kdtoal wrote:Thanks for your comments.
I plan on initially investing £10,000 into S&P 500 and the other £30,000 into the portfolio. Then each month transfer money into S&P and across the portfolio. If I were to base the monthly deposits on the initial investment it would work out as 25% into S&P and 75% split across the portfolio.
When you say drip feed over 3-4 years do you recommend drip feeding the £30,000 into the portfolio over these 3-4 years? Or what so you mean?
I would like to use up my ISA allowance each year to invest into the portfolio and S&P 500, although this may not be totally achievable. Approximately £1000-1500 per month and reassess at year end and consider an extra instalment.
Thanks again
Bear with me as I know what to say but I have a terrible knack of babbling - I've even been known to spout bullsh1t
. Let's say you buy £30K of S&P 500 tomorrow. Totally for example let's say the price is £1.00 per share. Tomorrow the S&P 500 falls by 10% and you're out of pocket by £3K. Let's assume the S&P 500 enters a bear market. I recall (and obviously check yourself) that if you're buying into an equity/fund you should consider defensively buying in over time. The strategy is known as pound cost averaging.
Let's assume you buy £625 of S&P 500 each month. In month one the value of the fund falls by 10%. You loose £62.5. But you are then buying another £625 of S&P 500 at that reduced price. So you buy the ups and downs and achieve a reasonable price without huge risk.
Obviously the above is a very simple analogy to explain the strategies essence. How you employ this is really down to your own personal choice. There are currently two main arguments in the marketplace. One suggests the S&P 500 is over-valued. The other that it is not. I couldn't say either way what direction it will go in the short term. I don't have to as pound cost averaging is benefiting me as I add cash to my pension pot.
Your ISA can be accessed to suit you. So if you over indulge with additions during the year and suddenly find you need a little more cash you can remove that from the ISA. The downside is you may be selling cheaper than you purchased. The upside is the opposite.
I can't point you in one direction or another but I can, at the risk of annoying you, suggest you review pensions. Time is on your side.
If you invest £18,000 per annum in a pension you will get £3,600 added to the pension. You've just made 20% for nothing. If you earn over £50,000 you will also attract additional tax rebates. I've no idea what you earn and it's none of my business. But let's assume it's slightly less than Google's average UK Dentist salary of £72K. If you put £18,000 into a pension each year you will get £7,200 tax rebate.
This is a much quicker way to put together a pot of money for retirement. Try not to look at the downside, because there isn't a great deal of that in my opinion. If you are ill and can no longer work modern pensions can be drawn down before retirement age (iirc). The LTA isn't a huge burden at all - it can be managed. And your pension is outside of IHT and will pass to your nominated beneficiary. They can immediately draw down from this at their tax rate as the pension withdrawal age has already been achieved by you.
I did a quick "what if" scenario on my spreadsheet. Assuming you add £18K per year to a pension and attract 40% tax relief and the fund grows by 8% per annum you will have a pension pot of £3.41M.
Assuming growth is 6% it will only be £1.87M at your age 60.
I am not suggesting you go all in to a pension. But if you invested £18K (plus rebate at 40%) for the first 10 years and stopped adding to your pension at that point but continued to let it grow then at 6% it would be worth £1.3M by your age 60. An ISA (i.e. without tax rebates) would be worth £979K. An approximate difference of £320K or just short of 33%.
May I suggest that it's good to have an entrance strategy. But you also need an exit plan too. If by 40 your pension is banked (subject to 6% growth over the next 20 years) and your £18K can go into ISA's, sports cars or charities then you're in a great place.
There will be others who know more about this than I do and will be able to explain in more detail. Some good eggs hereabouts
Take care and don't hesitate to check my maths
AiY