I’m pretty new to this and always researching and reading up on bits.
Just wondering what your thoughts were on the way to split up my portfolio? Any advice would be appreciated.
I’m only starting out with a modest £3k and going to top up around £300-£500 per month. I’m looking to play the long game really. Is it worth keeping a bit of float for when you think/researched a low stock for a quick scalp? (I’m only talking around 200).
I have (like most of us) made some errors really early on. Now I’m thinking as I’m 32 and looking at my retirement fund at having 40% dedicated to an S&P index and the remainder split across various stocks, the pie on BETA looks perfect for me. How many companies/sectors would you recommended? I have selected around 18 companies so far to diversify, companies I like and trust.
32 is still pretty young, even if you are just starting. Your question is very generic and there are probably millions of correct answers for it
If you scroll a little bit under “active trading” category, there are bunch of people posting portfolios for opinions. they range from a few ETFs to set of complete shares. I am pasting some examples at the bottom of this post.
But to anyone who is starting to invest, my biggest recommendation would be to first invest in yourself. Spend may £50-100 of that 3K and you can buy plenty of good books. Not books like “how to get rich in 3 steps” but fundamentals like “The Intelligent Investor” or “Rich Dad Poor Dad”
And you’re right about the get rich and quick thing, I followed the wrong advice at the start. I’m still up fortunately but needed a more rational strategy.
I can only second what @kali said in regards to educating yourself and looking other people’s posts to get some ideas.
But I would recommend that you first clarify your goals and timescales. You mention a retirement fund but what age were you planning to retire? 55yrs, 68yrs, 80yrs?. This will give you an idea of your investment horizon. Then what are your goals for the retirement fund? Are you planning to take an income from it via dividends or selling the shares to take an income…or a combination of both? If so how much annual income are you thinking you will need?
Choosing any of the retirement age suggests a long time scale so you could look at building a portfolio more skewered towards shares. As they give a higher return compared to other asset classes in the long term. If you are not looking for income, then growth shares may be more preferable to ensure you reach a sizeable retirement fund. As you near the retirement age, you would skewer your portfolio to “safer” assets such as bonds to protect your retirement fund.
You can achieve this by buying individual shares. But if you do not have the time or inclination to monitor the shares yourself then using ETFs would be ideal for both shares and bonds as a way to diversify your portfolio.
Because we are dealing with long time scales where the price of shares may drop in the short term, then it is a sound idea to have some cash as a float to take advantage of these opportunities when they come along.
