UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

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Topic Author
GeorgeFarlaine
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:55 am

UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by GeorgeFarlaine »

Hello All,

This is my first Post here. I have a SIPP with Fidelity and have been doing pretty well for the last 4 years.
Overall my portfolio total return is +43%. This has really been luck as I brought the investments over from my previous Aviva Pension which was on an Adventurous pathway.
I have recently seen quite a large downturn in total portfolio return, it was ~80% early 2021. After this huge movement and after investing money last year to see it disappear I felt it is now time to get serious with this and understand Investments with Fidelity and how I can work better with them.
I have recently had Fidelity calling me and asking if I would like to join their advice scheme. I feel its quite expensive and feel it would be better for me to understand Investments rather than paying Fidelity a large sum each year.

So any advice, pointers or tips would be wonderful.
- At the moment I play a game of seeing which Investments are low and moving them around. This I feel is not sustainable!
- I am also aware the Markets are bad at the moment and tend to sit and wait rather than selling and buying all the time.
- I am hopefully 10 years away from Retirement and have a decent amount to invest in my SIPP over those 10 years. But do not wish to throw this away!


Country of Residence: UK

International Lifestyle: Potential move to Thailand

Currency: GBP

Emergency funds: Yes

Debt: A mortgage

Age: 45

Desired Asset allocation: Not sure

Current Portfolio is ~£300k

_______________________________________________________________


Current fund details


Name | Gain/loss

Artemis SmartGARP Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund I Acc GBP
"£220.27 +9.31%"

ASI Asia Pacific Equity Fund I Acc
"£6,784.83 +51.21%"

BlackRock Continental European Income Fund Class D Acc
"£3,984.49 +34.29%"

BNY Mellon Asian Income Institutional W Acc
"£6,635.71 +43.90%"

Fidelity Emerging Markets Fund W-ACC
"£2,595.81 +25.21%"

Fidelity Global Dividend Fund W-Accumulation (UK)
"£171.42 +13.05%"

Franklin UK Equity Income Fund W Acc
"£223.19 +10.76%"

FTF Martin Currie US Unconstrained Fund X Acc
"£10,775.18 +78.68%"

Janus Henderson European Focus I Acc
"£5,552.89 +43.11%"

JPM Emerging Markets Income Fund C - Net Accumulation
"£4,943.25 +50.97%"

Jupiter European Fund I Class Acc
"£6,634.74 +47.52%"

Jupiter Merian Asia Pacific Fund U1 GBP Acc
"£796.23 +15.85%"

Jupiter Merian North American Equity Fund U1 GBP Acc
"£1,224.87 +24.38%"

Jupiter North American Income Fund I Class Acc 207.38p
"£8,663.03 +55.74%"

Jupiter Strategic Bond I Class Acc
"-£501.22 -9.86%"

Jupiter UK Special Situations Fund I Class Acc
"£2,646.32 +42.82%"

M&G Global Emerging Markets Fund I Acc
"£3,464.90 +54.16%"

MI Somerset Emerging Markets Dividend Growth A Accumulation shares
"£404.17 +6.69%"

Ninety One UK Special Situations I Acc Net GBP
"£1,192.60 +19.21%"

Rathbone Global Opportunities Inst Acc
"-£550.96 -9.02%"

Schroder Asian Income Fund Z Accumulation
"£5,288.37 +51.44%"

Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders Sustainability B Acc
"£7,687.29 +53.93%"

Vanguard U.S. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc
"£7,986.23 +85.65%"


______________________________________________

New investments

I potentially have between 10k and 40k a year to invest in new funds

_______________________________________________________________
Questions:
1. I have spread my Investments over a number of Portfolios but how do I know if something is doing well or needs to be sold and reinvested? I have 2 investments above that are not doing well. Should I sit on these or sell them?

2. At the moment I feel like I am being very lucky with my guesses I would prefer not to rely on luck as I'm sure this will run out. Any help on the best way to Invest like a grown up would be hugely welcomed

3. Any Portfolio tips would be great, I wish to avoid paying Fidelity for an advisor

4. General help to a human who works hard, feels they have been very lucky with their SIPP and wishes to continue with earning money on the investments I have made
Genghis
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:53 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by Genghis »

Move to passive investing. Accept that you don’t know what is going to happen in future.

With Fidelity SIPPs, the account fee is limited to £45 pa if the investments are exchange traded. So consider buying the Vanguard FTSE All World ETF (acc) or the iShares All Country World Index ETF (acc) dampened with some bonds and more as you approach retirement.

Keep it simple and stay the course.
minimalistmarc
Posts: 1636
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:38 pm

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by minimalistmarc »

Sell all these holdings and buy vanguard all world ETF, then keep buying more. ETF ticker VWRL (income) or VWRP (accumulating)
Topic Author
GeorgeFarlaine
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:55 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by GeorgeFarlaine »

Thank you for the advise both

@Genghis what do you mean exactly by

“dampened with some bonds”
xxd091
Posts: 495
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:41 am
Location: UK

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by xxd091 »

George -seeing the light is a great moment
You have had some ups and downs with stockpicking but don’t feel it’s your way ahead
That’s the major turning point for most amateur investors
What to do then?
I speak as an ancient investor (75) and Boglehead for many years
Advice would be buy a global equities index tracker for your equities and a global bond index tracker hedged to the pound for your bonds
Simple cheap easy to understand and will beat over 80% of managed funds
Concentrate then on your day job and making money,live frugally and save as much as you can
The point of bonds is to reduce volatility in your portfolio so you can sleep at night plus some growth from interest returns
100%.equities when you are young-more bonds when you have generated a large portfolio and /are retired (ie I am 20 years retd 30/70 equities/bonds with a large enough pot saved)
Another rule is your age minus 10 for % of bonds in your portfolio
Lots of reading required -John Bogles books-Monevator.com a good website
Welcome aboard!
xxd091
Valuethinker
Posts: 49027
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by Valuethinker »

Agree re other posters.

Put 70-80% of the funds in Vanguard World Index fund. I would split the balance between

1. UK govt bond fund (gilt index) or global bonds GBP hedged

2. UK govt index-linked bond fund - these are bonds whose value is proofed against inflation. The prices are more volatile but the protection is there against inflation that the market does not expect (for example in this past year the value of the bonds will have risen by c 10% simply because of high inflation).

When stocks are falling (by more than bonds) as they are now, you would then "rebalance" once a year or so - selling bond fund, buying stock fund.

This works better in an ISA or SIPP than in a taxable account. Where are these savings located?

Your alternative is to use the appropriate Vanguard Target Date fund. That has the great advantage of "fire and forget".
Topic Author
GeorgeFarlaine
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:55 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by GeorgeFarlaine »

Thanks for the reply

This is a fidelity SIPP

From the advice here I have split ~50% of my holdings between:

- ISHARES V PLC, MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF USD ACC (SSAC)
- VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL-WORLD UCITS ETF USD DIS (VWRL)
- VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL WORLD UCITS ETF GBP ACC (VWRP)

And kept the other 50% split between:

- M&G Global Emerging Markets Fund I Acc
- Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders Sustainability B Acc
- JPM Emerging Markets Income Fund C - Net Accumulation
- Vanguard U.S. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc
- FTF Martin Currie US Unconstrained Fund X Acc
- Schroder Asian Income Fund Z Accumulation
- ASI Asia Pacific Equity Fund I Acc
- Jupiter North American Income Fund I Class Acc

I am now watching the UK bonds you have mentioned

Thanks for the advice. I will report back with how things are going and will begin a few big reads of all the info provided.
minimalistmarc
Posts: 1636
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:38 pm

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by minimalistmarc »

GeorgeFarlaine wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:27 pm Thanks for the reply

This is a fidelity SIPP

From the advice here I have split ~50% of my holdings between:

- ISHARES V PLC, MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF USD ACC (SSAC)
- VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL-WORLD UCITS ETF USD DIS (VWRL)
- VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL WORLD UCITS ETF GBP ACC (VWRP)

And kept the other 50% split between:

- M&G Global Emerging Markets Fund I Acc
- Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders Sustainability B Acc
- JPM Emerging Markets Income Fund C - Net Accumulation
- Vanguard U.S. Equity Index Fund GBP Acc
- FTF Martin Currie US Unconstrained Fund X Acc
- Schroder Asian Income Fund Z Accumulation
- ASI Asia Pacific Equity Fund I Acc
- Jupiter North American Income Fund I Class Acc

I am now watching the UK bonds you have mentioned

Thanks for the advice. I will report back with how things are going and will begin a few big reads of all the info provided.
That makes no sense to me but if you’re happy enough with it go for it. Personally, as a minimalist it hurts my eyes.

VWRP would have been fine for a single holding.
Topic Author
GeorgeFarlaine
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:55 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by GeorgeFarlaine »

@minimalistmarc you mean you would put all money into VWRP? Isn’t that all eggs in 1 basket? Out of interest why? Isn’t it a safer bet to split across multiple?

FYI my second ~50% have given me between 50-90% returns over the last 6 years which felt sensible to stick with.

I obviously need to put some time into understanding all of this more.
xxd091
Posts: 495
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:41 am
Location: UK

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by xxd091 »

Rather agree with minimilistmarc
A complicated portfolio is fun and may achieve above average results for a while
Boringly for most of us buying a global equities index tracker does the same job with much less hassle
However a persons stock picking prowess could be exceptional/lucky -you may be better than most investors-time will tell
Just bear in mind when your choices come off the boil the advice from various posters here
Hopefully you will have made successful stock picks but it is unusual for an amateur stock picker to beat the index over long periods of time ie pension investments
xxd091
Valuethinker
Posts: 49027
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by Valuethinker »

GeorgeFarlaine wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 5:11 pm @minimalistmarc you mean you would put all money into VWRP? Isn’t that all eggs in 1 basket? Out of interest why? Isn’t it a safer bet to split across multiple?
It's what the underlying index being tracked is, not the number of funds doing roughly the same thing:
- minimise costs
- track as broad an index as possible

I don't know why you are splitting between USD and GBP funds? Normally we invest in GBP funds, as UK domiciled investors.
FYI my second ~50% have given me between 50-90% returns over the last 6 years which felt sensible to stick with.

I obviously need to put some time into understanding all of this more.
Past performance is no predictor of future performance. That's why Bogleheads stick to simple indexing: 1-2 for equities (it depends whether the main fund or ETF also covers Emerging Markets) and 1 ((usually) for bonds.
Valuethinker
Posts: 49027
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by Valuethinker »

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting ... _investors

I would recommend starting here and reading all the relevant wiki articles.
TedSwippet
Posts: 5181
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:19 pm
Location: UK

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by TedSwippet »

Valuethinker wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:11 am I don't know why you are splitting between USD and GBP funds? Normally we invest in GBP funds, as UK domiciled investors.
Is this what you're referring to?:
GeorgeFarlaine wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 4:27 pm - VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL-WORLD UCITS ETF USD DIS (VWRL)
- VANGUARD FUNDS PLC, FTSE ALL WORLD UCITS ETF GBP ACC (VWRP)
If so, VWRL trades in GBP, USD, EUR, and CHF. But yes, unless you happen to already hold USD currency somewhere, trading this in USD rather than GBP would be strange. This ETF's base currency is USD; maybe that's where the "USD" in its name comes from?

Anyway, that nuance aside, there is no reason at all to hold both of these. They both track the same index, and so will contain the exact same underlying stocks. Their only difference is distributing/accumulating. No additional diversification at all. Not even fund provider diversification. Because this is in a SIPP, holding just VWRP would be fine.
Topic Author
GeorgeFarlaine
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:55 am

Re: UK Investor - Portfolio Advice

Post by GeorgeFarlaine »

Amazing thanks all. I’ll correct this later today.

These are mistakes I have made from not understanding the meaning of the names and the funds.

Thanks for the links will have a good read.
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