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Savings and Investments thread
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Lucky he doesn’t need to be good with figures for his job!!!! 🫣😂CharltonKerry said:It’s at 7747 golfie not 7550?
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Mind you he could be right come close of play tomorrow😀TelMc32 said:
Lucky he doesn’t need to be good with figures for his job!!!! 🫣😂CharltonKerry said:It’s at 7747 golfie not 7550?0 -
Oops, silly me.CharltonKerry said:It’s at 7747 golfie not 7550?3 -
Kent Reliance gone to 3% on easy access from today. Although I believe that’s to existing customers. 2.8% for new I think.0
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Recently took out a 1 year saving plan with First Direct, max is £300 per month, paying 7%.0
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Zopa offering 2.86% on instant access, 2.91% for 7 days notice and 3.06% for 31 days notice, all via their app, FSCS protected.Easy access rates are creeping up but longer term fixes are off their autumn highs.1
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More good news on the Premium Bond front.
Prizes going up again from February
Value of prizes in January 2023
Number of prizes in January 2023
Value of prizes in February 2023 (estimated)
Number of prizes in February 2023 (estimated)
£1,000,000
2
£1,000,000
2
£100,000
56
£100,000
59
£50,000
111
£50,000
117
£25,000
224
£25,000
236
£10,000
559
£10,000
590
£5,000
1,116
£5,000
1,177
£1,000
11,968
£1,000
12,573
£500
35,904
£500
37,719
£100
1,159,432
£100
1,280,509
£50
1,159,432
£50
1,280,509
£25
2,617,902
£25
2,376,161
Total
£299,202,350
Total
4,986,706
Total
£314,347,875
Total
4,989,652
Same chance of winning , in terms of the number of prizes, but if you are lucky enough to do so, potentially the prize could be bigger.0 -
£625 between me and wife in January so let’s hope more in Feb 🙏🙏2
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7913 please1
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Cheeky, closing date was 20th, but I'm not botheredHardyAddick said:7913 please
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Good grief! No wonder I didn't get a dividend from Direct Line. It's been run by a first year graphic design student!!!
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Sorry. Forgot but thought it was 30th! Pint on me if I win!!Covered End said:
Cheeky, closing date was 20th, but I'm not botheredHardyAddick said:7913 please0 -
@Rob7Lee said a few days ago that DLG is a good company. I suspect that it's now a slightly better one.PragueAddick said:Good grief! No wonder I didn't get a dividend from Direct Line. It's been run by a first year graphic design student!!!4 -
According to Wikipedia she is 53 & in 2021 earnt £929k in salary, bonus, shares & pension contributions.PragueAddick said:Good grief! No wonder I didn't get a dividend from Direct Line. It's been run by a first year graphic design student!!!
I think you're asking too much @pragueaddick for a miserly dividend.3 -
.IdleHans said:
One thing I will say, had they not changed their reinsurance broker at the end of 2021, then maybe their weather losses wouldn't have been so bad.
@Rob7Lee said a few days ago that DLG is a good company. I suspect that it's now a slightly better one.PragueAddick said:Good grief! No wonder I didn't get a dividend from Direct Line. It's been run by a first year graphic design student!!!
Sometimes you get what you pay for....... and don't always believe your actuaries and modellers.0 -
May be of limited interest but just as i was thinking about finally canning my HSBC UK account, I learnt (from the MSE forum) about the new Global Money account, which is a simple add-on if you already have a current account with them.
As I understand it, you get a big-choice multiple currency account, and you can shift your money between currencies, both free of fees and at nearly mid-market rate. This would apparently allow you to keep currencies as an investment/hedge. Then you can also get a debit card which would allow you to pay in the local currency of the country you are in.
I don't think I've missed any catch, but please correct me if I have. Assuming not, then among other things its a tribute to the OpenBanking project started in 2017 which I was only dimly aware of until I read in an FT article the other day. Basically that has encouraged the wave of new banks, and currency exchanges such as Wise who want to offer bank services, all of whom have been eating HSBC's lunch. Now HSBC have had enough, and the winners are us punters. As a regular critic of the banking sector and what they've been allowed to get away with over the years, I feel duty bound to give a round of applause to this.1 -
Gatehouse Bank moved my easy access from 2.8% to 2.9% this morning. Now whether that’s a late change from Decembers rate increase, or is in anticipation of this weeks BOE meeting, not sure. However, still doesn’t beat my Kent Reliance 3% ( only available to existing customers). Great to finally see some return from cash, although as we know still losing money due to inflation.1
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Hi all, I have a question about the (bond heavy) Vanguard LS20 fund - I know it's a passionate one for @PragueAddick . Most of my Vanguard ISA is in the LS100 (100% equity) - I'm in my early 30s so am in for the long haul. I moved a small portion over to LS20 in Sept 2021 thinking it would be a steadier option in case I wanted to use it for anything in the mid term - I now know that wasn't particularly well thought through, esp. given I already have a separate emergency cash fund in a savings account.
Hindsight is 20/20 and obviously LS20 tanked almost instantly after I bought in - that chunk of my ISA is now down about 20%. My question is this: given my plan is long term passive investing, should I take the loss on LS20 and go all in on equities? I know bonds are expected to creep back up to where they were over the next few years, but in the long term my assumption would be that the equity funds will outpace the bonds. If I was starting with the LS20 investment as a lump sum now I'd put it all into equities - just trying to work out if there's a solid counterargument for leaving the LS20 investment where it is.
Any thoughts very welcome - thanks in advance.0 -
@PragueAddick knows my views on this & I've attached Vanguard's Q4 newsletter for reference.hermann said:Hi all, I have a question about the (bond heavy) Vanguard LS20 fund - I know it's a passionate one for @PragueAddick . Most of my Vanguard ISA is in the LS100 (100% equity) - I'm in my early 30s so am in for the long haul. I moved a small portion over to LS20 in Sept 2021 thinking it would be a steadier option in case I wanted to use it for anything in the mid term - I now know that wasn't particularly well thought through, esp. given I already have a separate emergency cash fund in a savings account.
Hindsight is 20/20 and obviously LS20 tanked almost instantly after I bought in - that chunk of my ISA is now down about 20%. My question is this: given my plan is long term passive investing, should I take the loss on LS20 and go all in on equities? I know bonds are expected to creep back up to where they were over the next few years, but in the long term my assumption would be that the equity funds will outpace the bonds. If I was starting with the LS20 investment as a lump sum now I'd put it all into equities - just trying to work out if there's a solid counterargument for leaving the LS20 investment where it is.
Any thoughts very welcome - thanks in advance.
The main issue you have to remember is that the LS funds are index trackers and therefore will follow the market in good times & bad. Because of inflation, rising interest rates & Truss/Kwarteng 2022 was a very bad year for fixed interest. An active fund manager, especially one that manages a Strategic Bond fund can move out of UK Gilts & Bonds (to a certain extent) and into assets that might do better. Vanguard funds can't do this.
I've often get told that Vanguard are superb because their charges are low. Last year showed why paying an extra 0.4% for active management might save your portfolio.
And listening to Vaguards Webinar last week their Fixed Income bod said that Bonds might not recover until 2030 !!!1 -
@golfaddick
He said what??? Cue mass sale of Vanguard LS 20 and 40 and one unemployed bod 🤣
@hermann Golfie is generally correct. But fact is, LS20 has recovered about 6 points from its Kamikwaze low - which is a reminder not to over-react, especially at your age.Nobody can yet be sure when and how bonds recover and whether the old 60:40 mix is finished - still less what should replace it. My tactic in your shoes would be:
- before selling anything have a plan for what you want to buy with the proceeds
- sell in smaller chunks, on a rising market. Set a target price for each sell.- for the next few months read a lot about how people see fixed interest developing. At the moment I still think fixed interest will have a place as ballast in most portfolios. But especially on this, there are several people on here who understand bonds far better than I do.2 - Sponsored links:
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@hermann First of all let me say I'm not an IFA so can't give advice, just an educated amateur.
Early 30's and in for the long haul certainly means equities are the place to be and not gilts. Over any decent length of period in history (say 7 years) equities have always outperformed. Important that you have international spread not just UK. personally have always been overweight in USA and this has regularly outperformed.
Agree Prague's advice on tactics.
As to professional advice I would partly say it depends on amount involved although I personally have always been sceptical of the added value. How many funds/professional advisers were saying gilts and bonds were bound to fall at the start of 2022?1 -
I moved clients out of Bonds & into Absolute/Diversified Return strategies in Q1 last year. My SIPP was the same value on Dec 31st as it was in May as I didnt suffer much from the Truss /Kwarteng shambles in late September/early October. Still not holding any direct Fixed Interest funds.redman said:@hermann First of all let me say I'm not an IFA so can't give advice, just an educated amateur.
Early 30's and in for the long haul certainly means equities are the place to be and not gilts. Over any decent length of period in history (say 7 years) equities have always outperformed. Important that you have international spread not just UK. personally have always been overweight in USA and this has regularly outperformed.
Agree Prague's advice on tactics.
As to professional advice I would partly say it depends on amount involved although I personally have always been sceptical of the added value. How many funds/professional advisers were saying gilts and bonds were bound to fall at the start of 2022?2 -
But what are other funds up by in that time, many much more than 6 points. My Pension was yesterday back at an all time high.PragueAddick said:@golfaddick
He said what??? Cue mass sale of Vanguard LS 20 and 40 and one unemployed bod 🤣
@hermann Golfie is generally correct. But fact is, LS20 has recovered about 6 points from its Kamikwaze low - which is a reminder not to over-react, especially at your age.Nobody can yet be sure when and how bonds recover and whether the old 60:40 mix is finished - still less what should replace it. My tactic in your shoes would be:
- before selling anything have a plan for what you want to buy with the proceeds
- sell in smaller chunks, on a rising market. Set a target price for each sell.- for the next few months read a lot about how people see fixed interest developing. At the moment I still think fixed interest will have a place as ballast in most portfolios. But especially on this, there are several people on here who understand bonds far better than I do.
BTW - you are correct re HSBC, no catch.0 -
Well done. Not many fund managers or IFA's were recomending that or even recomending it now! And let people not think it was just Truss/Kwarteng. Bonds were already vastly overvalued form all the QE and inflation was building so interest rates were going to rise anywaygolfaddick said:
I moved clients out of Bonds & into Absolute/Diversified Return strategies in Q1 last year. My SIPP was the same value on Dec 31st as it was in May as I didnt suffer much from the Truss /Kwarteng shambles in late September/early October. Still not holding any direct Fixed Interest funds.redman said:@hermann First of all let me say I'm not an IFA so can't give advice, just an educated amateur.
Early 30's and in for the long haul certainly means equities are the place to be and not gilts. Over any decent length of period in history (say 7 years) equities have always outperformed. Important that you have international spread not just UK. personally have always been overweight in USA and this has regularly outperformed.
Agree Prague's advice on tactics.
As to professional advice I would partly say it depends on amount involved although I personally have always been sceptical of the added value. How many funds/professional advisers were saying gilts and bonds were bound to fall at the start of 2022?1 -
So these are the entries, do let me know if my butter fingers have put anyone in incorrectly;
Name Level Er_Be_Ab_Pl_Wo_Wo_Ch 6500 WishIdStayedInThe Pub 6625 bobmunro 6950 oohaahmortimer 7077 meldrew66 7117 Pedro45 7153 Redman 7250 PragueAddick 7300 wwaddick 7350 Thread Killer 7423 Fortune 82nd Minute 7440 Covered End 7508 CAFCWest 7510 Salad 7511 Morboe 7554 cafc7-6htfc 7600 LargeAddick 7647 blackpool72 7650 Addick Addict 7652 guinnessaddick 7658 Jon_CAFC_ 7675 fat man on a moped 7685 RalphMilne 7689 thecat 7710 IdleHans 7745 Bangkokaddick 7767 CharltonKerry 7777 Rob7Lee 7785 Daarrrzzettbum 7800 aitchyaddick 7809 golfaddick 7824 StrikerFirmani 7840 valleynick66 7856 cafcpolo 7893 holyjo 7912 HardyAddick 7913 TheGhostofTomHovi 7966 @TelMc32 8000 0 -
Fine, but if @hermann held LS20 because he wanted "cautious", what would you have had him do? Bail out when it was -21%, and if so, the old question, into what, that meets the "cautious" criterion?. My point was simply, not to panic and end up selling at the bottom. Fortunately he hasn't, and is about 7% less poor as a result.Rob7Lee said:
But what are other funds up by in that time, many much more than 6 points. My Pension was yesterday back at an all time high.PragueAddick said:@golfaddick
He said what??? Cue mass sale of Vanguard LS 20 and 40 and one unemployed bod 🤣
@hermann Golfie is generally correct. But fact is, LS20 has recovered about 6 points from its Kamikwaze low - which is a reminder not to over-react, especially at your age.Nobody can yet be sure when and how bonds recover and whether the old 60:40 mix is finished - still less what should replace it. My tactic in your shoes would be:
- before selling anything have a plan for what you want to buy with the proceeds
- sell in smaller chunks, on a rising market. Set a target price for each sell.- for the next few months read a lot about how people see fixed interest developing. At the moment I still think fixed interest will have a place as ballast in most portfolios. But especially on this, there are several people on here who understand bonds far better than I do.
BTW - you are correct re HSBC, no catch.
It's also useful that you've posted up the Lifers predictions as this illustrates the dilemma. Let's say @hermann and I sell LS20 today. What shall we buy with it today. ? Currently FTSE 100 is at 7778. What do Lifers expect it to do for the rest of the year? Most of the 38 respondents forecast it to go negative from here. Three whom I consider to have a better feel for markets than i do, forecast a decline of between 9% - 14%. You yourself forecast virtually zero growth. The most optimistic forecast calls for 2.9%.growth
Meanwhile we can pop along to Charter Savings Bank and take out a one year fixed interest bond, backed by the govt. guarantee system, and receive 4.1%.
I'm sure plenty of equities in one form or another are the answer for @hermann in the long term. But for the next 12-18 months? Not necessarily. Certainly, no rush...
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Interesting that @golfaddick and @WishIdStayedinthePub - 2 guys who seem to know their onions - are at different ends of the spectrum.Rob7Lee said:So these are the entries, do let me know if my butter fingers have put anyone in incorrectly;Name Level Er_Be_Ab_Pl_Wo_Wo_Ch 6500 WishIdStayedInThe Pub 6625 bobmunro 6950 oohaahmortimer 7077 meldrew66 7117 Pedro45 7153 Redman 7250 PragueAddick 7300 wwaddick 7350 Thread Killer 7423 Fortune 82nd Minute 7440 Covered End 7508 CAFCWest 7510 Salad 7511 Morboe 7554 cafc7-6htfc 7600 LargeAddick 7647 blackpool72 7650 Addick Addict 7652 guinnessaddick 7658 Jon_CAFC_ 7675 fat man on a moped 7685 RalphMilne 7689 thecat 7710 IdleHans 7745 Bangkokaddick 7767 CharltonKerry 7777 Rob7Lee 7785 Daarrrzzettbum 7800 aitchyaddick 7809 golfaddick 7824 StrikerFirmani 7840 valleynick66 7856 cafcpolo 7893 holyjo 7912 HardyAddick 7913 TheGhostofTomHovi 7966 @TelMc32 8000
Either of you want to admit defeat yet? :-)2 -
A lot of what I read is painting a gloomy picture of the near term prospects for the market. I'm keeping a close eye on my assets which are currently split as property 40% (we will downsize next year and the cash released will be invested), cash 20%, equities 10% and private pensions 30% (effectively equities). My intention is to feed the released cash into equities via ISAs as far as possible but I'm in no rush for that at the moment. The 20k per person limit is a useful brake on the temptation to plunge in. I am more likely to be a seller than a buyer until there's more confidence about anyway. This might take six months, but who knows?
Interest rate decisions today and tomorrow will likely serve to push up instant access rates a little bit, but longer term fixes are unlikely to move much as the rises are largely built in, I think. With inflation falling only very slowly, it's really difficult to identify a sound short term action that will preserve the value of your cash.
My best return over the past 12 months has been my bet365 account, and that might be true for the next 12 too. Sorry bob!1 -
IdleHans said:A lot of what I read is painting a gloomy picture of the near term prospects for the market. I'm keeping a close eye on my assets which are currently split as property 40% (we will downsize next year and the cash released will be invested), cash 20%, equities 10% and private pensions 30% (effectively equities). My intention is to feed the released cash into equities via ISAs as far as possible but I'm in no rush for that at the moment. The 20k per person limit is a useful brake on the temptation to plunge in. I am more likely to be a seller than a buyer until there's more confidence about anyway. This might take six months, but who knows?
Interest rate decisions today and tomorrow will likely serve to push up instant access rates a little bit, but longer term fixes are unlikely to move much as the rises are largely built in, I think. With inflation falling only very slowly, it's really difficult to identify a sound short term action that will preserve the value of your cash.
My best return over the past 12 months has been my bet365 account, and that might be true for the next 12 too. Sorry bob!
Thanks for letting me know - I'll be having words with the Traders tomorrow.
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Fair point re risk levels (if you were in the LS20), the lower risk end is much more difficult I guess (I still tend to go to the higher end of risk levels at the moment but will look to reduce in 3 years time).PragueAddick said:
Fine, but if @hermann held LS20 because he wanted "cautious", what would you have had him do? Bail out when it was -21%, and if so, the old question, into what, that meets the "cautious" criterion?. My point was simply, not to panic and end up selling at the bottom. Fortunately he hasn't, and is about 7% less poor as a result.Rob7Lee said:
But what are other funds up by in that time, many much more than 6 points. My Pension was yesterday back at an all time high.PragueAddick said:@golfaddick
He said what??? Cue mass sale of Vanguard LS 20 and 40 and one unemployed bod 🤣
@hermann Golfie is generally correct. But fact is, LS20 has recovered about 6 points from its Kamikwaze low - which is a reminder not to over-react, especially at your age.Nobody can yet be sure when and how bonds recover and whether the old 60:40 mix is finished - still less what should replace it. My tactic in your shoes would be:
- before selling anything have a plan for what you want to buy with the proceeds
- sell in smaller chunks, on a rising market. Set a target price for each sell.- for the next few months read a lot about how people see fixed interest developing. At the moment I still think fixed interest will have a place as ballast in most portfolios. But especially on this, there are several people on here who understand bonds far better than I do.
BTW - you are correct re HSBC, no catch.
It's also useful that you've posted up the Lifers predictions as this illustrates the dilemma. Let's say @hermann and I sell LS20 today. What shall we buy with it today. ? Currently FTSE 100 is at 7778. What do Lifers expect it to do for the rest of the year? Most of the 38 respondents forecast it to go negative from here. Three whom I consider to have a better feel for markets than i do, forecast a decline of between 9% - 14%. You yourself forecast virtually zero growth. The most optimistic forecast calls for 2.9%.growth
Meanwhile we can pop along to Charter Savings Bank and take out a one year fixed interest bond, backed by the govt. guarantee system, and receive 4.1%.
I'm sure plenty of equities in one form or another are the answer for @hermann in the long term. But for the next 12-18 months? Not necessarily. Certainly, no rush...
I personally don't see the FTSE100 gaining much more momentum, but you still have dividends to consider. I jumped more back into the S&P500 as feel that has potential to regain further, and one of my best performers has been FTSE Developed Europe UCITS ETF, up 13% since June.
I'll probably salary sacrifice most of my bonus in March as tax efficient and the company tops it up by 10% if you do, will go as high a risk as possible with that, purely on the basis in my twisted mind I'm up nearly 70% before I've even invested it so can go risk heavy.0
