My portfolio. Does this look ok?

I am about to receive a healthy sum soon and I will put into super. When I think of what I would do if I was Frank, to me, the safest option is to put
$400k as after tax
Catchup contribution before tax
Into a balanced fund with an industry superfund like Qsuper
Keep 3 year of expenses on term deposit
The rest into Vanguard index fund the ones @pippen’s partner buys.
Then get on with life and adjust my expectations to my reality.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

As I agree with the above , this is the problem I am seeing with Frank. It’s still comes across like you are unsure / undecided and hesitant.
I think it’s important to understand what you are comfortable with , make a plan based on that and stick with it. Even if it might not be the most ideal strategy at least it’s a plan and you move with it. I mean at the end of the day is there really such thing as the perfect strategy. In hindsight it’s easy to identify what would have been the best Investment path.

For me that’s been the lesson from all the feedback I received this last year. Spend some time fine tuning a plan that I am comfortable with and then go out and implement it. Don’t chop and change it every time some one puts another option / idea or strategy in front of me.
I had no intention of selling investments with the intention of buying back in at a better time. But I allowed information overload from people and media articles to override my plan and went of track.
But I have since re affirmed my strategy and got back on track. Hopefully to never be so easily persuaded to tinker with the plan again.

 

However it all got too much for the cat:

 

And I've been able to replace the coffee grinder.

Best part of the minute/hour/day/week/month/year/decade/century/millennium.

 

Thank Christ for that. You’ll be back to normal in no time.

 

Ah, well, there's the rub you see. The need to first define "normal."

 

Oh yes, sorry. Meant to say you’ll be back to being abnormal very soon.

 

Nice thoughts there @Anne11. However, I am more cautious than ever suggesting anything.

Frank appears to jump all over the place whenever anyone gives even a hint of their approach or holdings.

Indicates there is a plan but it's all on a deferred basis and doesn't appear willing or able to implement it. Wanting to make a decision but avoiding doing so because it could be the wrong one? Well, that ends up going nowhere. I haven't a clue what's behind it all apart the want in regard to an income level which appears to me to be completely unrealistic. Maybe Frank will achieve the desired level of income or maybe (highly unlikely?) not.

I don't envy the chap as the exercise does seem to be stressing him out although I could also be wrong on that too.

The worse overall aspect for him? Tick, tock, tick, tock.

 

For me, the tragic thing is the opportunity cost that is being incurred right now. If Frank had bought low-risk investments like ARG or AFI with his $1.5 million just before Xmas last year, he would probably have reached his target retirement income (or come very close to doing so). Taking the example of ARG (I won't use AFI as an example because it paid an extraordinary special dividend), he would have earned around $93,000 in dividends this calendar year (including franking credits).

ARG's price has risen a lot since then, but if Frank decided to buy at recent prices, he would earn at least $80,000 in the next calendar year (again, including franking credits).

These investments are very conservative and low risk, so their returns are not spectacular. But they get the job done. And there are no financial advisors to take their cut.

It is wisely said that, sometimes it is best to do nothing. IMHO, this is not one of those times. I don't know about others, but I am looking forward to a deluge of dividends coming from AFI and ARG in the first quarter of the new year.

 

Frank would have been better off with a half reasonable advisor implementing a low cost strategy and revising his expectations. From memory the root of all of this is not enough capital for return expectations. So, rather than accept reality one goes searching for a low risk high return magic bullet / magician and tie yourself in knots. Life doesn’t work that way. Might get lucky of course. Mileage may vary!

 

Ah well, it is how it is. For anybody stumbling upon this thread there is a good lesson in it - provided the person has the stamina to read though xx number of pages.

No need to detail the lesson as it is axiomatic.

 

There needs to be a warning message at the beginning. Too late to save me but it may save someone else.

 

@Frank Manno has a twin!



Same crap - different forum.

Hmmmmm…..

 

So make it 60+ months and not 30 months?

Correction. I merely glanced at the avatar and join date so I may be wrong but Frankiee...?

 

Gees there’s been so many lessons in this thread. In my case it’s been that my participation has resulted in me passing out at least half a dozen times.

 

I think this is a conundrum many people are either facing or will face and not only from people that may have not have enough for retirement.
I met an older gentleman who seemed quite wealthy little while ago through mutual friends he mentioned he invested in the stock market and at first, I did not want to pry but the topic came up again over the next couple times I saw him so I casually asked what he had been investing in the market, he then proceeds to tell me his divorce left him broke (not sure whether he was actually broke or just broke compared to his former living standards!).

So what he did given I assume he still had the asset of his PPOR which was worth a substantial amount was take out a multi-million dollar loan and invest (speculate?) he then bought some high growth names like afterpay and he also mentioned a couple of other names that have performed really well.

He was definitely not bragging about the outcomes of his investments as he was quite candid and nonchalant when explaining it all which also made me think maybe he was not aware of the risks or simply did not care.
I know he had been an entrepreneur so maybe more tolerance to risk (i.e permanent loss of capital) either way he was not prepared to accept his reality but I walked away thinking what if it had all gone wrong then he would have literally really been broke!
The lesson reiterated as above for me there is no low risk/high return magic bullet if you want to really shoot the lights out then high risk is going to be your best friend.

 

Decided to google Qsuper, never heard of them

Look what came up????

Retirees up to $290k out of pocket after QSuper error

 

We have been with them for 20 years. Just because it works for us might not work for others. So due diligence is required.

 

That is good to know, 20 years is big