Manchester FIRE Meet Up in Sept

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Just a quick update.

I can’t claim any credit for organising this (thanks, Cath!) but the next Manchester Meet  Up has been sorted.

It’s at the Rain Bar, 80 Great Bridgewater Street, M1 5JG

Friday, 27th Sept 2019, 6pm – late

For those who use Facebook, there’s a Financial Independence UK group and an event has been set up, so you can state that you are going. Those not on FB can just post a comment here if they prefer.

Or you can just turn up, much like at the first Manchester meet up.

I shall be attending so hope to see some of you there for a few beers! 🙂

Return of the Dogs!

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I can’t think of a better time to post about my Dogs of the FTSE experimental portfolio, just as the markets are apparently tanking!

Is this just a blip, or the beginning of the inevitable end of the bull run?

Whatever, I’m still investing and I intend to document the bad times as well as the good times.

As a reminder, here’s the Dogs of the FTSE strategy:

  1. Choose the ten FTSE 100 shares with the highest yield (subject to my criteria*)
  2. Invest equal amounts in all ten shares
  3. Hold for a year (give or take a week)
  4. At the end of the year, sell the ones no longer in the top ten, replace with new shares with highest yield
  5. Repeat from step 3

[*criteria being that shares already in my portfolio are not included, nor any where a dividend cut has been announced]

Note that this is my ‘fun’ portfolio and represents less than 2% of my Future Fund.

Here’s how my last portfolio finished in Feb 2019:

Full end of 12-month update is here if you’re interested.

There was a delay in setting up the next portfolio as I had to wait for the 2019 tax year to commence to open my new ISA with a new provider.

So in June, I went about setting up my Dogs of the FTSE 2019/20 portfolio! Been a bit busy so this post has been languishing in my drafts!

So, in accordance with the strategy:

Six Dogs Set Free (Sold):

  • Marks & Spencer Grp plc (MKS)
  • National Grid (NG)
  • Rio Tinto plc (RIO)
  • Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDSB)
  • SSE plc (SSE)
  • United Utilities Group plc (UU)

Total received from sales = £1,333.20

Total Dividends received = £175.90 (note I continued to receive divis until I sold in June)

Profit/Loss from original investment = £57.94 (3.9% gain)

It was not easy at all pushing the ‘sell’ button for some of those but I am committed to the strategy.

Also, it was hard swalllowing the 6 x £9.95 trading fee (with AJ Bell) – if not for the fees, I would have doubled my profit/gain and this is the main reason why I moved to another provider, where the fee for buying/selling will be a big fat zero.

Next, in accordance with the strategy:

Six Dogs Rounded Up (Bought): 

  • Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA)
  • ITV plc (ITV)
  • Aviva plc (AV)
  • British American Tobacco plc (BATS)
  • Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG)
  • HSBC Holdings (HSBA)

I’m not timing the market, just bought at whatever the price was in June.

So here’s how the Dogs of the FTSE Portfolio 2019/20 looks as at today:

Best of breed or mangy mutts? All pretty much looking like they’re the latter right now!

Over this same period, the FTSE 100 Total Return was minus 1.46% so the Dogs are lagging a bit on -5.10% including dividends.

I’m not sure I can do quarterly updates as before – perhaps half-yearly updates on how this portfolio is doing.

Random Shares Portfolio

I’ve been testing Freetrade’s free share referral scheme and now have a bunch of free shares, thanks to those who have clicked on the link and topped up their accounts – hope you were all allocated decent free shares in return.

When I get round to it, I’ll provide an update on what random shares I was awarded and how they are getting on.

If anyone would like to try out Freetrade’s app and bag a free share in the process, drop me a note via @QuietlySaving or my Contact Form.

The free share referral scheme will be rolled out to all shortly, which will allow all Freetrade account holders to be able to refer.

And finally….

Possible Blog Delays in Future…

D-Day is imminent, my living situation will be completely changed from this weekend.

I’m feeling both excitement and dread. And rather stressed.

I have no idea how I will be able to continue to post regularly and keep my blog secret from my family so don’t know when I’ll be able to post again.

I hope I’ll work something out.

July 2019 Savings + other updates

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The month of July seemed incredibly short. I enjoyed the bouts of heatwave – yes, even in Manchester!  Funny how the same people moaning about the heat are now moaning about the rain…

This month also saw me attempting to clear out some space around the house in anticipation of my sister and nephew moving in soon – that’s come round fast, yikes!

Anyway, how did I get on in July?

I saved 44.3% of my net salary – delayed holiday costs took the remaining chunk of my bonus so I wasn’t able to boost my savings rate after all. I am actually saving a little more though, my 3% pay rise is in there!

The above savings includes top ups of £100 from a webinar (more on this later), £20 matched betting profit (from last month) and £74.38 affiliate income from OddsMonkey (thank you to all who signed up via my links!).

Shares and Investment Trusts

No new investments – I just topped up existing ones.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund 

A combination of the rock-bottom pound sterling and markets going up has meant a big jump to £173,204. I’m not getting too excited though – still plenty of political shennanigans which could make it drop right down again!

Dividends and Other Income

A record-breaking month for dividends: Continue reading →

Adjustments to My Investment Strategy

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As I’ve touched upon in recent posts, I thought it was time to review my investment portfolio.

The last time I checked it (and its allocations) was back in 2017, so here’s quite a lengthy (and rather waffly) post as it’s been a long time coming! 🙂

The large part of my portfolio is made up of index tracker ETFs. The other part is mostly investment trusts (ITs). The intention, when it comes to drawdown/early retirement, is that I will likely sell off the ETFs for capital, whilst taking dividend income from the ITs.

I would describe myself as a passive investor, my strategy is predominantly ‘buy and hold’.  However, as there’s an element of investing which I enjoy, I do tinker about with a bit of active investing, small experimental portfolios and the like.

Index Tracker (ETF) Portfolio

I set up this portfolio after I’d read Tim Hale’s Smarter Investing book, combined with Monevator’s Lazy Portfolio post.

Thus, I created my own Portfolio for All Seasons, one which would supposedly weather all kinds of stock market shenanigans and which suited my own appetite for risk.

I’m thinking now that I do need to perhaps start protecting some of my wealth and increasing the bonds part of my portfolio.

A common rule of thumb is to simply hold a percentage of stocks/equities equal to 100 minus your age. If I followed this rule, that would mean having a 50/50 split equities/bonds, which to me, just doesn’t carry enough risk/opportunity for growth.  Equity to bond ratio of my Portfolio of All Seasons has been 90/10, so rather on the risky/aggressive side.

Apparently some financial planners are now recommending that the rule should be closer to 110 or 120 minus your age and that is what I will initially go for – 120 minus my age so my equity/bond ratio will now aim to be 70/30.

Here’s the Old v New portfolio allocations:

So I’m reducing some of the home/UK bias and the more risky allocations.

If I end up becoming more risk averse, I may go down to 60/40 but that’s for the future.

How did I come up with these allocations? They’re just what I’m comfortable with and happy to invest in. I wanted to start implementing the changes to my portfolio asap and didn’t want inaction as a result of analysis paralysis.

Anyway, here’s how it’s looking right now:

I intend to re-balance mostly via new contributions but I have made a few sales/switches already (sold my entire holding of the global value, VHYL (Vanguard All-World High Dividend Yield ETF)). I’ll be doing more switching over the next month or so.

I may ultimately whittle these allocations down to 4 core holdings for simplification in time, not sure yet – just need to be mindful of dealing fees.

And finally, why ETFs and not funds, like Vanguard Lifestrategy? Although I still hold a couple of funds, I have mostly ETFs as the fees are cheaper for ETFs on the platforms I use.

So here are my main holdings:

Global: Vanguard All World ETF (VWRL)
Bond: Vanguard Government Bond ETF (VGOV)
UK: Vanguard FTSE 100 ETF (VUKE)
Property: iShares Developed Markets Property Yld ETF (IWDP)
Emerging Markets: iShares Emerging Markets Equity Tracker
UK Mid: Vanguard FTSE 250 ETF (VMID)
Global Small Co: SPDR MSCI World Small Cap ETF (WOSC)

Investment Trust/Share Portfolio

I wanted a part of my portfolio which I would just hold and which would generate regular income.

Originally, I had a smattering of individual shares but wanted more diversification  (plus it’s really time consuming trying to research the best individual share to buy) so I started to build up a basket of investment trusts (ITs).

I chose from a mixture of ITs considered to be ‘dividend heroes’ (paying increasing dividends over many consecutive years) and diversified across global, UK and recently, more specialised sectors.  There’s also a mix of growth and income ITs, although later on, I’ll likely move to more income.

This portfolio currently generates on average £130 a month, my aim is for it pay out at least £250 a month/£3k a year, which should cover the bulk of my household bills.

I guess I’ll aim to do a bit of ‘top-slicing’, ie take profits from the growth ITs and buy more of the income payiing ones in time – not sure how that will work out as I generally only buy when ITs are showing a decent discount to NAV (Net Asset Value) but occasionally, I will buy on a premium.

So whilst the capital of my ETF portfolio will be whittled down in time, I’m intending to hang onto this portfolio for a good while longer.

Why have income paying investments while I’m still accumulating?

Mainly because I need to see that I can actually generate a certain amount of income from my investments – I’d rather avoid finding out belatedly that my portfolio didn’t actually pay the income I thought it would.

Anyway, click here to see this portfolio.

Cash

I haven’t got a lot of cash in my portfolio – most of it is in premium bonds, with a tiny amount in my cash ISA. Before anyone pipes up to say how crap premium bonds are, I don’t really care, I just like the fact that they carry no risk whatsoever and that there’s a chance of winning something every month and I’ll be sure to let you know if I win a decent-sized prize! 🙂

Much in the same way that I’m increasing my bond allocations in my ETF portfolio, I will gradually increase my cash allocation although I’m not rushing on this one, with interest rates still being on the low side.

Perhaps I’ll do a bigger push later on as I’d like to FIRE with a cash buffer.

Everything Else

P2P and property crowdfunding – over the next few years, these should run down to zero as I’m not adding any capital to these types of investments – currently, I have less than £2k invested.

Other crowdfunding – small amounts in Freetrade and BrewDog. It’s possible that I may look at other such opportunities but these are strictly in the ‘fun’ category and not part of my retirement planning.

SIPP or ISA?

The bulk of my savings/investments are ‘tax efficient’, ie either in my SIPPs or my ISAs.

I still continue to invest in both, although I plan to build up more in my ISAs as I feel they offer more flexibility and (hopefully) will continue not to be subject to tax, future government meddling notwithstanding. I currently have more in my SIPPs but hopefully that will be addressed over the years. Note that by the time I FIRE, I will have access to my SIPPs.

Experiments

My Dogs of the FTSE experimental portfolio also falls in the fun category but the dividend income I receive is reinvested into my ISA, so it benefits my overall portfolio. More on my Dogs at a later date, there’s a post pending!

I may run other little experiments or other fun portfolios although I’ll only be risking a tiny percentage of my overall wealth.

So that’s pretty much it for my portfolio for the next couple years.

I’m sure there will be many who might disagree with my strategy and wonder WTF I’m doing but I’m comfortable with it and although I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m confident that it will do what I want it to do, well, all I can say is that I’ll do what any investor can do and that is to wait and see.

I intend to ride out any economic catastrophes, keep calm and carry on investing, which might be easier said than done!