LS 60, DB pensions covering our living expenses, cash and a mortgage free property. Whether an IFA can add value to what we have already will depend on how we perceive the 2nd IFA's report.