The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
"Mr optimistic"
Works for me! The recent rise here now means that all of my largest 5 holdings are in profit. Just been applying the basics, picking up solid shares when they're cheap. Had a foray into the get rich quick mentality with Sirius Minerals, but that didn't work out so well, although it was a lesson learned.
Here's an easy to follow article in the money section of today's daily mail that gives a good overview of the recent pension funds crisis. Legal and General gets a mention, of course.
The first few paragraphs are rather dull so I advise you search for "The journey to this point began in the late 1990s" and start reading from there.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11317867/Growing-fears-Gordon-Browns-pensions-timebomb-finally-explode.html
"Just leave your dividend in your trading account till the government crash the market , they do it weekly now so you can re invest it with ease."
That's been my strategy for the last few years and has been working well.
Porsche ... that's a bleak outlook you have of the UK. My top five holdings are LGEN, RIO, ULVR, DGE and AZN. LGEN is the only one that I'm more or less even on, as for the other four I'm massively UP. That's because I've scooped up the shares when they drop to unreasonably low levels ( imo ), as I did recently with LGEN at 209p. It was a 23k buy, which was entirely very recent dividend money! So I'm very happy to back good dividend payers, especially when the market makes it easy to pick them up on the cheap.
"wish I had topped up more down when it sank to 210p"
Me too. Grabbed £23k's worth at 209p but could have gone in deeper. What kept the excitement at bay were the facts that it is already my largest holding and I like to keep cash in reserve for further opportunities. Although I have to admit, it's going to be difficult to beat this bargain!
"I held very little cash for bottom fishing. It's a lesson learned. When things stabilise, I have decided that I will keep around 25% of my portfolio in cash for 'opportunities' like this."
It's an extremely good idea to always have cash reserves, and I always try to do this. But it's getting extremely difficult to hold onto my cash at the moment with so many bargains about. I'm like a kid in a sweet shop!
Feel like I dodged a bullet with this one. Would be over £40k down had I not sold close to £18. Still watching and waiting to see if it gets to the £10 to £11 range, at which point I might be tempted to cautiously buy back in.
"I'll buy back in at those sort levels. Wouldn't touch HLN with a barge pole."
You echoed my thoughts except I think GSK could drop into the 1,000 to 1,100 range before it turns around. I've already reinvested my previous GSK money, from when I sold out just before the split, in AAL and LGEN so not so much left to reinvest here. But if it gets close to 1,000 then I may find something.
Rather than the 'sensible,' I think it was the lucky and the cynical who sold out at the right moment. And I am falling more and more into the latter category as I get older.