LIC & LIT Listed Investment Companies (LICs) 2019

@SatayKing thanks to decades of dividend investing now has a bottomless pit of regular income way way in excess of his living expenses. It seems like he perpetually buys more shares multiple times weekly. Bloody fantastic addiction to have. I’m a little more gun shy at the moment.

Whopping distributions from VAS and less so from VGS just hit the account today. Don’t need the cash, what to do? Decisions, decisions ... . Just don’t need this sort of stress in retirement. Don’t know how @SatayKing copes with it. Any wise suggestions SK?

 

Wondering if this should be posted in 'First World Problems' section

 

@Snowball thanks for the heads up re Vanguard as I haven't checked my usual accounts today. And don't sweat about wanting but not having sufficient funds. Like most you can only do what you can within resources available. Same applies to me. Has to. And I'm silently grateful I have zero to do with property apart from living in one.

I'm not one to offer advice on what to do. It'd be foolish of me to do so as I've stuffed up many times. My observations of others is they can stress trying to hold on to something they have purchased rather than getting rid of the millstone. Simple example a fella bought a pricey car but it was a lemon to such an extent he didn't want his wife driving it as it was liable to breakdown. But he wouldn't get rid of it because of how much he paid even though he could afford to get another car. My view is he was nuts. The car owned him. Same could apply to a lot of things.

To answer @Nodrog, ya can give your money to me if you find it hard to make a decision

On a serious note at this time of the year funds will be going to charites I support (homelessness, mental health and assistance for those who suffer domestic violence) as they are in a crap situation whereas I'm not. No point having money just to look at it. And yes I'll be claiming a deduction - unless BS and crew consider I'm avoiding tax by doing so and disallow these in the future. You never know

Stressful is life he he.

 

Consider DRP

That’s what I do. Don’t need this cash problem. Too stressful and makes you sometimes diverge from investment plan.

Cheers
Oracle

 

One of mine still does this I think. In the past if some tax had to be paid simply asked the Testamentary Discretionary Trust to release the necessary funds. No idea what is happening now as I'm no longer involved in the Trust. Really hope they know how fortunate they are. Probably not.

 

Don't mean to wind back the clock @SatayKing but i recall you buying AFI as your first investment and i think you said brokerage was $120 bucks through JB Were maybe????, is AFI your major holding and is it by a country mile or have others closed the gap?

Just a little curious how that mind of yours works over the years of accumulation thats all dont mean to intrude!

Cheers!

 

Ask away. If I don't wish to answer a question I won't. Pretty easy about.

Yep, JB Were. Full service broker then so breathe a sigh of relief those cost don't apply today! Not now though as pay 0.1% brokerage.

By cost base as I don't track price variations, AFI isn't my largest holding. ARG, AFI, MLT, STW, PMC, WHF, VGS, MIR and then the rest. Probably still have too many separate holdings but, meh, reluctance, laziness and the like. Frankly I'm comfortable with the way it is at the moment maybe too much so.

See there is a thread on the WOW buy-back. Great as it's one less decision I need to make. I'm with @Nodrog with regard to decisions. Hey, should I outsource my decision problems to him? Frantabolous thought.

 

Appreciate the reply! So it was all go for aussie income in the early days and then later in the piece diversified globally like many others here on the forum ( in your case pmc and djw or dui??? And then vgs (lower yield tho).

Im very interested as to ppl behaviours and tendencies when they have got the dividend stream income snowballing along locally how they then diversify in other markets be it for total return or income etc etc!

 

Bloody hell, that’d require me to have to update my spreadsheet with another transaction. Alright for you working fellas but I’m a retiree, too much work.

 

What! Bloody hell again I’m still recovering from a panic attack / hyperthermia as a result of braving swimming in 25C water this afternoon. Dealing with your problems as well would likely send me over the edge.

 

He he. Trying to decide if I have a problem with that, ie more bloody decisions.

 

Hence, I use Sharesight cloud based software. It already does all the work. All I need to do is click one button to say the dividend / reinvestment amounts are correct based on the statement I receive from share registry. About 30 seconds of work once a quarter for each ETF I hold.

Compared to amount of time I spend in keeping track of my investment property transactions/maintenance this is bliss.

I have even automated recording any purchase/sale of shares. The contract note is forwarded to email address setup for my account and Sharesight automatically parses the contract note details and records the transaction against the correct account with the contract note as attachment to the transaction.

Tell you what I don't think I would ever go back to manual spreadsheet to record shares transactions.

Cheers,
Oracle.

 

Alright for you young fellas but I’m too old to learn new software. More stress in retirement. Not right I tell you.

 

Not quite. There wasn't much in the way of International listed then. So it was Aussie only generally or unlisted (Arrrrgggghhhh) for International. It was forced to a degree.

Had a quick look at listing dates for some I have:

ARG: 31/3/1963
AFI: 30/6/1962
MLT: 17/4/1962
MIR: 28/6/2001
WHF: 2/8/1971
PMC: 29/6/1994
STW: 27/8/2001

VGS: 20/11/2014

And to pander to VAS holders it was listed 8/5/2009.

So you can see International was in short supply at one stage.

Now the scenario is different and investors are fortunate to have a wider choice, can decide on their their preferred asset allocation if they wish and can do so at an earlier age. Pretty good going now I reckon.

For spreadsheets and all those esoteric calculations mine is simple - probably to the horror of many. Haven't done pricing thing for a few years now. That's the job of the accountant if and when necessary.

ASX Code: Total number of Shares: Total cost base.

For dividend statements it's right click, save as. Same with contract notes (are they still called that as I haven't bothered to check?)

Going paperless was a godsend.

Sydney here I come. Take care folks. Enjoy Easter for sure but don't do anything stupid.​

 

What the hell is going on with WAM lately? Now at $1.95.

 

When was it ex div?

A couple of their newer LICs are doing poorly from what I’ve read elsewhere but haven’t checked. Some suggest the loss of star stock picker Stott might have contributed. Some suggest WAM is too big now to continue outperforming the index. Others blame Labor’s franking credit policy. Then there’s those who blame @SatayKing because he mentioned once he doesn’t like Geoff Wilson. Who knows.

Generally though near all LIC premiums close at some stage. A period of poor performance can accelerate this. Hence the rule of never paying an excessive premium for any LIC.

Just checked, WAM went Ex div 10 / 4. So likely the main reason.

 

I identify with this (and do participate in DRP for ETFs). The choice with LICs is complicated by my irrationally intense reluctance to purchase units at a premium to NTA which may happen when participating in DRP.

 

I think the franking policy is the main reason (WAX premium collapsed too). My guess is people wanted one last dividend then dumping it in case the franking changes come through.

Retirees all-in on REITs now?

Though it could also be recent performance. I think even the generous ‘portfolio performance’ is lagging over the last few years.

 

Gw must like the price, he just bought over 93,000 of WAM.

 

Nice analogy..

Ralph Wanger was born in 1933, almost to the day of the bottom of the Great Depression. He went on to be not only a great investor but a great investment writer, sharing wit and wisdom in his quarterly shareholder letters.

Wanger once analogized the stock market to a man walking his dog in New York. The man has done the same walk for years, starting at Columbus Circle, strolling through Central Park, and ending at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The dog has boundless energy and never walks in a straight line. He leaps randomly from one direction to the next, stops to smell every leaf, barks at other dogs, and jumps on you for no reason.

At any moment, there is no predicting what the dog will do or which way he'll leap. His movements are totally unpredictable. But you know he's heading northeast at about three miles per hour, toward the museum, where he'll eventually end up – because that's where the owner is taking him.

"What is astonishing," Wanger said, "is that almost all investors, big and small, seem to have their eye on the dog, and not the owner."

As you navigate your life as an investor, pay more attention to the owner (businesses) and less to the dog (markets).