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Portfolio advice

  • 18-09-2020 9:32pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭


    Grateful for some opinions

    If one was in the position of having 250-300 k to invest what would you guys make of this plan:

    50k An Post 5 year saving certs at 0.98% per anum
    50k Merrrion 70 Maps multi asset fund
    50k Cantor fitzgerald structured 90% protected momentum bond
    20k Vanguard Euro gov bond etf
    30k Vanguard S&P500 etf
    20k vanguard msci world etf
    20k vanguard msci euro etf
    25k in a brokerage for forex trading where I consistently make 2-7% per year over the past 5 years
    10k Apple stock

    My risk appetite would be medium, ultimately I don’t need this money to live etc. But obviously don’t want to lose it.
    Pension is already taken care of.
    Day to day expenses taken care of by a good salary.


Comments

  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    I'd tell you to to spend a lot of time leaning about portfolio construction and that this is not it. At most when done properly - sector, geography etc... you need maybe four or five positions.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Fair enough. The forex account is basically fun and not really included and the an post is just a cash portion for a very rainy day which I am treating as cash. Apple is just a personal thing based on personal history and is essentially a fun stock also.

    Any advice on what you would do?

    My thinking is essentially splitting into cash, bonds and funds tracking equities.

    At the moment its essentially:

    Cash 18%
    Bonds 7%
    Forex 9%

    The rest is basically equities or funds heavily dependent on equities.

    I know i have to do my own homework etc but any advice would be appreciated.

    All i have invested so far is the apple stock, 20k in a vanguard eurozone bond etf (on German exchange) and 30k in the S&P tracking ETF on Dutch exchange. I am open to suggestions etc.

    I guess its very euro currency heavy too.

    I know people will say go get a financial advisor and i am meeting a few in the next few weeks but I like to see what I come up with myself too.

    Thanks


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    My thinking is essentially splitting into cash, bonds and funds tracking equities.
    I know people will say go get a financial advisor and i am meeting a few in the next few weeks but I like to see what I come up with myself too.

    And they'd be correct because you are looking at a four dimensional problem on only one dimension and that will get you burned.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Interestingly the one I met already recommended the prisma 4 fund exclusively.

    Any opinions Jim apart from saying it’s a ****e plan?


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  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    Interestingly the one I met already recommended the prisma 4 fund exclusively.

    Any opinions Jim apart from saying it’s a ****e plan?

    When you talk to a car salesman, he is going to try and sell you a car on his lot....

    Pay attention to Sarenco, Marc and Brendan.... they give good advice.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    When you talk to a car salesman, he is going to try and sell you a car on his lot....

    Pay attention to Sarenco, Marc and Brendan.... they give good advice.

    Yes I know. Pay off the mortgage. That’s noted.

    However I was hoping to discuss a good portfolio for 250k over the next 5-10 years. It being an internet discussion forum and all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,087 ✭✭✭Static M.e.


    Hi Nonoperational,

    Don't take this the wrong way but I think the amount of money you are planning on investing and your completely lack of experience is jarring for most people. I understand that you want to learn but you could lose a lot of your own money and nobody wants to see that.

    Have you considered putting 80/90% into an single fund tracking the S&P 500/MSCI world or some such and then using the 10 or 20% left as your personal learning fund to play with. Worse case then you will only lose a fraction of your money and the rest of it is relatively? safe tracking the market.

    In the mean time, take some time to find a financial advisor that will work with you and consider doing some reading like the Simple Path to Wealth

    That is more or less what I would do, if I was you.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Hi Nonoperational,

    Don't take this the wrong way but I think the amount of money you are planning on investing and your completely lack of experience is jarring for most people. I understand that you want to learn but you could lose a lot of your own money and nobody wants to see that.

    Have you considered putting 80/90% into an single fund tracking the S&P 500/MSCI world or some such and then using the 10 or 20% left as your personal learning fund to play with. Worse case then you will only lose a fraction of your money and the rest of it is relatively? safe tracking the market.

    In the mean time, take some time to find a financial advisor that will work with you and consider doing some reading like the Simple Path to Wealth

    That is more or less what I would do, if I was you.

    Yep, Of course I will get advice. I have 3 meetings set up next week with financial advisors. I just wanted to get some opinions. In reality what I'll probably end up doing is being quite cautious and anything that I do invest in the market will most likely be in a S&P 500 tracking fund.
    It's really disappointing to see some people take it as a personal slight that I'm a novice to investing!

    If you look at the initial spread of options its actually very defensive. Forget the forex account, that seems to piss people rightly off. That's just something I like to do and I know it could all go in a flash.

    The An post is 100% guaranteed (as much as anything is these days) and although you could argue with inflation etc I'm not going to lose any of the capital.

    The equity options are mostly index tracking funds.

    The apple shares are something I have for a while, I like Apple as a company, have done since I bought an Apple SE as my first computer. Its probably the only individual share I'll buy and although highly valued I believe they have a really solid future, starting with ARM Macs.

    The structured fund is out the window after reading more about it. Expensive and confers little advantage over directly investing in the index.

    Reading about multi asset portfolios, they seem to be a reasonable option for people if you can leave them for some time?

    Just on your comment about losing a lot of money, the forex aside, what products would you be particularly concerned about in the initial list of options?


    So if I rebooted and put it like this taking out the forex gambling and the saving certs which are essentially my cash reserve, 200k to invest with a horizon of 10 years. What would people suggest? Would an S&P tracking fund and a Multi asset fund be reasonable?

    Thanks for taking the time to post a decent reply.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    Would an S&P tracking fund and a Multi asset fund be reasonable?

    No because if you stop looking at it a long one dimension, you'll realise it is problematic.

    Best advice would be to park your money and spend six months educating yourself on how to manage your money.

    https://www.vanguard.ch/documents/literature/global-case-for-strategic-asset-allocation.pdf


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  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    No because if you stop looking at it a long one dimension, you'll realise it is problematic.

    Best advice would be to park your money and spend six months educating yourself on how to manage your money.

    https://www.vanguard.ch/documents/literature/global-case-for-strategic-asset-allocation.pdf
    Hi Jim

    Thanks for the link. Could I ask you to elaborate a bit of the one dimensional comment you’ve made a few times. I understand you don’t want to spoon feed but you’ve made the comment a few times now without elaborating.


    If you were looking at a broad sensible asset allocation would you go down the index fund route? There appears to be a trend ultimately that unless the manages funds get lucky they either track the index over time or do worse?

    I’m sorry if I came across as brash. I’m genuinely interested in this area and looking to learn. So far I’ve basically no commitment to anything however 2 financial advisors now are advising maps funds as I said. That’s why the opinion here is welcome.


  • Registered Users Posts: 632 ✭✭✭FernandoTorres


    Your portfolio should reflect what you're trying to achieve with the money as well as your age, personal circumstances etc. I don't think anyone here could give you proper advice without doing a deep dive into that stuff, hence people recommending speaking to an adviser. I'd make sure you're seeing genuinely independent advisers and not ones working for the banks or insurance companies as they're just product floggers.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Noted, Thanks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭Diarmuid


    Simplify it a lot and split it into a broad indexed bond and board index equity ETF. The split will depend on your risk appetite.
    But obviously don’t want to lose it.
    Nobody wants to lose it, but are you prepared to sit tight if it dropped, 5, 10, 20%?


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,400 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    Diarmuid wrote: »
    Simplify it a lot and split it into a broad indexed bond and board index equity ETF. The split will depend on your risk appetite.

    Nobody wants to lose it, but are you prepared to sit tight if it dropped, 5, 10, 20%?

    Yep I’ll sit tight for 5-10 no problem. Thanks for the advise. For the index equity the s&p or msci world seem to be reasonable representations of the general market sentiment.

    The bonds I’m less sure of. Any suggestions ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭Diarmuid


    Well one of the broadest world equities is still 60% S&P Wouldn't have a whole lot of advise on bonds. I just selected a broad medium term bond ETF which was mostly US government bonds

    EDIT, Your tax considerations should be on of the most important aspects to your portfolio


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,306 ✭✭✭bobbyy gee


    expect big crash in markets due to covid


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