Category: Investing philosophy

I have volunteered to do a simple class at work for a few younger folk about pensions.  I’m promising them Five Simple Things to know about pensions / saving.  What should I tell them?

My audience are young, ambitious Londoners.  They earn between £20k and £40k.  None are yet parents.  All aspire to get on the housing ladder.  They are smart but not obviously financially literate. They know pensions are an important matter but it wouldn’t be urgent for any of them.

Continue reading “What to teach your 20-something self, about pensions?” →

This if the fifth and final post setting out my Investment Policy.  My Investment Policy Statement is here, and I have set out the detailed reasoning behind it in four prior posts here, here, here and here.

The key questions I haven’t tackled so far is how and when I trade.

Continue reading “My IPS, 5 of 5: Rebalancing and other considerations” →

As I set out when explaining my Investment Policy Statement, I am a big believer in diversification.  But I also know that you should only invest in what you know, and you can’t know everything; as Warren Buffet put it, “Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.“.  How to strike a balance between having enough skin in the game when I have conviction, and having enough diversification to allow me to sleep at night?

An investment here, an investment there, and pretty soon you’re talking a lot of holdings

My own investment portfolio, which is a mixture of ETFs and direct holdings, and which covers a range of countries, contains more than 200 underlying holdings (see graph below). (Note: I say underlying holdings because I hold some securities in multiple accounts.  I consolidate my overall picture every month into one spreadsheet which aggregates by underlying holding).

Continue reading “What is the ideal number of holdings? Diversification (200+) vs concentration (<20)” →