LIC & LIT Whitefield Limited SPP

I'll have you know I am religious. I belong to and pray at:

The Church of IDGAS IAAM

Odd though. Services are held every Trading Day but when I role up I seem to be the only member of my Church attending. Lots of other heathens around though muttering to their false Gods.

 

I guess my point was around a preference for many for the active management “light” of LICs. DFA does a similar thing with price / profitability / low reinvestment filters.

Personally, cap weight is the foundation on which a portfolio should be built. If you want to then layer size and value tilts then DFA funds are a solid way of doing it.

 

PT focus always about being “right” rather than objective facts. You cannot create a properly diversified portfolio, costs, tax, performance, risk considered with LICs that is superior to what you can create with ETFs or a combination of ETFs and LICs.

Hedged product distributions can be lumpy, yes.
( No complaints during the many years when there are no / negligible distributions!) these are manageable as a well constructed portfolio will have low levels of hedging, and we can use structures to manage the tax effects. (Super, Company, Trust).

The bit about VAS tax records is also disingenuous…this is what accountants are for ..how much record keeping palaver is going on with all of his stock holdings and corporate actions that he has taken part in over the years? Obvious hypocrisy…..and no mention of his mates at MLT ? Can’t take him seriously these days. “I like his old stuff better than his new stuff”.

 

Sorry, yes I understood what you meant but was curious about DFA in general nowadays.

 

Still a respected outfit for those of the factor bent. They continue to evolve their process.

Dimensional Makes a Change to Its Investment Process

 

Yes, PT using a hedged ETF as an example was stupid given the nature of hedging. As you suggest simply hold such products in Super for instance to manage tax effects.

His original reason for hating the trust structure was back then most unlisted trusts were run by highly active mgrs and hence distributions consisted of significant CG which had to be distributed. He detests mgrs that actively trade. He should stop trying to peddle crap in his never ending quest to discredit today's passive index ETFs.

No mention by PT of his major holding in MLT which could end up with SOL which is far more active than MLT!

I had a lot of respecf for PT but he needs to do like I did and that is to let go of old ingrained biases and face facts as they are now, not 20 - 30 years ago.

 

DFA are starting to release ETFs, although no really interesting SCV ones yet.

Avantis (founded by ex DFA folks) are doing all the interesting ETF releases Eg SCV ETFs like AVUV, AVDV and in September AVES (EM SCV)

 

Right and I absolutely agree with this. The portfolio churn of the typical index hugger is atrocious and results in a lot of undiscounted CG…terrible. Experienced it myself in the bad old days. The problem is he’s dug this hole for himself that he can’t seem to get out of…..really nailed the colours to the mast.

 

I won't invest in any ETF that doesn't have significant FUM and has been around a long time. Too many of them end up closing down. Unwanted tax events etc.

Further many investors tend to only hold say 5% or less in niche / factor products which is too small to have a noteable effect on overall performance.

No doubt these work great for some investors but for me it would be a distraction from the main game (cap weight indexes), have minimal impact to overall performance and increase the risk of fiddling! In fact given the latter there could be a negative impact on performance.

 

He He. I broke with PT's LICs only through buying STW in January 2002. Still hold and have added (lots of them and others) since.

Still, he still has my respect. His concept of keep buying no matter what, keep debt low and spend less than your income has held me in good stead. It was always the case but I appreciated it at various times and to have it reaffirmed has resulted in what I view as an excellent outcome.

I doubt if I am beating the market but that is of no consequence and is irrelevant anyway. I am way better off financially now than I would have been if I had gone down the path of jumping in and out of the share market at the first hint of a wobble.

 

Yes agree, and this is what he should continue to educate others in doing instead of discrediting himself with these silly ongoing attacks against well run ETFs.

 

For me I think investing LICs ease me into a more passive approach, because of the focus on income. Through the discussions on PC I have somewhat recognised my bias and leaning more toward passive index investing an total return focus, but it is still a work in progress.

My aim in investing and non-investing matters is to minimise the numbers of decisions I have to make, to become freer from having to think about too many things, as part of simplifying life and reducing noises/clutters to enjoy it my way.

 

Well said. This has played a huge role in how we want to live our life and decisions we have been making to create this environment in our retirement.

 

Decisions.

From this:



To this:

 

Top up WHF?
Sell MLT?
Buy more BKI?
Buy more VAS?
Can I smooth dividends via Cash buffer myself when index etfs distributions fall
Behavioural finance at its best yet again and will be till we are all 6 feet under.

 

No
Done
No
Yes but when? It’s getting expensive this is my current problem, when to buy. I know the wise heads here all buy immediately but my bias is at play again. Pls help

 

Got a spare $5k in the bank doing nothing?

Not going to need it - ever?

Well, why are you waiting?

 

I think the dividend is way less than 4%, I think it’s 2.5% although I know interest is extremely low. Remember the back of the envelope rule to buy when dividend is around 4%? Do I change my rule to stay invested? Decision decision

 

Price anchoring, I have battled the same, vas too expensive, waiting waiting.....for what... prices to go down and then try and pick the bottom?‽....I'm sure @SatayKing @Nodrog have made many purchases of lics and etfs over the years with parcels purchased more expensive than previous. Company earnings and profits will improve with technology and hence prices will increase. I would love to buy argo at 5/6 dollars again like in march 2020 but I would be waiting forever as they sit on 9dollars plus. Quantity of shares matters similar to what @truong has posted. But it is all a mental game.

 

Funny how a thread on an SPP has gone so far off the path. Love it!

Yep. I'm not going to say what I've said Yep to though.

See above.