Investment & Investing

Yes..... Scottish Mortgage anyone?

Thought that RR. had already peaked last year! etc....etc...

Gold is an interesting space at the moment.

Worth remembering that all we are seeing the value of money going down, which is inline with the enormous amounts that have been added to circulation.

assume that you know more than the collective knowledge of global financial markets, which seems unlikely.

I mean that's why you buy an All-World fund, you get the average of every position of every investor in the entire world.

Over the last 5 years the fund has had 15-20% in cash, 35-40% in bonds, and 40-45% in stocks. I definitely think those percentages are too conservative, and could do with a decent chunk more moving to stocks.

I'd question why, at the age of 34, you'd be recommended to have any in bonds (other than somewhat arbitrary portfolio diversification), let alone in cash.

15-20% in cash

Obvs waiting for that killer market timing move.

@hazzelfrazzel it sounds like you have pretty standard tax requirements and unless there's a complicated asset situation you've not mentioned yet, all of the stuff mentioned so far you can figure out and manage yourself.

By all means if the amount of money or complexity goes up significantly then independent advice is probably a safe bet, nothing you've said so far suggests needing to pay someone...by all means do it for peace of mind/lack of time/convenience.

by all means do it for peace of mind/lack of time/convenience.

Not at 1% per year in perpetuity surely? You could get the same advice with the same peace of mind/lack of time/convenience with a one-off fee and a report that just tells you "do x, y, z, then invest in Fund A at £x/mo until your requirements change". You don't need the ongoing annual charges if it's a simple case of PAYE and bog standard investment portfolios.

It's somewhat more complicated than I've explained, just for the sake of not posting huge posts that no one wants to read. Also partly to avoid ending up in the golf club.

To try and cut a very long story short, my salary is some cash, some restricted stock units. This year the balance will be around 50\50. As such there is potential capital gains tax in the mix. I also have some rental income that was previously shared by my wife and I. She is on maternity leave until May, and even in a normal working year would be in a lower tax band than I am.

We were victims of the cladding scandal and so have been unable to sell our flat in London for nearly 5 years now, hence the rental income. We moved to Derbyshire 4.5 years ago. We own 50% of the flat, so more than most BTL landlords. In the meantime we have bought a house in Derbyshire with a minimum deposit and larger mortgage than we really want. The plan was always to sell the flat ASAP and then put a lot of that money into the house to reduce the mortgage, and fund some home maintenance and improvements.

I'm very happy with the advice this IFA has given me about how to be tax efficient. However, I am not happy with the suggested advice on the pension. I won't be going for this managed fund with a huge fee. I am absolutely able to just pay a one off fee for the tax advice when I feel I need it without needing to sign up for them to invest my pension. That's what I need to decide on.

On managed funds chat, I believe that if you look at actively managed versus passively managed funds, the passively managed ones actually do better over the long term. In other words, in general actively managed funds do not do well enough to justify the charges over the alternatives.

With a little one on the way, one of the best things you could do would be to set them up with a Junior SIPP and/or ISA and invest it in a global equity tracker. Even if you only put a little in, the effect of compound is amazing. Fidelity are fee free for Junior products

The "problem", as I understand it, is that they inherit full control of the lot on their 18th birthday and the parents/guardians have zero control from this date. I wouldn't be surprised if my daughter spunked the lot on sweets and crap jewellery from Shein (ikr) if she suddenly came in to a chunk of money. I've got another 3 and a bit years (shit!) to try and instil some sense of financial acuity in her.

Any money that we have been given for her has been split between the Child Trust Fund that was free (with an initial £250 from the Government) for children born around that time, and Premium Bonds, with pretty much everything (not much) in the last 10 years going towards PBs rather than the CTF. She's welcome to get control of all of that on her 18th birthday as that's not my money to fuck around with.

But the monthly payments I've been putting into her Premium Bonds from my own salary (that she has no idea about) may have to be moved somewhere else just before her 18th birthday, it may even go towards paying off my mortgage if I haven't done that by that time - as an only child she's going to inherit it all (subject to IHT - which I won't do anything to try and avoid/minimise) at some point anyway and she'll get help with early adult life if necessary (University if she goes that route, etc).

I have inherited a sum total of about £250 in my life, and my parents couldn't provide any more than room and board from 18 anyway. I had to work part-time (and take a year out) to get through Uni and then launched straight into full time work with (tiny violins at the ready...) the luxury of 2 month and 6 month sabbaticals over the course of 26 years. Still got a good number of years to work yet.

The youth of today will have their own challenges. My daughter will get more support from us than I got from my parents, but I didn't have to pay course fees for Uni (well, technically I did in my final year but it was under £500), my student loans were ~£4k in total and paid off relatively quickly after starting work full time. Housing will be an absolute fucker for the youth of today but she'll be lucky in that we can help her with that when the time comes. No doesn't really have an idea of what she wants to do in life, but there's no rush as she's still a kid.

Oh don't get me wrong, for just the investment bit that's mad - I more mean paying someone for advice on the complicated bits of tax arrangement.

I'd only do a Junior ISA if you're maxing out your own ISA. There's no benefit to it beyond an additional allowance and the downsides of absolutely not able to get money out and the child being able to do what they want with it when they are 18.

Agree with this. If it's really a concern that it'll be wasted at 18 then just don't let them know it's there until you want them to have it!

Agree with this. If it's really a concern that it'll be wasted at 18 then just don't let them know it's there until you want them to have it!

You don't get a choice in the matter unless you intercept all of their post.

Well either way, perhaps some gentle education as they grow up and faith that they won't turn into a dipshit might also help a little too.

Don’t know where else to post it but I need to vent about all the melts on twitter missing the point about Starmer’s ‘definition’ of working people. I understand that the people leading it know exactly what they are doing, but the replies from people who get £50 a year from a share of their old company and won’t pay any more tax, but appear to think they will, or feel offended that they are not considered working people any more.

He is defining it in the context of the manifesto pledge. Not saying that every person that has a pension, isa or gets shares as part of their income is not a working person.

It’s obviously very nuanced and performative tax increases are counterproductive, but it’s clear (to me) that he is talking about people that max out their isa and pension and then pay comparatively low rates of tax on income from their income from investments. Hard to find a balance, but the number of people who don’t get the basics is mind blowing.

If you were going to put some money into a tracker, would you do it now or wait until after the US election?

Thinking it through the results would be:

1. Trump = markets up
   
2. Harris = markets?
   
3. Contested shit show = markets down
   

Assuming you’re investing for the long term, either whack the lot in now or, if you prefer, invest even amounts over next few months. Any volatility due to US election will likely be noise over long term. Market usually rallies after result due to having some certainty. Time in the market beats timing the market unless you have some edge over everyone else.

currently available knowledge is already in the price.

unless you have some edge over everyone else

in which case let us know what it is, so we can all laugh and / or benefit.

50% now, 50% next week

This is what I'm wondering.

Right. So the price today is the price today.

But it's about thinking about the odds of whether it makes a difference holding off if there will be fluctuations.

I realise over the long term (which this is) it probably won't make a great deal of difference.

After a whole 6 weeks experience with a trading 212 account, my vanguard efts have been up until Friday and its been down since then. apparently Jeff Bezos sold $3 bill worth of shares on Friday, might point to something

My Chinese tech stocks are down, but not as much as I expected given Trumps rhetoric. In true Wall streets bets style I really should(n't) yolo everything in a bet that trump losses.

Wareen Buffet has put everything in cash while the US election plays out.
TRUMPOGEDDON market sitch loading.....

Well... BH has something like $320bn cash and $270bn equities so Buffett has not put everything in cash and has been selling down Apple for about 2 years.