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Thanks, Kevin. The bottom line appears to be that if you are investing in the major markets around the world, index funds are hard to beat. If, however, you are looking at smaller or specialist markets, there is a higher chance of success with an active manager- choosing the right one, is more difficult!
Up0I have used Managed Funds for most of my younger days investing, with some success. I currently have an Australian Equities fund that was performing admirably up to COVID-19 and then contributed extensively to the club of those funds substantially underperforming the market. Even now, it is still 6-7% down from 2020. I also have an Emerging Markets fund that has done OK and is ahead of the median performance.
One of my major gripes is that you don’t hear a thing about the funds when they go down by 40% but are bombarded with stats showing the great performance when they come back up by 25%.
I suspect that active fund management does still have some part to play in today’s portfolios but picking the right managers is much more of a quandary.
Up1@ben- No I don’t invest directly in NDQ, but do hold the big stocks in IVV and VGS, hence my interest in diversification into the slightly smaller market cap US stocks. In my satellite holdings, I do have smaller company ETFs in the UK, US and Australian markets, so I thought that a small punt into the level just below the NDQ was worth a shout.
Up1I haven’t done an in-depth comparison, but did give some thought to this conundrum some months ago. I started with VAS and considered adding to it, but decided to buy VHY instead. So I ended up with almost equal exposure and felt that I had the best of both worlds. Maybe a cop-out but not worth my while stressing too much about it in the long term.
Up2With specific reference to the community being quiet- from my own experience as a Moderator on a busy games forum, I can say that any input from the admin and/or the developers in any discussion will always generate more comments than if the chat is just left to the community itself.
Up0I asked this several years ago and my tax accountant also said no. I am sure that if it was possible, this would be widely publicised.
Up0Hey, Geremy
Thanks for posting your portfolio and the thinking behind the decisions. I enjoy finding out how others arrive at their decisions and sharing your own thoughts will, I am sure help others
Up0I agree with the others- bitcoin is a risk I would not consider at all, even with the promise of high growth. The volatility is something that I don’t need at this stage in my investment cycle.
Up0How many of your holdings are held in the US and how do you get on with their tax reporting rules?
Up0Thanks for all the replies and it is interesting to see that the feeling is that using a DRP programme is fine in theory but less attractive in practice. I suspect that after more reviews, I will end up ending all the automatic ones and then selecting the stocks that I want to reinvest in and do it manually, perhaps twice a year.
Up0Current figures around the world will say that between 70-80% of active fund managers will not outperform the relevant market index, Add to that fees up to 1% and maybe just investing in one of the low-cost index ETFs will be just as attractive- maybe not as exciting and the ability for high gains will be minimal, but, depending on your personal circumstances and where you are in your investing cycle, certainly worth a look.
Up0I also have a small holding in HACK and have gone through the ups and downs during the last 2 years. 2 years ago, steady growth and a good distribution increased my positive thoughts but last year, it was a roller coaster ride on the share price and zero distribution was a bit of a disappointment. My original thesis for investment still holds true, so will continue to hold with a view to some growth to come, but probably not going to increase my holding.
Up0Watched the show online- what happened to Drew and Dr Andrew, neither of whom was featured?
Up0Brokerage fees are a criterion when making an investment decision, but a small part of the overall decision package, in my view. The larger the investment amount, the smaller the impact of brokerage is and only really becomes an issue if you are buying and selling regularly rather than long-term holding, which is the recommended strategy.
I usually wait till I have around $2000 to invest and at that level, the brokerage cost becomes insignificant over a long-hold period.
You can also reduce the capital gains on selling shares by deducting the brokerage costs, so that should be kept in mind.
