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Hello post

Including Financial Independence and Retiring Early (FIRE)
OldPlodder

Hello post

#351427

Postby OldPlodder » October 28th, 2020, 5:15 pm

Hello,

First post, but fairly long term investor.

I retired recently, aged 57, but will do some 'consultancy' for a year or so to finish key projects.

Over the last few months I have rebalanced, with the odd change, my portfolio from all out growth(which I have mostly concentrated on for a long time with no regrets whatsoever), to a mixture of a few ITs to generate comfortably the additional income we will require, 4 ITs should do it, 60 odd % of the portfolio, the rest are all out growth oriented, mostly ITs and a couple of ETFs.

Portfolio as follows:

Income, 61% of portfolio at tonight's update. They are planned to produce regular(ish) Income for a quarterly withdrawal. Concentrated but I don't mind a bit.

MERCHANTS TRUST PLC(THE) (XLON:MRCH)
HENDERSON FAR EAST INCOME LIMITED (XLON:HFEL)
EUROPEAN ASSETS TRUST PLC (XLON:EAT)
INVESCO ENHANCED INCOME LIMITED (XLON:IPE)

Growth

SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (XLON:SMT)
SMITHSON INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (XLON:SSON)
HGCAPITAL TRUST PLC (XLON:HGT)
INV EQQQ Nasdaq100USD UCIT ETF (XLON:EQQQ)
L&G Cyber Security UCITS ETF (XLON:ISPY)
WORLDWIDE HEALTHCARE TRUST PLC (XLON:WWH)
JPMORGAN CHINA GROWTH & INCOME PLC (XLON:JCGI)

Only about 80% of the income will be taken, so there is some slack. The left over income will be re-invested back in rough rotation among the growth holdings.

All this portfolio is in my ISA, started in 1993. The portfolio was unitised at the start, acc and inc units. "Plodder' I might be, but the portfolio has not been, delivering what was required.

I also hold three years of income as near cash, plus a fairly good chunk of PBs.

Plodder

PS: My wife has also an ISA, but we have other family plans for that portfolio and its income in particular.

TUK020
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Re: Hello post

#351431

Postby TUK020 » October 28th, 2020, 5:27 pm

OldPlodder wrote:Hello,

First post, but fairly long term investor.

I retired recently, aged 57, but will do some 'consultancy' for a year or so to finish key projects.

Over the last few months I have rebalanced, with the odd change, my portfolio from all out growth(which I have mostly concentrated on for a long time with no regrets whatsoever), to a mixture of a few ITs to generate comfortably the additional income we will require, 4 ITs should do it, 60 odd % of the portfolio, the rest are all out growth oriented, mostly ITs and a couple of ETFs.

Portfolio as follows:

Income, 61% of portfolio at tonight's update. They are planned to produce regular(ish) Income for a quarterly withdrawal. Concentrated but I don't mind a bit.

MERCHANTS TRUST PLC(THE) (XLON:MRCH)
HENDERSON FAR EAST INCOME LIMITED (XLON:HFEL)
EUROPEAN ASSETS TRUST PLC (XLON:EAT)
INVESCO ENHANCED INCOME LIMITED (XLON:IPE)

Growth

SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (XLON:SMT)
SMITHSON INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (XLON:SSON)
HGCAPITAL TRUST PLC (XLON:HGT)
INV EQQQ Nasdaq100USD UCIT ETF (XLON:EQQQ)
L&G Cyber Security UCITS ETF (XLON:ISPY)
WORLDWIDE HEALTHCARE TRUST PLC (XLON:WWH)
JPMORGAN CHINA GROWTH & INCOME PLC (XLON:JCGI)

Only about 80% of the income will be taken, so there is some slack. The left over income will be re-invested back in rough rotation among the growth holdings.

All this portfolio is in my ISA, started in 1993. The portfolio was unitised at the start, acc and inc units. "Plodder' I might be, but the portfolio has not been, delivering what was required.

I also hold three years of income as near cash, plus a fairly good chunk of PBs.

Plodder

PS: My wife has also an ISA, but we have other family plans for that portfolio and its income in particular.

You look nicely set. Was there a question?

Bagger46

Re: Hello post

#351459

Postby Bagger46 » October 28th, 2020, 7:00 pm

Well OldPlodder,

First of all welcome and enjoy your retirement. Be careful with the 'consultancy', I was too supposed to do a couple of years to help people/projects, ended doing it for fourteen years on and off!

Can't comment on the income investments, not my thing, although my wife holds two of yours, HFEL and EAT.

As for your growth selection, I in fact hold all these but one.

Instead of your JCGI I hold CHIP to capture nascent China growth. We made a lot of our dosh in the US in the past, like you I suspect and many others, but going forward I see China looking to emulate this easily in years to come in market return terms, so am gradually increasing our presence there.

I admire your fairly concentrated portfolio approach, I must admit to having many more holdings, mostly due to the fact that we set an absolute, not relative, max size on any holding. I also like the fact that your 'UK centred presence' is low.(SMT might be in the FTSE, but thankfully ignores UK plc, as we tend to increasingly do as investors, even with a likely FTSE dead cat bounce in the next year or so, long term a poor proposition imho in worldwide terms, too many tired outfits, practically nothing in the disruptors/tech key area)

All the best

Bagger

PS OldPlodder sounds odd at the tender age of 57. Just turned 80 myself last weekend, what with Covid celebrations on hold until well into the spring!

OldPlodder

Re: Hello post

#351463

Postby OldPlodder » October 28th, 2020, 7:08 pm

Bagger46 wrote:Well OldPlodder,

First of all welcome and enjoy your retirement. Be careful with the 'consultancy', I was too supposed to do a couple of years to help people/projects, ended doing it for fourteen years on and off!

Can't comment on the income investments, not my thing, although my wife holds two of yours, HFEL and EAT.

As for your growth selection, I in fact hold all these but one.

Instead of your JCGI I hold CHIP to capture nascent China growth. We made a lot of our dosh in the US in the past, like you I suspect and many others, but going forward I see China looking to emulate this easily in years to come in market return terms, so am gradually increasing our presence there.

I admire your fairly concentrated portfolio approach, I must admit to having many more holdings, mostly due to the fact that we set an absolute, not relative, max size on any holding. I also like the fact that your 'UK centred presence' is low.(SMT might be in the FTSE, but thankfully ignores UK plc, as we tend to increasingly do as investors, even with a likely FTSE dead cat bounce in the next year or so, long term a poor proposition imho in worldwide terms, too many tired outfits, practically nothing in the disruptors/tech key area)

All the best

Bagger

PS OldPlodder sounds odd at the tender age of 57. Just turned 80 myself last weekend, what with Covid celebrations on hold until well into the spring!


Thanks for this. We seem to share much of our general approach to markets. As for the old bit, well plodder was my weird nickname at university, strangely enough because I was quite a sprinter in those days, but on retiring suddenly felt older.

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Re: Hello post

#351485

Postby Adamski » October 28th, 2020, 8:35 pm

Welcome to the forum and congrats on retirement. Nice Portfolio, your much more experienced investor th a me, but one thought I have is that common to have some wealth preservation ITs or funds such as PNL or CGT to smooth things.

OldPlodder

Re: Hello post

#351508

Postby OldPlodder » October 28th, 2020, 10:09 pm

Adamski wrote:Welcome to the forum and congrats on retirement. Nice Portfolio, your much more experienced investor th a me, but one thought I have is that common to have some wealth preservation ITs or funds such as PNL or CGT to smooth things.


This so called wealth preservation investments are not for me. What I have found is that they might shine for a little while on the downside in tough markets, doing better than me, but the portfolio tends to soon catch up and leave them well behind when things inevitably improve. Having reduced my proportion of high flyers this won’t be so true in the next few decades, but I only need to match these wealth preservation outfits, and I feel I will with average luck.

They tend to put an emphasis on lower volatility, but I see volatility as my friend, it provides opportunities for cracking entry points, or did so in the past when I was heavily in the pot building stage.

We have very suitable cash or near cash reserves anyway, as well as much more than enough tied up in our house( we will downgrade when I can’t look easily after the garden probably), plus my wife’s ISA, which is surplus to retirement requirements, thus a backstop, is fairly defensive, so natural smoothing occurs anyway.

Anyway each to their own.

Plodder

TUK020
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Re: Hello post

#351565

Postby TUK020 » October 29th, 2020, 8:33 am

On the investments side, one you may want to consider for income is Murray International MYI. It won't shoot the lights out, but is fairly steady and defensive.

House down-sizing. From observations of elderly friends and relatives, if you don't downsize soon after retiring, you never will. Ten years later the prospect of moving becomes so traumatic, that people seem to dodge the issue forever more, even if they obviously cannot cope with the place they have. My Dad spent a fortune on modifying his house (walking frame compatible wet room, stair lifts) and gardening maintenance, to avoid a move to a suitable bungalow.

OldPlodder

Re: Hello post

#351597

Postby OldPlodder » October 29th, 2020, 9:46 am

TUK020 wrote:On the investments side, one you may want to consider for income is Murray International MYI. It won't shoot the lights out, but is fairly steady and defensive.

House down-sizing. From observations of elderly friends and relatives, if you don't downsize soon after retiring, you never will. Ten years later the prospect of moving becomes so traumatic, that people seem to dodge the issue forever more, even if they obviously cannot cope with the place they have. My Dad spent a fortune on modifying his house (walking frame compatible wet room, stair lifts) and gardening maintenance, to avoid a move to a suitable bungalow.


Thanks man,

My wife in fact has a holding in MYI, held for a fairly long time, which we consider 'defensive' and steady. Her portfolio, her own choices, which reflects her attitude as an investor. Our portfolios are now basically fixed barring important unexpected developments. They can just trundle along doing their thing, the build phase is well over. From time to time I will rebalance mine a bit, that's all, just to keep our income taken increasing as we require.

I take your important point about downsizing, we have witnessed very much what you describe among older relatives and friends.

But do bear in mind that at 57 and 55, we do have time to think about it. We are thinking that in about five years, we might make the move. Having said that two houses down from us, a fairly run down bungalow has just sold for an absolute packet just for the land(I have spoken to the new owners, they will tear it down and build much bigger), due to our position yards from a nice beach it it happening quite a bit around us. We always saw the original purchase, which stretched us at the time, as part of our 'retirement investments'. In our case our frontage is such that two houses would fit in easily , and it has been done a few of hundred yards further, so if somebody should knock at the door with another ridiculous (imho) offer, we might be off anyway to fresher pastures sooner than planned. A really nice location is all very well, but crowding is getting a pain in the summer months anyway. There is a nice quiet village nearby we have our eye on, we have friends there too, and it has nicer handy facilities.

Regards

Plodder

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Re: Hello post

#351693

Postby gnawsome » October 29th, 2020, 12:59 pm

TUK020 wrote:On the investments side, one you may want to consider for income is Murray International MYI. It won't shoot the lights out, but is fairly steady and defensive.

House down-sizing. From observations of elderly friends and relatives, if you don't downsize soon after retiring, you never will. Ten years later the prospect of moving becomes so traumatic, that people seem to dodge the issue forever more, even if they obviously cannot cope with the place they have. My Dad spent a fortune on modifying his house (walking frame compatible wet room, stair lifts) and gardening maintenance, to avoid a move to a suitable bungalow.


You caught my attention on both points.
MYI - I keep looking to buy and would have at 950ish, but waited -- and bought some at 940.
Now I see them at 915 and tempted to buy more but am hesitant when seeing the repeated buying in of own shares presumably to control the share price which might mean 'controlled descent'.

At 84 I don't expect to move away and just seek to manage the natural decline of self and home in some vague symetry...

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Re: Hello post

#390864

Postby wolvokid » February 28th, 2021, 11:44 am

OldPlodder wrote:I also hold three years of income as near cash, plus a fairly good chunk of PBs.

Plodder


Hope you don't mind me asking but I'd be very interested to learn what yor choices were/are for your 'near-cash' pot.

Best Wishes,
David


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