The earlier thread on my ARF investment strategy was closed last evening, before I had a chance to refute false and derogatory claims (almost all deliberate, I'm sure) about my competence to look after my ARF investments. I'm thinking particularly about
@Gordon Gekko and
@Louisval. Both almost certainly knew that nearly all of what they were wrote about my approach was completely untrue. I can't allow those false claims to stay on the record.
First of all, so as not to lose sight of the woods for the trees,
@AJAM wrote
A few pieces of Context, Colm's performance is far superior to the vast, vast majority of ARF investors who would be mostly invested in "Lifestyle" or balanced funds which would include a high proportion of Cash or Bonds.
@AJAM is right, of course. All the evidence shows that someone my age (now 75) would be strongly advised by
@Louisval,
@Gordon Gekko and their like to invest a significant proportion of my ARF in bonds and cash, given particularly that the ARF is now my sole source of regular income other than the contributory OAP: I don't have any other pension entitlement.
I recounted in my posts what actually happened over the last 14 years.
@Gordon Gekko and
@Louisval gave theoretical reconstructions of what might have transpired if ARF holders had invested in certain funds, which presumably were chosen with the benefit of hindsight because they were seen - thirteen years later - to have been top performers. There is no evidence whatsoever that any real person ever followed the theoretical course of action outlined.
Secondly, the performance of my ARF is net of all charges (even the once-off fee in 2024 to my pension adviser for changing ARF providers). On the other hand, the unit-linked funds mentioned by my detractors are all execution only and don't allow for the extra advisory and ARF provider costs.
Thirdly, people tend to focus the comparison on the position at end 2024 when, as I readily admitted, I had just experienced a major fall in the value of one investment. Despite that, the results were still excellent.
Here is the same table, with an additional column added to show which fund was ahead at various year-ends:
At 10 of the 13 year-ends, my ARF (net of all charges) was ahead of the (completely theoretical) index tracker and the (equally theoretical) managed fund (before ARF provider and adviser charges). Thus, in every one of those years, I would have had to withdraw a smaller percentage of my fund in order to meet the regular withdrawal (which broadly increased in line with inflation), for which I was given no credit.
So much for
@Louisval referring to me as "an experienced finance man seriously lagging a reasonable benchmark"
the previously stated underperformance of Colm's fund. (The increase is marginal not the underperformance - the cumulative revised under-performance over the 10 years is over 25%).
What "previously stated underperformance" was
@Louisval referring to? I would very much appreciate if he/she could do the honourable thing and withdraw that and similar false statements, but I fear I'll be left waiting. The same applies to
@Gordon Gekko who has supported every claim of my underperformance as well as adding their own completely false claims. For instance,
@Gordon Gekko's final comment in the last thread was priceless:
"
Your investment approach is, best case, costing you money and, worst case, will blow-up your ARF."
For what it's worth, my ARF is far less likely to blow up than one effected through an institution, because there's a direct link to the underlying investments with no intervening institution that could "blow up" to use
@Gordon Gekko 's words.
@Gordon Gekko also claimed that I was spending a lot of my time on my ARF. I don't know how many times I've told readers that I hardly ever look at it. That also shows in the activity in the fund. In the first 50 weeks of 2024, there were just two small sales, amounting to less than 2% of the fund. There was no activity whatsoever in 2023. Dividend receipts were enough to pay the 6% income in its entirety. If my money were invested instead in unit-linked funds, I'd have had to sell some units every month to fund the withdrawals - and presumably I would have to seek advice from a pension consultant (at a cost) on which funds to sell. I've had to spend far more time responding to stupid comments on AAM than I ever spent studying the investment performance for my ARF.
Finally, an apology to the contributors who asked constructive questions - and there were many of them. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to answer them, because of having to respond to my detractors.
I enjoy writing these updates and some of the comments by others are excellent and thought-provoking; however, it's just not worth it when I have to endure ignorant sniping by anonymous critics. I may just stop providing updates.