As I’m still quite new to this whole world and am building this portfolio on my own (with advice, LOTS, of amazing advice on here)
I wanted to do a quick post with what my portfolio looks like and to gain some feedback (I’m not looking to change it too much and I know I use Vanguard a lot but they’re OCF’s are low and I have friends who use them directly) I keep bombarding others posts with questions so felt it simpler to do my own.
VUKE and VMID (To cover UK)
VERX
VAPX
VFEM
VNRT and VUSA (I only need one but can’t decide if I need Canada or not and S&P works pretty well for me?!)
Still to get VJPN
I was advised and also watched lots of videos on holding a bond
A world bond or a UK bond?
VAGP looks good and I’m unsure about holding 100% bond in the UK.
Probably do 40% bond 60% equity?
I hold other stocks but these are separate in my mind to this portfolio.
@CeeGee. Just looking at your portfolio it seems you are trying to diversify and cover all the major share markets which is good. But have you considered trying to do it with 1 Vanguard ETF such as the Vanguard FTSE All World ( VWRL)? The reason being that even using low fee Vanguard ETFs you will still be incurring annual charges. To minimise your costs it may be better to pay 1 set of annual charge instead of potentially 8. These costs do add up especially if plan to hold them for a long time.
Similarly with Bond funds, you would want diversification and minimising annual charges so you could go for a Vanguard Global Aggregate Bond ETF (VAGP) which gives you a nice spread of different types of bonds. While only paying 1 set if annual charge.
In regards to the percentage split of bonds and shares (I know you call it equity but it is the same thing), it depends on how long you plan to invest and your risk/reward profile. Traditionally Bonds are seen as less risky then shares. But the price for that is less reward compared to shares. Shares have the potential to increase your reward compared to Bonds but at the expense that you could actually lose money.
So for example if you are very risk adverse or you are near to retirement (say less than 5 years). Where you cannot afford to lose your money in says a stock market crash. Your percentage split may be 80% Bonds/ 20% Shares.
Conversely if your time horizon for investing is longer, says 20 - 30 years or you are more willing to take risks for potentially greater rewards, your split may be 80% Share ( or even 90%) / 20% Bonds.
Normally I would advocate using bonds, but given the market and future outlook, im personally going a 0 bond allocation and all stocks or ETFs. More risk, more return.
I feel having a good portion in ETFs with a “play money” allocation to stocks could fair quite nicely.
As Abel pointed out, it might be handy to grab a few “All World” ETFs just to have a slice of the global market in a nice package. It will double up on some things, but nice to have I feel.
VJPN dances a little high, but still worth popping in.
All the best !
Edit: - Just so you know, at these prices I am currently on the sidelines still with a wad of cash, so I’m not exactly encouraging you to go buying up like crazy just yet, as I am not. I sold a good few just prior to the drop on Friday but hoping to get my foot back in for a lower price. The only trades i’m making are with individual stocks.
Yes.
I think the real money will be made for the companies that can return 20 - 30 %.
The ETF returns just seem trivial right now, hence why I sold a lot of my stakes.
It’s been a hell of a month though.
Some days I think Bogle was right when he said “never sell”, but it’s so hard riding this wave lol.
As soon as the another wave of stimulus checks gets announced for the US im sure the markets will rally up, but if they don’t come, we could see a rocky path. Flip of a coin which way it’s going right now, not a clue.
Country PMI data looks promising though, so im 60% feeling a bull rally is going to carry on and reverse this dip, maybe in the next few weeks, but still unsure.
You have encapsulated my feeling as well. That is why I am targeting individual shares.
My feelings that there is further dips to go in the US. Especially with renewed lockdowns and the eventually realisation of how bad it is. Even further stimulus checks may not sway the general public. I can see alot of them keeping it in their bank accounts because of unemployment fears.
Same with the UK and we haven’t even dealt with Brexit yet!
@Abel
Had the market continued its bull run I may have been forced to get some bonds, but with prices often dropping suddenly I haven’t had to resort to that yet and instead can focus on lowering my cost average on days where the FX rate isn’t similarly beaten and battered.
Choosing multiple ETFs may cost more and cover less than the all-world, but it may just give a better control over which sectors get the most or least money, certain comapnies may be present that has @CeeGee optimistic.
In fact VWRL comes with OCF of 0.22%, whereas a combination of VUSA, VUKE, VERX, VJPN, VAPX and VFEM that covers the same regions has a weighted OCF of about 0.10%. That is because VWRL is about 60% USA and VUSA has OCF of 0.07%. The most expensive component is VFEM which has fee of 0.22% the same as VWRL overall. The one-stop solution of VWRL is expensive by comparison, though you do get quarterly rebalancing that you would not get if you just bought the individual ETFs in initially correct weights.
The popular Vanguard Lifestratgy funds are designed to be over-weight in UK equities, about 25%. This has accounted for some poor performance in recent years, as I know to my cost. Whereas, VWRL is only about 4% UK. Vanguard thinks that investors like to be overweight in their home market as they tend to benchmark performance to the FTSE UK All Share index.
That looks about right, except that VWRL would have the percentages of VJPN and VAPX the other way around. I think you will see little difference between VEUR and VUKE+VMID+VERX. Only with hindsight can you know which is better.
Out of interest what total return do you see every month on average from your picks? 2%? 5%? 10%?
For a while I had IITU getting 6-8% per month just on that.
Is it case you have majority in safe ETFs, and keep some aside as “play” money for exciting speculative stocks or swing trades?
I’m really bad at keeping money in the safer but slow burn ones, need to stop looking at penny stocks. So many swing pump and dump plays happening I find it slow hard collecting say 10% return a month when I can make 50% return in a week on something volatile.
Recent swing plays on penny stocks can get 300% in a day or two. Current play is GNUS and MARK. Obviously you don’t get the no fuss sit back and chill with that. Win some, lose some, but I sleep fine at night it’s money I can afford to lose.
Thanks for all the replies. So much food for thought.
I did buy the VAGP bond but just the one share so nothing too outrageous. Just feels reassuring having something at a 3/7 risk rather than my other ETF’s at a 5. The return won’t be exciting but I’ll continue to top it up each month.
At the beginning at this wild journey I was thinking “CFD silver and away I go” that was a whole area I’m not heading back to anytime soon so I’m looking at 10/15 years now. So I guess that’s a decent amount of time to up my stock % and lower my bond %
Question - what other all world ETF’s would I need if I hold what I do now?
Yes been waiting for VJPN to drop a little but I guess it all balances out eventually.
I hold quite a few single stocks, like everyone else it’s a mine field knowing weather to hold or sell or what to do. I don’t want to be the one in 1/2/3 years time saying “Hindsight” I trust in them and hope for good things. I don’t have a gold ETF I’m backing GGP, another wonderful volatile joinery.
Yes @Dao that was my thinking entirely, this way yes I pay slightly more in the long run (TBH it’s never going to be an amount that makes my eyes water ) but (when PIE is fully up and running) I can self balance my ETF’s out with auto instalments and be in control of where I put my money monthly rather than go all in one huge world ETF and everything’s allocated in one. Feels like a more optimistic approach. May not be the most savvy way.
My average is 7.67 atm, I did have 50k shares but sold 10k shares. Less than a penny I wish! Need a time machine back to 2018.
It’s at a pretty good point to buy atm 11.50-12p. looking forward to the next step up.
I originally saw it at 4p and then tried to buy at ~6p but T212 had issues where it was only at auction times, then instantish, then back to auction, and it sometimes failed, sometimes worked so it was bloody frustrating. It’s all fine since then. You can read about it here if you are bored. I managed to takeover three threads with my grumbles.
Anyway that’s all in the past now. Looking forward to seeing where it goes over the next year. I’m happy just holding those atm but to me it’s very derisked now so would be happy holding more.
Hindsight again. I’m happy to roll back to 2018 too for that price. My average price is 12p but I have loud alerts set for any dips!
That’s majorly frustrating, always the way when you want something you know you’re onto (hopefully ) a good thing with and something’s standing in the way.
I’m actually wanting at discover the next “potential big thing” GGP and PHE are staying put, I don’t even mind seeing the red (although PHE are climbing nicely)
Will have a read, some of my buys get stuck in pending for a long time until I have to cancel and buy again. Thankfully it’s never been detrimental to me. I just put in down to glitches although I’m sure that was a stressful time with GGP
I find it slow hard collecting say 10% return a month when I can make 50% return in a week on something volatile.
) but (when PIE is fully up and running) I can self balance my ETF’s out with auto instalments and be in control of where I put my money monthly rather than go all in one huge world ETF and everything’s allocated in one. Feels like a more optimistic approach. May not be the most savvy way.
but in a good way.
but I have loud alerts set for any dips!