Search found 17 matches

by FailedTheTuringTest
Sun Jul 05, 2020 4:09 pm
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: [UK] Transaction costs? Rebalancing? + portfolio review
Replies: 4
Views: 511

Re: [UK] Transaction costs? Rebalancing? + portfolio review

The simplest solution to your fund-buying problem is to rotate your buys across the funds each month, buying larger amounts less often rather than buying every fund every month: in January buy Fund A, in February buy Fund B, in March buy Fund C, then in April buy Fund A again... the end result should be about the same as buying smaller amounts every month, I would think. To get around the fee-per-transaction problem entirely, though, you'll have to shop around for a new broker or fund platform. Most of the platforms that charge an fee that is a percentage of your assets (normally this is capped at some level) allow you to trade in and out of funds as much as you want at no cost. The other approach would be to use ETFs rather than funds, and...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:12 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Totally new UK investor - need guidance please
Replies: 31
Views: 2781

Re: Totally new UK investor - need guidance please

Monevator's broker comparison table at https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheape ... e-brokers/ is a good overview of what's available. Personally, I have ISAs with iWeb and Selftrade, and a SIPP at Interactive Investor, but I have enough invested that it's better for me to pay a fixed management fee rather than a percentage of assets. If I were starting from zero today, I would go with a platform that charges a low percentage fee, and most of these don't charge any transaction fee for buying funds or ETFs. Vanguard seems to come out the best on that score. It has the disadvantage or advantage, depending on your point of view, that they only sell Vanguard products.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:52 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What did you learn from the 2/24 sell off?
Replies: 327
Views: 28077

Re: What did you learn from the 2/24 sell off?

I've learned that I am cool-headed enough to not panic two days in a row! So far, that is... 8-)
by FailedTheTuringTest
Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:47 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: UK renewable energy investment trusts (e.g. BSIF, TRIG) - how to account for them in portfolio?
Replies: 8
Views: 844

Re: UK renewable energy investment trusts (e.g. BSIF, TRIG) - how to account for them in portfolio?

An investment trust is a bit like a very small active stock fund, in this case a sector-specific one. In my own asset allocation plan, I classify things like that as small cap equities because of their relatively small size and higher risk.

I'm also in the UK and I also hold some renewable energy corporate bonds which I have actively and directly picked, through Energy4All and Abundance Investment. I classify those as corporate bonds in my asset allocation.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Thu Feb 06, 2020 4:39 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Bonds versus ca$h
Replies: 19
Views: 2307

Re: Bonds versus ca$h

I decided I should keep 5 years worth of withdrawls safe whilst giving the rest of the money every chance to continue to grow without me having to sell it when it's on its knees. I looked at £ hedged bonds (I'm in the UK) but during bear markets they tend to drop as well, just not by as much. So I currently have 10% in cash and 90% in stocks I follow a similar strategy to you for my asset allocation: I have 1 year's worth of expenses in cash, the next 4 years' worth of expenses in bonds, and everything else in equities. My cash component is a bank savings account; my bonds are global bond funds containing a mixture of mostly £-hedged but also some non-hedged government and corporate bonds, as well as some fixed-term bank savings bonds (ter...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Mon Jan 20, 2020 9:07 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Career change at 47
Replies: 116
Views: 13953

Re: Career change at 47

If you have construction skills yourself then the obvious thing to do is to set up as an independent builder or handyman type. and only take on small jobs that you can handle as a one-person operation. But it sounds like you're more a project manager? An experienced project manager can probably transition to a similar coordinating function in another industry, but if your goal is to reduce dealing with "employees, subcontractors, architects, designers, vendors and clients," well, dealing with all those folks is pretty much the essence of project management in any industry. You say you already have rental income -- do you like being a landlord? Having the connections of a general contractor would put you in a very good position for...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:16 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bright daughter wants to work for nonprofit
Replies: 103
Views: 10837

Re: Bright daughter wants to work for nonprofit

If I were in your position, I would encourage her to follow her heart and try working at the nonprofit. She is young, she should experiment and get broad experience working in different types of organisations and different roles, and she should try doing things that she is enthusiastic about. You don't describe the organisation in detail but I guess it is a small organisation? If so, one benefit is that she'll probably get more diverse work experience and more responsibility there than she would in an entry-level role at a major firm, which will be beneficial in the long run. And she won't be there forever, modern career paths have many job changes and even complete career changes. I can also tell you that I was in exactly her situation whe...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:21 am
Forum: Non-US Chapters
Topic: Is there a U.K bogleheads Chapter??
Replies: 41
Views: 25548

Re: Is there a U.K bogleheads Chapter??

I thought the UK Bogleheads chapter was called Monevator! :happy I'm a newbie here but happy to participate.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Sat Mar 03, 2018 2:21 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 0% CC as part of EF
Replies: 31
Views: 2820

Re: 0% CC as part of EF

spammagnet wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:27 pm
willthrill81 wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:21 pmHas this actually happened to anyone here?
I had credit limits pared back with no change in the income from my very stable job.
A bank might cut your credit limit for reasons that are completely unrelated to your own personal circumstances. A bank that I was a customer of had some financial difficulties about four years ago, and they lowered the credit limits of many customers (including me) where it felt that the customers weren't using their limits (i.e. where they thought the customers wouldn't mind). Apparently this was done to reduce the bank's potential liabilities, or at least that was the conclusion of the financial press, although the bank didn't say so itself.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Wed Feb 28, 2018 6:13 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Credit cards: 0% purchase versus cashback
Replies: 9
Views: 1469

Re: Credit cards: 0% purchase versus cashback

Thanks, good points all. Indeed the returns from borrowing to invest, even at 0%, are quite low without taking on excessive risk on the investment side, and there may be negative side effects of carrying a large credit card balance. You've convinced me that it's not really worthwhile.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Credit cards: 0% purchase versus cashback
Replies: 9
Views: 1469

Credit cards: 0% purchase versus cashback

I'm contemplating credit card strategies. I am in the UK, where the best cashback credit cards only pay 1% or 1.25%, so I am considering whether a 0% purchase card might be a better option. These cards allow you to run up a large balance over as long as 30 months, with no interest at all charged for the entire period, and only a token monthly payment required. It seems to me that this would allow me to defer expenses and invest the money in the meantime in a zero-risk investment. For example, I could invest $10,000 (actually the equivalent in British pounds) in a 2% savings bond while accumulating an equivalent balance on the credit card, hold the balance on the card, and then pay off the credit card by the time the deal runs out, making a ...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:02 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Need some advice on AA (UK investor)
Replies: 8
Views: 728

Re: Need some advice on AA (UK investor)

Hi, I am a new to investing and need some help in deciding how much I should be allocating to different asset classes/sub classes. As a UK investor, I've found it a bit difficult to relate some of the information of interest to me on this forum as a lot of it is geared towards U.S investors. I'm 26 years old and have £10k to invest. I've decided that an 85/15 portfolio is right for me after some reading and consideration (I've so far read a few books - bogleheads guide, four pillars, currently going through ferri's AAAA). So far, I'm considering these funds for my portfolio: Vanguard FTSE Dev World ex UK Vanguard FTSE UK All share Vanguard global small-cap iShares emerging markets iShares global property secs Vanguard UK government bond in...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:52 am
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Buying a new home in London but concerned about Brexit
Replies: 6
Views: 1354

Re: Buying a new home in London but concerned about Brexit

What would one usually do in this tricky situation? The UK has not left the single market yet but things do not look great. Nobody knows, of course, but I'll tell you what bets I have made (also UK resident but not in London). I'm also in the process of buying a house and have gone for a 5-year fix on my mortgage in the expectation that the value of the pound will drop further, and that inflation and interest rates will both rise. Uncertainty is bad for business and we're facing lots of uncertainty over the next few years (up to Brexit Day but also beyond, as the direction of travel seems to be towards lengthy transitional arrangements which will have more uncertainty associated with them). So I'm not very optimistic for the UK economy, bu...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Thu Mar 16, 2017 6:03 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How Much in Your Emergency Fund And Is It Used?
Replies: 263
Views: 45838

Re: How Much in Your Emergency Fund And Is It Used?

I think this thread has changed my mind on the arithmetic of an emergency fund. If I keep, say, $20k in cash, the opportunity cost over 20 years assuming 5% returns on the stock market is about $33k (i.e. if the money were in the market instead of in cash, I'd have earned $33k on it instead of approximately zero). That's the price of protecting​ myself against the chance of an emergency occurring during a major stock market downturn and having to sell off investments on a really bad day. But even if the really bad day is a 50% downturn, the probability of disaster within 20 years would still have to be nearly certainty over that period to make it worthwhile to hold the emergency fund in cash. Of course there are lots of different assumption...
by FailedTheTuringTest
Sun Mar 12, 2017 1:54 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Do I need a separate emergency fund?
Replies: 15
Views: 2167

Re: Do I need a separate emergency fund?

The way I think of it, the emergency that an emergency fund is supposed to cover is loss of job at the same time as a stock market crash. The emergency fund is then used to cover living expenses without having to sell investments which would be depressed in value.

Most unbudgeted expenses can be covered in the way you describe; the emergency fund is specifically to cover you in case of an emergency that happens during a market downturn. It makes sense that losing one's job is more likely during a severe economic downturn, which is why you might want to have the extra insurance of a special cash fund, so you don't get forced into selling stocks at the worst possible time.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:31 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Important Bear Market Signal sent
Replies: 19
Views: 3868

Re: Important Bear Market Signal sent

Thanks for the warning, valuethinker. I can confirm that this dire event will be accompanied by a housing price collapse as well. I am now in the process of selling chunks of my portfolio to put together a deposit on a house. The last time I bought a house was in 2007, which was followed by a record price crash, so I reckon we're about due for another.
by FailedTheTuringTest
Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:35 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Can I semi-retire (or retire?)
Replies: 78
Views: 10284

Re: Will I be able to tell my wife I can semi-retire (maybe retire!)?

I am glad you asked this question! I've been helping playing with my spreadsheets, analysing cash flows, running financial projections, calculating my freedom-from-work day... and was perilously close to making the same mistake as the OP. It's easy to get carried away with the financial analysis and neglect a certain critical non-financial analysis!