[whatnext]

Just looking for a few little ideas.

I'm no Warren Buffet or anything close but have a fair few investments and wanted to add to them. I'm not good with cash, it burns a whole in my pocket so I try to invest before I do daft things like drink it.

To date I have:

Property: A couple of apartments in UK and Ireland.
All on capital repayment mortgages, preforming quite well. Rents meeting the Mortgages and enough cash leftover to cover the Tax bill - nearly. They were bought for their income not to flip or sell, and the first one is nearly paid for.

Shares: Have shares in the Pharma, Telecoms, Exploration, Food Science, Business and Tech Sectors. Had some bank shares but the less said about that the better.
Again bought for the long haul. No plans to sell anything any time soon. Dividends are pretty poor but I like having them there as I can liquidate some if I need to fairly quickly, as I have had to from time to time.

Wine: Again its something I fancied doing so I did it, got some advice from others that know more than I do and its not the worst thing I've ever done. All bonded and I only hold the stock on paper.

Pension Funds: I set one up through work, I comes out of my gross wages and I have it split between 5 different funds, One dividend focused, 2 large equity funds, a commodities fund and one high risk.

Prize Bonds: only have a few hundred euros worth but never seen a penny back.

I have a few other wacky thing I have bough like Coin Collections and a couple of antiques that may or may not be worth something, only time will tell.

So what other ideas does anyone have? I'm happy with what I have but would like to add something different.

I like to have a target to save to so any ideas out there?

[bear_hunter]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Just looking for a few little ideas.

I'm no Warren Buffet or anything close but have a fair few investments and wanted to add to them. I'm not good with cash, it burns a whole in my pocket so I try to invest before I do daft things like drink it.

To date I have:

Property: A couple of apartments in UK and Ireland.
All on capital repayment mortgages, preforming quite well. Rents meeting the Mortgages and enough cash leftover to cover the Tax bill - nearly. They were bought for their income not to flip or sell, and the first one is nearly paid for.

Shares: Have shares in the Pharma, Telecoms, Exploration, Food Science, Business and Tech Sectors. Had some bank shares but the less said about that the better.
Again bought for the long haul. No plans to sell anything any time soon. Dividends are pretty poor but I like having them there as I can liquidate some if I need to fairly quickly, as I have had to from time to time.

Wine: Again its something I fancied doing so I did it, got some advice from others that know more than I do and its not the worst thing I've ever done. All bonded and I only hold the stock on paper.

Pension Funds: I set one up through work, I comes out of my gross wages and I have it split between 5 different funds, One dividend focused, 2 large equity funds, a commodities fund and one high risk.

Prize Bonds: only have a few hundred euros worth but never seen a penny back.

I have a few other wacky thing I have bough like Coin Collections and a couple of antiques that may or may not be worth something, only time will tell.

So what other ideas does anyone have? I'm happy with what I have but would like to add something different.

I like to have a target to save to so any ideas out there?

i salute you on your well balanced portfolio

i was going to suggest you buy some precsious metals but gold has performed poorly this past nine months , the american dollar and goverment bonds are a bigger refuge to safety while the eurozone crisis is unresolved , gold will probabley pull back a bit though perhaps not in euro which is what matters in this country , they say 5% is an optimum percentage of gold in one,s portfolio

ps , you mentioned you own food stocks , if you own kerry or glanbia , do you see a pullback anytime soon in share price , both are up close on 40% this past year

[Mr_Roger_Bongos]

I don't know any Financial Advisors, but it may be worth visiting one (if you can get good recommendations), they might be able to open alternative avenues of investment.

One point - If your in for the long haul, a few blue-chip companies with regular and solid dividends could be a sensible addition. Ideally companies with steady and reliable cash flow (the likes of bskyb/ mobile operators etc).

Also, consider how your pension performs relative to your share holdings. If it's very similar then you should re-consider the balance of your pension, perhaps it should be more/less defensive as opposed to neutral. It's your pension, so i'd encourage more defensive.

[spud_gunner]

A pension will rarely ever do as well as a stock portfolio due to the hefty fees

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by bear_hunter

i salute you on your well balanced portfolio

i was going to suggest you buy some precsious metals but gold has performed poorly this past nine months , the american dollar and goverment bonds are a bigger refuge to safety while the eurozone crisis is unresolved , gold will probabley pull back a bit though perhaps not in euro which is what matters in this country , they say 5% is an optimum percentage of gold in one,s portfolio

ps , you mentioned you own food stocks , if you own kerry or glanbia , do you see a pullback anytime soon in share price , both are up close on 40% this past year

My heart wont let me do the precious metals, my gut feeling is that its the wrong way to go (my gut has been wrong many times though), but I feel I'm covered sufficiently in that area through my commodities pension fund anyway

I have a few lemons in the share portfolio, but others have been quite good.
Some are small companies that I have friends working for, others are whims and others are companies that I felt were in a good position to grow.

Pharma: Elan, Astra Zeneca
Telecoms: Vodafone
Engineering: Costain
Explotation: BHP Billiton, Dragon Oil, Jubilee Platinum, Prov Resources, San Leon,
Food Science: Kraft, Provexis, C&C
Business: Paddy Power, Prime People, St James’s Place, Dixon Retail, Barclays, Anglo (lol, its still listed on my account), CPL
Tech: Wolfson Micro Tech, Ericsson,

I've learned an a lot about the markets from my mistakes, which is good, but I have made a couple of quid on some disposals too, ie I have sold some that I felt I had made enough to cut and run. If I had the same view on losses I'd be much happier.

Over all my current holdings are up about 30% which aint bad considering some of the lemons I bought, that doesn't include disposals .

What I wanted to do is to look at something a kin to wine. I had looked at land in aisa or eastern europe but its just too much work for the amount I'd be looking to invest.

I looked at some of the forestry funds, but was but off by how pushy the sales people were, if the product was as good as they were making out, there would be know need for their sales tactics.

I do try to keep away from stocks covered by my pension funds.

[Mr_Roger_Bongos]

How about combining the two last things you said, Agriculature land and get a forestry company into manage it for you?

Edit - Fairly sure there are subsidies for planting out land.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Mr_Roger_Bongos

How about combining the two last things you said, Agriculature land and get a forestry company into manage it for you?

Edit - Fairly sure there are subsidies for planting out land.

It does stack up, but at c. €20k per hectare for suitable land alone in Ireland its a little out of my league.

I looked at agricultural land here and its a million miles off generating a return unless you want to work it yourself. Half decent grazing land is about 12k per acre and only rents at €140 per acre per annum.

[bear_hunter]

Originally Posted by whatnext

My heart wont let me do the precious metals, my gut feeling is that its the wrong way to go (my gut has been wrong many times though), but I feel I'm covered sufficiently in that area through my commodities pension fund anyway

I have a few lemons in the share portfolio, but others have been quite good.
Some are small companies that I have friends working for, others are whims and others are companies that I felt were in a good position to grow.

Pharma: Elan, Astra Zeneca
Telecoms: Vodafone
Engineering: Costain
Explotation: BHP Billiton, Dragon Oil, Jubilee Platinum, Prov Resources, San Leon,
Food Science: Kraft, Provexis, C&C
Business: Paddy Power, Prime People, St James’s Place, Dixon Retail, Barclays, Anglo (lol, its still listed on my account), CPL
Tech: Wolfson Micro Tech, Ericsson,

I've learned an a lot about the markets from my mistakes, which is good, but I have made a couple of quid on some disposals too, ie I have sold some that I felt I had made enough to cut and run. If I had the same view on losses I'd be much happier.

Over all my current holdings are up about 30% which aint bad considering some of the lemons I bought, that doesn't include disposals .

What I wanted to do is to look at something a kin to wine. I had looked at land in aisa or eastern europe but its just too much work for the amount I'd be looking to invest.

I looked at some of the forestry funds, but was but off by how pushy the sales people were, if the product was as good as they were making out, there would be know need for their sales tactics.

I do try to keep away from stocks covered by my pension funds.

im a little more conservative with my portfolio , i keep away from those small cap explorers


i had vodafone for a while but bought france telecom in april , was at a near year low , has a monster dividend of nearly 13% , its not as big or as solid as vodafone but dominates the french market , telecoms dont drop off the face of the earth , telefonica is another monster dividend payer , its the spanish provider but has a huge presence in latin america

i own the french energy major TOTAL , very good dividend of nearly 6% , BP or shell might be larger but their div isnt comparable

i owned BHP biliton for a while but sold it due to talk of china slowing down , its since made a healthy rebound, its a stock which very much relies on china and is a real bellweather of the australian economy

20% of my portfolio i made up of apple but i intend to reduce , apple cannot grow like it has but it should still be a great stock to own in the coming few years

i own two banks , i own a small amount of bank of ireland which i bought at 9 cent , i also own the spanish giant santander which has had an awfull year , that said its the biggest bank in europe and has a huge presence in latin america , its also pays a dividend of 10% , it could collapse but if it does , its a sign that europe is heading for disaster , its a long term hold

i own one healthcare stock , glaxosmithkline , huge company , up there with pfizer but with a significantly better dividend , that said i think an ETF which covers a bunch of healthcare companies is a better idea , that way you combine johnson and johnson with pfizer and co

im very bullish about agriculture going forward , glanbia and kerry have been my biggest gainers bar apple this past year , the dairy market has tremendous potential in this country and the visits by china earlier in the year are very significant , kraft foods which you own covers this area but i doubt it has the same growth potential

i also own john deere the tractor company but it hasnt done well for me , it should be a benifactor of the thriving agri sector globally but obviously has a few issues with its balance sheet , still , im holding on to it

i also own a small number of shares in two luxury goods companys , richemont and mulberry , mulberry is very volatile but has seen remarkable growth this past few years, this sector is heavily dependant on the growin middle class in china

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Mr_Roger_Bongos

I don't know any Financial Advisors, but it may be worth visiting one (if you can get good recommendations), they might be able to open alternative avenues of investment.

One point - If your in for the long haul, a few blue-chip companies with regular and solid dividends could be a sensible addition. Ideally companies with steady and reliable cash flow (the likes of bskyb/ mobile operators etc).

Also, consider how your pension performs relative to your share holdings. If it's very similar then you should re-consider the balance of your pension, perhaps it should be more/less defensive as opposed to neutral. It's your pension, so i'd encourage more defensive.

I've been to see quite a few financial advisors in the good old days, ie pre 2007
I never really bought into where I was being pushed. Not one of them could appreciate what I was trying to do. I was even called an idiot by one for not "getting my assets working for me". Without exception, I was advised to release equity from the property I had. Some suggested "investing" in Spanish property, others eastern Europe, Dubai, Cyprus etc etc. I was being pushed to go interest only, and even consolidate the properties into one loan to "max out my borrowing potential"

I'd love to post up some of the strategies I was being flogged.
One guy even sent me an invoice for €580 for a consultation.
I refused to pay, and by the time he went legal the market had collapsed.
I told him if he persued me further I would get advise he gave me published in the newspapers, not heard from him since.

The thing about financial advisors in my opinion is that unless you are a real high roller its hard for them to make a few bob off you with out selling expensive products with lots of fees or built in charges. I have no issue with that but I wish I knew that before I went