I’ve been giving free education to people on investing since about 1999. Whether it’s my Financial Times column, or my books (£25 is nearly free!) or my Bloomberg TV show or my talks, and now webinars.
Some great questions recently from people on my investing webinar:
“I have £200k in cash after my husband died – what do I do? I want my pension to work and I’ve lost it through my advisor who put money with Neil Woodford. I want to leave something for my children so don’t mind a little risk ie stocks.”
This is an amalgamation of several questions into one. Key points:
The UK markets since 1999 when I wrote in the FT that I am buying only American companies, have stayed the same. The US – is up 7 times.
Brokers eg UK Company Growth Funds take about £1,000 in fees from every £10,000 you give them every 5 years.
Their performance is typically 0% in 3 years and if they are up in 3 years, it is 0% by 5 years.
It’s not that you don’t lose - it’s that your money sat there and nothing to show for it
A good portfolio needs only 12-20 stocks. 20 if you are risk averse.
Ultra safe people should buy US and UK Government Bonds with 7-10 year maturity. You can do this through an exchange traded fund.
Goldman Sachs data shows institutions hold stocks for 12 months – so you should review after 12 months too.
I want every £10,000 in my son’s ISA, over 15 years at 20% return to become £500,000 – that’s what 20% pa gets you. And my track record for the last 15 years shows I can do it again – as independently monitored by Ionic Information the Financial Times Award Winning.
Investing is simple. It’s just people don’t know how so they give it to fund managers who whittle it away. You need your money working for you, not you working for your money.
Some of what I bought based on my value-growth-momentum-income holy grail analysis of 8,000 stocks:
1. Microsoft
2. United Health Group
3. Visa
4. AbbVie
6. Adobe
10. Deutsche Boerse
11. eBay
12. Eli Lilly
13. GoDaddy
14. Hikma
16. Netease
18. Dollar General
Learn more for free on www.investing-champions.com
By Alpesh B Patel
