Husky Posted August 10, 2017 Report Share Posted August 10, 2017 Anyone in the know wrt investments? We have an offshore investment in Pounds which has not been performing well. At this stage we need to decide whether to either convert to Aus$ and move the funds over to Australia, or to keep the Pounds and transfer to an Allan Gray portfolio. It would be good to have access to the funds when we make our permanent move to Australia year end. I currently have a classic bank account with NAB. What would you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ottg Posted August 10, 2017 Report Share Posted August 10, 2017 @Husky Let me try to answer this as there are a few questions bundled together. Many of my thoughts you may already know: You: We have an offshore investment in Pounds which has not been performing well. Every country has their green spots even in a down-turning economy. Do you look at savings account, managed funds, stock picking, value investing etc? Each one has its pros & cons. It takes time to grow a portfolio and the higher the risk the higher the potential. It also has different tax implications depending on where you are. It's a known fact that more than 80% of all managed funds don't beat the exchange market index. ( I can give a reference to this if you need that) Investing in an index (ETFs) is the safest as then you are better than 80% of the managed funds. Most managed funds will tell you it's a 5-year investment plan to see some real growth performance. Why? Because they get it wrong so often. As always when one market/sector underperforms you need to move your funds to another market/sector to ensure ongoing performance. Easier said than done. You: At this stage we need to decide whether to either convert to Aus$ and move the funds over to Australia, or to keep the Pounds and transfer to an Allan Gray portfolio. Why do you need to decide now? Why move it to Australia now? How did you get to the conclusion to use Alan Gray? (They were my favorite portfolio managers in RSA) Any of those decisions will need some insight into the local markets. That includes different portfolio managers, their performances, the range of investment vehicles available, ASX etc. Ask many different advisors and you will get many different opinions. Rather signup for advisory investment services that do an independent market analysis. Again each one has its pros & cons. I use Barefoot, Richard Cluver Investment Services (RCIS) and Share Wealth Systems. I then do my own analysis, decisions, and investment. In general, let say you do stock picking, if you get say 8/10 stocks correct you are doing well. Just ensure your growth is more than your losses. If you are doing ETFs combine it with 3-4 shares. Currently, ETFs in Aus don't do that well. Also, note that the exchange rate has a big influence on overseas ETFs if you in AUS $ which needs to be taken into account. Don't think that portfolio managers will always do better than yourself. It only depends on how much effort you want to put in i.e consider independent advisory investment services. Often my question to them is how much of your own money do you have in those funds. Be ready to hear many lame excuses? You: It would be good to have access to the funds when we make our permanent move to Australia year end. In that case, you looking at short term investments or something that you can liquidate quickly? Thus term deposits are out. All the other vehicles above can be converted to cash quickly - the only question is when is a better time to sell? You: I currently have a classic bank account with NAB. Not sure why you mentioned that but yes I think they do have a share trading platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted August 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2017 Wow, thank you for the detailed response @ottg You can send you invoice to ....... Mentioned the bank account as a last option ito of just transferring the funds into some form of savings/ investment account. Will do my homework and then we'll make a decision. Thank you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiermelk Posted August 15, 2017 Report Share Posted August 15, 2017 If you want to keep the money in a savings account in Australia have a look past the big banks for the best interest rates. For more info on this see this thread - https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2558805 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ottg Posted August 25, 2017 Report Share Posted August 25, 2017 Interesting view: Wall Street Banks Warn Downturn Is Coming, By Sid Verma and Cecile Gutscher, August 23, 2017, 12:47 AM GMT+8 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-22/wall-street-banks-warn-winter-is-coming-as-business-cycle-peaks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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