My portfolio. Does this look ok?

And still survive thanks to large doses of quality home brews

 

Hi @dunno, as you have a limit of 2 posts per week as part of your new year resolution, I assume that this is just a bonus post?

 

Don’t remind him of that, we want more not less.

 

Frank's thread is like a car crash, i want to look away but i cant

 

Bulls carry ASX to one of its best years this century

 

Its not the new year yet. We still have another day up our sleeve to get as much out of @dunno as we can.

 

Good point, it’s not the New Year yet. @Anne11 ’s obviously decided to hit the wine again and lost track of time.

 

May as well indulge in thread drift as probably the OP won't be back while looking for the answers they want to hear.

So with that in mind, did you know Brown Brothers of Milawa, Victoria, has been buying up big acreage in Tasmania in anticipation of a change in climate for wine growing?

 

Doesn't surprise me. Having just got back from NZ and having friends in Tas I can see the appeal. I think they might end up the "go to" locations for climate 'refugees'

 

I've split the funds into two buckets.

The first is an income bucket using franked Australian shares with a 70/15/15 VAS/QOZ/PL8 split.

This should give us enough income via dividends and TR for our needs.

The second is a growth bucket using 50/50 international equities and government bonds.

The equity portion is split 40% VGS, 15% VISM, 15% VVLU, 10% VBLD and 10% DJRE (to make comparisons easy, although I actually use Vanguard wholesale funds).

This growth allocation is quite similar to my super (with QSuper). Where possible I top up my super to the max amount allowable.

I also have an IP, which I have been advised to sell. We'll see.

I was tempted to just chuck the lot into the Vanguard Managed Payout fund or VBDG, but wanted to keep some flexibility.

 

Very interesting!

 

Wow I’ve just read this whole thread over 2 days!!! It’s an epic...I can’t believe there is no ending and it appears the main character has gone underground after being exposed...I wonder if it was real or some kind of long drawn out trolling exercise???

Anyway I still found it extremely informative and have learned heaps. I’m mainly invested in property but I came across a large windfall recently when I cashed out of a UK final salary pension scheme. I did ask for some advice on this forum and received some from some of the posters here so thanks.

I ended up using an advisor to facilitate the transfer into a private pension plan (UK based) as it needs to stay there until I’m 55 when I can move it into super over here. That advisor also offers ongoing active management for a fee of course.

I had all the same questions and concerns do I drip feed or lump sum? What asset / market spread do I go for? Defensive V Growth? What if the market drops its at ATH? Shall I manage myself and save on fees? Etc etc.

Some of the index funds mentioned here were recommended particularly the vanguard ones but in the end I decided to go with a managed set of funds for the first 12 months and track performance including fees against a vanguard global accumulation fund that was suggested I may want to look at.

It’s only been a few months but so far the managed fund is slightly ahead and the total value is up almost 4%...I known with a correction this can be lost plus more overnight but at least I’ve already got the 4% buffer from my starting point that I wouldn’t have if I was sat on the sidelines.

So this is @Frank Manno thread and story and not mine but I thought it interesting to share my experience which appears to have been the complete opposite to Franks.

Thanks for the wealth of info shared in this thread. I’m going to keep reading up on all the links here and continue my share education and I have a plan to self manage / passively invest in the future if the fees of my current advisor aren’t justified.

All the best to you all for 2020.

 

@Skinman . Good to hear your progressed quickly in your journey. I also learnt heaps from this thread and was inspired to start a similar thread. It took me 12 months of similar humming and harring to work out which path was best for me but finally came to a conclusion that works for me.

Personally I don’t think @Frank Manno is trolling anyone. I feel like his situation is real and can see how uncertainty and fear of the unknown can have this affect of not being able to commit. Some might be able to get comfortable with the process and move forward quickly and others might need much more time or might never come around to fully committing to the investment journey.

I wouldn’t take the silence from Frank as an admission of trolling. Maybe the multiple suggestions of trolling or sensing that others are getting frustrated with his situation has turned Frank away from sharing any further.

@Frank Manno , If your still following this thread I encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts and feelings about your journey regardless of what anyone else thinks. This is your thread about your journey. And anyone who doesn’t wish to participate in it doesn’t have to. But I am not a fan of anyone coming into a thread that you started to help you with your journey come here and take digs at you for not taking there advice or recommendations. I can understand there frustration with you and would understand if they decide to not participate in the thread any further.

Either way i am sure many others have learnt from either reading this thread or even participating in this thread.

 

Yes. Frank is far more representative of the population than we would realise. It takes great courage to put oneself in this position. Good on him. We shouldn’t be too quick to criticise. At the end of the day it’s all about “perceived” risk tolerance. Theory means nothing if one can’t stomach optimal.

We should thank him rather than try to embarrass him. Lot’s of education here. There’s more of an element of Frank in us than most of us would like to admit!

 

Fair points @Big A and good on you for seeing the positive in people rather than being suspicious. I can see through the thread you were encouraging Frank all the way when others were getting frustrated. As you say regardless of what happened / happens it’s been a really informative thread...I think I will have a read of yours next to add to my learning.

Cheers

 

Cheers mate. Maybe I’m extra sympathetic with Frank because i experienced a lot of what he is going through myself over the last 12 months. So I felt like I understood what he is going through. Unfortunately it is taking him a little longer to find his comfort zone.

Also I know he is not trolling because we both signed up to the same advisor from PC. I can’t imagine he would reach out and sign up to an advisor recommended to him through this site if he was here wasting time.

 

Yep I did figure by reading the whole thing over 2 days he appeared to be with Alex which would be strange if he was trolling. Also noticed he hasn’t been back on the forum since 24th Dec and there were quite a few negative posts that day so maybe he is regrouping and taking some action before he comes back on. I hope he does come back and we hear the end of the story.

Having read it all in a short period of time can also see why some people who were very generous with their time and opinions were pulling their hair out or collapsing in frustration in the end.

After reading it I’m just hoping I’m not one of those unfortunate investors who went all in before the big bust...however even if that is the case all I can do now is stay the course and let time do it’s thing. I’m hoping to retire in 13 years and I’m in a medium risk long term portfolio which takes my risk profile into consideration. That being a much more conservative one for this investment compared to my usual appetite.

 

It's good you got some education out of this thread.

I've never thought Frank was trolling and I do believe he is genuine. He has read Peter Thornhill asked questions on the approach. He has read extensively. He has engaged an adviser who I understand is knowledgeable and thorough.

That said, it does seem to me there is this block. A vague goal which keeps shifting and between him and that goal there is this huge barrier. It's understandable as there is so much available in the investing sphere it can be overwhelming to some people particularly if they haven't previously been involved before.

I wish him well. Can only cross my fingers and hope in the future he isn't struck with the "Oh, I wish I had done..." feeling. That isn't a good outcome either.

 

Hi there @MTR and @Skinman who asked about me last week in another thread.. I figured I would reply in this one.

...and so the story is getting towards the end now

Recaping, I have $1.2 to invest and wanted to retire / semi retire in 5 years on $75k per year.

I guess it doesn't matter how much I want per year it's what the market gives me which is what I will get., this is fine and makes sense. Whatever it is it is.. I won't get the $75k that I want and thats fine.

The plan is to go for growth and to dollar cost average over a year or so while putting in large sums if I see dips. I am comfortable with this.

But then the market turned into a mess recently so the brakes are on until I see some market recovery. I will buy on the way up. I know, we don't know where the bottom is but I will see some stability and thats my trigger to start buying and DCA.

I did invest 8% of my funds the other week when the market was at 6400.. Small paper loss there but I expected it.

I'm feeling positive, I've seen the market go up to over 7000 so I'm quite comfortable now investing in the ranges that it is in at the moment but as I said, no point in buying on the way down now.


Taking it slow..


-Frank

 

The problem is that no-one knows when the bottom has been reached and trying to time it is futile.

The whole point of DCA is to eliminate timing concerns.

So if that is your chosen strategy, it doesn't make sense to try and time your DCA instalments.

Start now.