Taking The Plunge Into Investing - Any Thoughts On My Strategy


Yes, I most certainly have a lack of knowledge in the area! It's for that reason I don't intend to pick individual stocks. I am already paying an investment manager for that service. Like you said, I'm going to stick to investment trusts with this experiment and see how I go. Thanks for the input.
 
Thanks for that. Have you got a referral that I can use for IB?
Sure sent via PM. IBKR also have great rates for Fx conversion although be wary of using it for that alone and not investing as they will block your account.
 
I would 100% concur with the first line of this reply- You have no idea what you are doing, it is kind of of scary ready your post.
 
I would 100% concur with the first line of this reply- You have no idea what you are doing, it is kind of of scary ready your post.

It doesn't take a genius to figure that out, I literally told you all I'm completely new to this. Do you have anything that can contribute to the conversation? Can you enlighten me as to what is wrong with the strategy?
 
OK I have read this over a few times, and I don't understand what you are trying to do here.

You have €250k over and above. You don't like fees or taxes. Thats straightforward, but where are you going from there.

I will do some Google research to look for a list of investment trusts and find a good globally diversified one.
If you are looking for a globally diversified investment with low charges and a tax efficient structure, surely your professional broker can provide the solution. Or indeed many people on here. It seems to me there should be a 'correct' answer to that.


However if you want this
I'll be more knowledgeable and confident in picking and choosing stocks more actively.
this is not the way to go.

that's a little more active than I intend to be. A lot actually. I don't think I have the knowledge or the desire to be that involved.


Either you want a low cost, tax efficient, globally diversified investment or you want to conduct experiments and become more knowledgeable.
 
I think what I said is pretty straight forward.

Are you saying that I should just ask my broker to arrange it? The whole point of this is that I don't want to pay his fees.

However if you want this
this is not the way to go.
I know that is not the way to go, I've stated that's not the way I'm going until perhaps at some stage in the future when I have read more, have more experience and am generally more knowledgeable on the topic.

Either you want a low cost, tax efficient, globally diversified investment or you want to conduct experiments and become more knowledgeable.

No, it is not an either or scenario. I'm not sure why you are instructing me that it is. I can conduct the experiment of allowing my self-managed portfolio run alongside the portfolio that my broker picks and manages on my behalf and comparing them in a few years to see which has performed best. Alongside this I can become educated and gain experience in how the markets work with a view to taking a more active, individual stock picking approach in the future.
 
€250,000 is a lot of money for an experiment. Use €10,000. If you mess up, you still have €240,000.

One of the many reasons why people use an advisor is it created a barrier between them and their money. Having money in a trading account, you can cash out while watching the news on a Friday night. Using an advisor, they talk to their advisor before making that decision. You also have someone to talk to when you are nervous about your money and the markets. The fee that you pay your advisor may end up being peanuts compared to the amount of money you lose going it yourself when you don't know what you are doing.

Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
 
Yes I 100% agree, a financial advisor will stop you panicking and selling in a sell off because they will have alot more experience. It takes a long time to build up the experience and fortitude to sit out sell offs and not get carried away in bull markets. Usually you build that up gradually with small amounts of money, then when you get to 250K you can sit it out when that falls to 170k in a sell off. That happened in March 2020 ,the fastest sell off in stock market history. Some people on this site sold out during that sell off, it was actually a fairly frightening experience but largely forgotten about now due to the very rapid recovery afterwards. But nobody is saying that in real time, its only afterwards its obvious
 
You say "investment trusts" but Berkshire's not an IT
 


Hi Joe, thanks for the input. I'm solid on that front though, there is no chance of me panicking and selling off at a loss. The 250K does not represent all my investments, it won't affect me hugely if it takes a tumble, which makes it easier to sit tight and wait it out if the markets take a down turn. Over the last year with my broker I've watched my investment fall over 100K and rebound again without me starting to panic.

You say "investment trusts" but Berkshire's not an IT

Hi Concrete, probably just a typo on my end, I realise Berkshire is not an investment trust. It's appealing to me as an option though because although it's a regular stock, you get some diversification with it. I'm not 100% on what I'm going to run with at the moment. Probably 2 trusts at 100K each and then something like Berkshire for 50K.
 
I'm going to spread 250K across Berkshire-B, JAM Investment Trust and maybe one other, I'm avoiding ETF's because of the taxes. Then, I'm just going to leave it alone and see what happens. I'm looking at this as 15-20 year investment
You need to be familiar with US estate tax if you are investing a substantial sum in BRK.

In your shoes, I would invest the lot in FCIT and call it a day (I’m assuming you are resident and domiciled in Ireland).
 
You need to be familiar with US estate tax if you are investing a substantial sum in BRK.

In your shoes, I would invest the lot in FCIT and call it a day (I’m assuming you are resident and domiciled in Ireland).

Thanks for the info, I'll read up the estate tax. I assume I'll find some threads related to it here also. From my vague recollection of the topic, I remember thinking at the time that although technically, the estate tax is something that could be an issue, in reality the odds of the US government actually coming looking for that are so slim that I would consider it an acceptable risk. Also, I'm still (relatively) young and I am looking at this as a 15 - 20 year investment. I would hope to have many good years left after this investment has finished. Yes of course I could be hit by a bus etc. etc. but I don't make long term decisions based on the small chance that will happen. However, even with that being said, I'll definitely delve further into the US Estate Tax Issue, actually, I'll just include it on the agenda for my next meeting with my tax consultant. Better go straight to the pro's for that advice.

Yes I'm resident and domiciled in Ireland. FCIT is one of the trusts standing out to me after scrolling back through threads here on AskAboutMoney and the other research I've been doing.
 
50% of its investment portfolio, not 50% of its total holdings. It privately owns many other large companies.
 
Also Berkshire has 50% of its portfolio in Apple, not great diversification
Not sure about Berkshire at the moment, he has made a few mistakes, he bought airline stocks then sold them in 2020 at a loss before the airlines had a big recovery not long afterwards. He jumps in and out of oil stocks aswell rather than "holding forever ".
He made a big mistake with Tesco by buying at high share price then selling out at a loss a decade ago and also missing out on the recovery in Tesco share price. Again he didn't do as he says because he bought high and sold low. Also he has been sitting in cash and government bonds for years waiting for "better prices " .
 
Yet he beat sp500 over both the last 1 year and 5 year timelines.

The other reasons for investing in BRK are: 1. no stamp duty as is incurred at 0.5% when using these UK ITs.
2. no dividends paid out (for those earning at the highest tax rate).