Hi Surfer, yes it was your post that made me look into funds. Do you invest directly through Fundsmiths? And if so is there a ‘user account’ page where you can track your investment? Or do they just post/email a statement?

Hi Marmaduke

Fundsmith

You can do it online and they will send paperwork out. Once open you can track on the website.

I’ve been ‘into’ investment since I studied it as part of my business studies course in the late 80s – in fact my 1st year coincided with Black Monday. So I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs and invested to some degree for most of that time. In the late 90s some people were investing heavily in tech stocks making large gains in short periods. There was a fund at that time that was doing incredibly well – Henderson Technology IIRC – and a mate of mine decided to listen to another mate who told him he should put his £7k ISA allowance into it. Well then the bubble burst and I’m not sure how much he lost but certainly it was worth less than £1k at one point. So consider what you invest in, will Fundsmith carry on doing so well? Sure it won’t collapse and I doubt it will ever be a bad fund but to assume it will carry on doing so well is optimistic. I’d put some money in for sure but I’m well diversified.

doubt it will ever be a bad fund but to assume it will carry on doing so well is optimistic. I’d put some money in for sure but I’m well diversified.

I’m not a cheerleader for Fundsmith it is just one of the funds I invest in. In terms of diversification as long as you choose a small number of funds then that should be enough. Each should be diverse enough in its own right. Fundsmith has 27/28 stocks in its fund across a number of regions/sectors which is quite diverse. I have several other funds which dont overlap but issues in one sector or region that are significant enough to make a big impact will affect your funds regardless of how diverse they are. Remember a diverse portfolio can be expensive.

I’m a pretty passive long term investor, e.g. I had a look today for the first time in a year to see how my funds have done over the last 12 months.

SIPP is up 25% in the last 12 months, ISAs is up 16% in 12 months.

My best funds in the last 12 months were:
GLG Japan CoreAlpha Professional Class – Accumulation (GBP) up 32%
GLG Technology Equity Professional Class – Accumulation (GBP) up 31%
CF Woodford Equity Income Class Z – Accumulation (GBP) up 18.6%

Worst performing were:
Schroder Core UK Equity Class Z – Accumulation (GBP) – 3%
Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Equity Class Z – Accumulation (GBP) – 5%

The SIPP was the higher risk investments (Japan & Tech) i.e. fewer niche funds which might do very well, or might do very badly. The ISA is spread over a larger number of more conservative funds.