SSIA Final Amount

thegills

Howdy,

Is there a thread on what our SSIA's matured at or is there a website which compares the different companies who invested our money??

I went with EBS Global Fund and after 5 years I have the grand sum of €20,700. Considering that there was €19,367 invested it means that my fund earned only €1,500 over the 5 years. The could have just fleeced me for fee's.

Anyway, I think this is poor and was wondering if anybody else invested in EBS or any other funds and would care to share the final amounts here.

thegills

hamster

Hi Gills,

No they didn't fleece you. That ESB fund has an annual 1.5% charge (no bid/offer spread which is good) - like the other 2 funds (ie Growth and Balanced). I split my monthly contributions as follows: 60% (growth) / 20% (Balanced) / 20% (Global) with ESB. It finished last year for me.

You had the Global fund (100% I assume?). ESB Global didnt do well because of the drop of the dollar (the fund mostly was invested in US funds). The growth and balanced did well. The Global final unit price was lower than it started with... but you were average cost buying along the way each month. So when it did rise (although not back to where it started) you made something and also have the government portion. Certainly better than those Arklife PEPs anyway. I had 22K at the end. Not much in it to be honest. A lot of luck really. If you had 100% in Celtic fund with Quinn Life you'd have 25K-26K. But it's all luck really - better to expect average growth rather long term. Next year will be interesting... Will the ole ISEQ beat 4 years on the trot?

WICKL0W

€40K, 4 months ago is the highest that I have heard. Got into Japanese Equity at right time and exited also at the right time taking a bit of other equity markets and geared property funds along the way.

hamster

WICKL0W wrote:

€40K, 4 months ago is the highest that I have heard. Got into Japanese Equity at right time and exited also at the right time taking a bit of other equity markets and geared property funds along the way.

That's pretty good. Though, I'm pretty nervous when it comes to trying to "time" the market. The SSIA monthly contribution was a great way to demonstrate how to reduce volatility by buying a little each month.

In my case, I never decided to interfere with my 60 / 20 / 20 spread. The last 20% was in EBS Global for example - and that was underperforming - at least it was buying more units at a weaker price. Had it been 60 months at the start - the Global fund would have hit the fund by 20%-30% down. Even the 60% Growth section's unit price was barely the same at the end as it was the start.. and it still returned 25% growth for 60% of the fund. The final value of Global in comparison was static... ie, what I have put was at the same.

In any fund, if I get average performance compared to the other funds that map the same market/risk profile and have low charges I will be happy.

hamster

I agree China, the Far east and India are going to do well long term assuming (a lot) that they adopt our consumption model. I would like to put 10-20% in there for long term growth... just remembering to put up with the potential downside of -30+% swings that will surely come.

I mean look at Quinn's life track of China - 19% in one month.
http://www.quinn-life.com/qdi_fundprices.html

opus

hamster wrote:

I mean look at Quinn's life track of China - 19% in one month.
http://www.quinn-life.com/qdi_fundprices.html

They launched the China fund just at the time my SSIA (also with Quinn) matured so I put half of it in that fund & the rest in the Celtic one, figured these would be a reasonable idea for a 5 year stretch so am amazed at the increase in two months, long may it continue

hamster

opus wrote:

They launched the China fund just at the time my SSIA (also with Quinn) matured so I put half of it in that fund & the rest in the Celtic one, figured these would be a reasonable idea for a 5 year stretch so am amazed at the increase in two months, long may it continue

Brave! You put 50% into the China fund (must be close to 10K) in that. All at once? Hope it works out over the long run.

shapez

I have a question.

Do people think it would be worth re-investing the the like of the Celtic/China Funds that are available for a further period of time? I know the graph states it's all good but is it too good to be true??

hamster

shapez wrote:

I have a question.

Do people think it would be worth re-investing the the like of the Celtic/China Funds that are available for a further period of time? I know the graph states it's all good but is it too good to be true??

Shapez,

It all depends on you, the return usually depends on the risk - the greater the risk, usually the greater the return. Investing in the Celtic Fund - would be medium/high risk - the longer you leave it invested the more lower that risk and you can lower it again by gradually investing say over a period rather than a big lump sum.

Ask yourself,
1. Would you need that money while it was invested for 3-5 years? No point cashing it in case of an emergency - it could be down -20% at that point. You'd have to wait.
2. Would you leave it invested if you saw it had fallen 5% in a day? 10-15% over 2 months
3. Would you cash it in after year 1 if it grew 25% in one year like this 2007?

But the most important point, you can't predict the markets - you can guess - but even those shrewd guesses can be ditched by unforseen events. My gut feeling would be to invest it if you don't need the money, have time to leave it sit for several years and accept the risk that comes with it.

We had four good years now since March 2003. I remember because when I started in 1999. I was waiting nearly 3-4 years for an upturn putting up with swings of -50%... examine the eurozone fund (up to mar 2003). But sit tight it usually (no guarentee) comes back. The past performance doesn't imply how it perform in future.

One good thing about these funds is that it is not invested in any particular share. You'll have a nice spread for such a relatively small investment. And the year charge is competitive at 1%. (Euro / Celtic). Note that the newer funds including the US one is 1.5% but there is no bid spread. Ie, no hidden charges up front.

Good luck.

opus

hamster wrote:

Brave! You put 50% into the China fund (must be close to 10K) in that. All at once? Hope it works out over the long run.

Granted it might fluctuate but personally I see China as a one way bet. It should be the number one economy in the world in the next 20 years or so, came across this article on the BBC website but I've read it in a lot of other places as well.

shapez

@hamster : Many thanks for your time and information in the reply. Much appreciated.

RainyDay

WICKL0W wrote:

€40K, 4 months ago is the highest that I have heard. Got into Japanese Equity at right time and exited also at the right time taking a bit of other equity markets and geared property funds along the way.

Did you see the paperwork?