Markets Lift at last !!

Sometimes we need to do these things.
I just sold my National Grid shares in an ISA to cover the cost of relaying my drive (235 sq m). I was in profit, and the yield wasn't as much as I'd like really... but may buy back on the next dip.
 
Still running them in but, Wow, loved my previous ProAcs but these are stunning, different class, wife even plays music at a higher volume than before as it sounds better, but the amount of detail they bring is superb, saving for the new Moon power amp that’s due soon that the dealer will let me test at home. Decided that since there are no pockets in a shroud an increasing bank balance is pointless so ‘sking’ = spending kids inheritance. :ROFLMAO:
 
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mj4456 said:
Still running them in but, Wow, loved my previous ProAcs but these are stunning, different class, wife even plays music at a higher volume than before as it sounds better, but the amount of detail they bring is superb, saving for the new Moon power amp that’s due soon that the dealer will let me test at home. Decided that since there are no pockets in a shroud an increasing bank balance is pointless so ‘sking’ = spending kids inheritance. :ROFLMAO:
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With that kit, you are arguably investing their inheritance! lol
 
mj4456 said:
Still running them in but, Wow, loved my previous ProAcs but these are stunning, different class, wife even plays music at a higher volume than before as it sounds better, but the amount of detail they bring is superb, saving for the new Moon power amp that’s due soon that the dealer will let me test at home. Decided that since there are no pockets in a shroud an increasing bank balance is pointless so ‘sking’ = spending kids inheritance. :ROFLMAO:
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It's yours until you don't need it any more!

I was always trying to persuade Dad of that fact but his neighbour (my sister...) kept insisting he curbed his spending.
 
Daughter keeps telling me take good care of ‘her’ new car :bat:
 
I treated myself to a new pair of headphones with the current market rises, tool a cheeky tax free lump sum.

the Hifiman HE1000se , i bought an open box for £940 against the New price of £1600.

have to admit they arrived a week ago and they are as new, happy bunny :-)

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SpaceX set to go public on 12th June, I'll probably wait to invest but will be watching it. Of the three main arms to the business (rocket, starlink, AI) it's the AI that could be the determing factor.


A few I'm currently looking at:

NASDAQ: MRVL
NASDAQ: AMD
NASDAQ: ARM
NASDAQ: CRDO
 
I take a monthly income from my investment bonds, decided to increase the take as they are still growing quicker than my withdrawals take them down so 70 next year and I’d rather spend it than leave it behind.
 
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mj4456 said:
I take a monthly income from my investment bonds, decided to increase the take as they are still growing quicker than my withdrawals take them down so 70 next year and I’d rather spend it than leave it behind.
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I kind of decide around the 8th of the month how much my drawdown will be depending on fund performance, i pay a bit of tax doing it this way
but i am the same as you my funds are growing fast also, i take between £2.2k -£3k / month.
 
gman said:
SpaceX set to go public on 12th June, I'll probably wait to invest but will be watching it. Of the three main arms to the business (rocket, starlink, AI) it's the AI that could be the determing factor.


A few I'm currently looking at:

NASDAQ: MRVL
NASDAQ: AMD
NASDAQ: ARM
NASDAQ: CRDO
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Does SpaceX actually make any money? Or is the attraction of the shares that they may increase in value?
I'm not going to investigate nor invest in it, tbh as I find Musk such an appalling person that I can't live with the idea of rewarding him even further. He's going to make literally a trillion dollars from the IPO. It's about time he took a lesson from Bill Gates and others and starting giving some wealth away. By the way, I don't want to divert discussion into being about Musk, that's just one of my reasons for not chasing the IPO
 
lindsay said:
Does SpaceX actually make any money? Or is the attraction of the shares that they may increase in value?
I'm not going to investigate nor invest in it, tbh as I find Musk such an appalling person that I can't live with the idea of rewarding him even further. He's going to make literally a trillion dollars from the IPO. It's about time he took a lesson from Bill Gates and others and starting giving some wealth away. By the way, I don't want to divert discussion into being about Musk, that's just one of my reasons for not chasing the IPO
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I think from memory that SpaceX might be profitiable when using EBITDA, but would need to check. Yes, I think the attraction will be more the potential to increase in value, after the initial pop perhaps.

Funds and EFT's with Vanguard, Blackrock and others will most definetely include holdings with SpaceX both directly and passively (and they already have substantial holdings with Tesla), so there's a fairly high chance of indirectly investing in him anyway. I tend to remain very pragmatic with investing, but I respect ethical investing as well.
 
We had a flyer in the post a few days ago. S
lindsay said:
Does SpaceX actually make any money? Or is the attraction of the shares that they may increase in value?
I'm not going to investigate nor invest in it, tbh as I find Musk such an appalling person that I can't live with the idea of rewarding him even further. He's going to make literally a trillion dollars from the IPO. It's about time he took a lesson from Bill Gates and others and starting giving some wealth away. By the way, I don't want to divert discussion into being about Musk, that's just one of my reasons for not chasing the IPO
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Feel the same, we had a flyer in the post a few days ago. Starlink internet - engineered by spaceX so straight into the recycling bin
 
Starlink is a great idea, but when he switched it off for Ukraine he lost all my interest. I know he reinstated it but only under pressure, whilst allowing it for Russian troops. I know that's now very muddied due to van's and workarounds, but it was the official policy at one point that made it a permanent issue for me. Also then the corruption of how he got so many contracts for SpaceX from the Trump administration. Then the ridiculous dividends Musk is taking out of the company instead of reinvesting or giving away.
I want to make money in my investments, but not through him.
 
Mr Bump said:
I kind of decide around the 8th of the month how much my drawdown will be depending on fund performance, i pay a bit of tax doing it this way
but i am the same as you my funds are growing fast also, i take between £2.2k -£3k / month.
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I have a great works pension (and oap)wife adds in a fair share so any extra will go on further luxuries, holiday sites on standby. I don’t pay tax on mine.
 
going to be a whopper this week :-)
 
Those of you with drawdown pensions and market investments, are you managing these yourself or do you use a fund manager to look after it?

We're on the edge of retirement and debating which way to go. Annuity is arguably safer and reliable, but not necessarily especially rewarding.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Those of you with drawdown pensions and market investments, are you managing these yourself or do you use a fund manager to look after it?

We're on the edge of retirement and debating which way to go. Annuity is arguably safer and reliable, but not necessarily especially rewarding.
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Interested in this as well
 
Mr Bump said:
going to be a whopper this week :-)
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You're going to be disappointed because Hezbollah fired drones into northern Israel this morning, as is their wont ,and Israel's airforce responded with an attack on a Hezbollah target in southern Beirut .The Iranian regime said it will respond so that means an attack,probably with missiles, on Israel as it did a week ago in the same scenario. Hezbollah does nothing without the regime's authorisation so that Hezbollah attack was designed to scupper the peace deal for the time being. They are dragging it out. A day or so ago Trump said he was confident that a peace deal would be signed over this weekend, now he's saying 'there's a good chance' a deal will still be signed. No deal will be signed in my opinion. Anyway, it's not a peace deal as such but a 60-day ceasefire to aslllow meanigful talks. Nothing less than stripping Iran of its capability to produce a nuclear weapon and the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon will be acceptable to Netanyahu. Hamas is consolidating its grip on Gaza again.

I mentioned the Beta stock Barclays back up the thread. At Friday's close it was up 24p . Just 2000 of them at about £9,100 cost would have netted £475 after costs. That's just over 5% in one day buying at 446p. It's just a matter of assessing a low in relation to how the US-Israel-Iran is unfolding. Barclays can,and does, drop just as much when events turn negative. Over the recent past May 12th saw them at 414p and that's the kind of level or less I'd buy more at. I mentioned Lloyds,too. At Friday's close it made a gain of 4.19p on the day closing at 102.35. It was 94p 0n May 15th. It's high this year was 105p. Both pay decent divis. Barcs..8.6p a share. Lloyds at 3.7p per share. I'm paying CGT on my divis as well as capital gains as I dip in and out. My building society pays 3% on a three year deal with a couple of free withdrawals .It pays nothing on current accounts. That's no difference to some banks charging for them.

I don't want to pay broker's' fees. They get it wrong,too so,at least, if I get it wrong that's down to me but with these two shares it's just a matter of biding time and time, these days, is in terms of weeks not months and years as it used to be. Anyway,. I love keeping an eye on them and buying and selling online with Interactive Investor..a solid platform. Not day-trading, that's high risk but over weeks and sometimes a few months. Barclays high this year was 504p on February 4th. Lloyds at 105p on April 17th. These are solid shares now .Brokers average for Barclays over the next 12 months..540-560p with 630p being the highest. Re Lloyds.. average 120/123p .133/160p for next year.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Those of you with drawdown pensions and market investments, are you managing these yourself or do you use a fund manager to look after it?

We're on the edge of retirement and debating which way to go. Annuity is arguably safer and reliable, but not necessarily especially rewarding.
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I've been managing my SIPP pension fund for the last 25 years myself, mostly investing directly in stocks rather than funds. I've made some costly mistakes and some stunning gains in that time. In recent years I've gone for safer, defensive stocks and some UK Treasury gilts paying 4.5 to 5.25% interest.I've also got a fairly substantial set of ISA investments as a top up. Although I'm still working and expect to be for a while yet despite hitting 70 in the coming September, so whilst I'm receiving UK and German state pensions and a small civil service pension, I'm not drawing my personal pension. I plan to use drawdown to pull out a regular fixed amount monthly when I start, topping up where necessary from the ISA. However I did draw my 25% tax free amount 6 years ago, as I was between jobs and not ready to retire, and thanks to continued growth I'm apparently entitled to draw 25% of the un-crystallized growth amount when I choose to, so I plan to do that at some stage and drop it into ISA's (mine and wife's) to re-invest, thus avoiding tax on the income I might receive. It's a complex juggling act, so unless you are inclined to spend time on investments and managing the resources to best effect, it may be worth using an adviser to guide this. Regarding annuities, I believe the rates of return are relatively good at present, but as a broad brush, if you go for joint lives and index-linked, you are probably looking at circa 3.5% max on the sum sold, say £3.5k/year on £100k. So you'd need to buy at least half a million of annuity to get even a modest income of £17.5k That might be enough if topped up by state pensions though. But once you've bought your annuity, the money is gone, so you need to think about the same things as the annuity company actuaries: how long might you live, and what will inflation over that lifetime do to the cost of living. It's a gamble, but it is with drawdown too. The difference being that if I had £500k and expected to live 25 years, I could have £20k a year just from the capital without any dividends or interest. A spreadsheet to compare income and options would be wise.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Those of you with drawdown pensions and market investments, are you managing these yourself or do you use a fund manager to look after it?

We're on the edge of retirement and debating which way to go. Annuity is arguably safer and reliable, but not necessarily especially rewarding.
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I use a hybrid approach with a blend of managed Funds, ETF's and individual stocks. This approach can also be used for annuities by using a portion of your pension to purchase one, leaving the rest for continued investment.

The way I currently work mine is that my Funds and ETF's are currently invested for growth. My individual stocks are more for play, so there are lower values but riskier and more reflective of economic conditions and global events. When I decide to retire, I will most likely move a portion into Funds and ETF's into those which focus on income rather than growth.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Those of you with drawdown pensions and market investments, are you managing these yourself or do you use a fund manager to look after it?

We're on the edge of retirement and debating which way to go. Annuity is arguably safer and reliable, but not necessarily especially rewarding.
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my situation is this.
I have about £250k in vanguard
all my money is in there lifestyle managed funds so its basically all ....managed. they do all the maths
i take approx £2k-£2.5k/month via drawdown
I go on the principal each 30 days my fund value keeps to a certain amount.
I have run this for over a year since taking drawdown :-)
 
I have an IFA who keeps a gentle eye on things, meet twice a year if all is good or more if he thinks it needed, he get paid by fund companies but it’s not huge amounts so we’re happy at that.We £175k in Scottish widows, circa £50k in the Pru and the same in Reassure all with a monthly income, £40k ish in a Canadian bond but thats on growth for daughter sometime, full load of premium bonds add a little- hoping for a lot- and a fair lump in years of isas. 3 maybe 4 bundles of shares that we really should cash in, but I might just then spend money for the sake of it then.
All in all we have more coming in than going out, despite my best efforts, but I still like a bargain, awaiting delivery of new hifi speaker cable pack, full retail £1200, ex demo set £325! coming to us as new, so little use seller has them on a burn in machine for 48 hours before sending them to me so should sound fine from the off.
 
Well, what will the markets do now, Starmer out, will Burnham be better or just a like for like replacement? Wasnt impressed with his speech about the boats, didn’t sound like he has a plan to stop anybody?
 
Reading this mornings news, I get the impression that not much will change for a while as he knows he can't spook the markets, but ge seems less wedded to the "fiscal rules". I expect more govt bonds will be issued to pay for defence, but there will be tinkering with the tax and benefits systems to counteract that. If he should win the next election, I'd expect a move to proportional representation (although that could come sooner as he has a big majority to use) and a hike in some taxes and increase of the tax threshold. I'm not foreseeing anything very radical until he has his own mandate.
 
slight up in the FTSE but globally its sawtooth until Trump actually sorts out Iran.
 
I have just seen how SpaceX stock has seen a classic Pump and Dump with the IPO followed by reality check. Maybe it will recover in time, but it's not a pretty sight, the chart. I hope no-one here was too burned by it.
 
lindsay said:
I have just seen how SpaceX stock has seen a classic Pump and Dump with the IPO followed by reality check. Maybe it will recover in time, but it's not a pretty sight, the chart. I hope no-one here was too burned by it.
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From my post in another thread, SpaceX is a bit different to most because of the size of the IPO. There's also a lot of restrictions with a multi tiered lockup structure, which will cause instability for a while as the tiny float (supply of publicly traded shares) will have to deal with relentless new supplies. On 8th Dec the full 180 day lockup expires, so it's going to be a flood of of new supply. After day 366 Musk's lockup expires, that's when things should stabilise.

Unfortunately, due to the rapid inclusive into indexes it essentially forced the big institutions, tracker funds and EFT's to buy huge amounts of it. Unless a persons portfolio is completely self managed and only with individual companies, then there's a pretty high chance that they are already invested in SpaceX, albeit indirectly, and taking a small hit. On the plus side, this massive inclusion into the indexes helps combat the volatility of the float side of things.

gman said:
SpaceX is a new IPO, it's very common for the price of an IPO to spike up and then fall from people cashing in but in SpaceX's case it's more because it's a float stock and the small amount available for public trading can create large volatility. SpaceX is back to near it's launch price (excuse the pun). Tech funds in particular have been volitile for a while now, it's nothing new. I would expect more movement in early July when it gets added to the Nasdaq, then next year there's the S&P500.

A lot of funds and passive indices will include SpaceX (and tech funds) including "fools" like European and UK pension funds. Also notably, "fools" like the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canada's largest single-profesison pension plan who have invested heavily in it and not forgetting "fools" like the Washington University Endowment, which generates sizeable payouts supporting scholarships, research etc.
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That's a very clear and informative post, thanks Graham. You're absolutely right omn all of that.
I still don't much like it, and it will be interesting to see how it fares over the long term.
One of the things I hate about US stacks is their prices, eg $160 per share, so with say a $10k budget you can't buy many shares. Do they sell partial shares like in funds? EG 12.55 shares in the company?
 
Aye, sometimes the share prices can be frustrating. Sometimes there's a stock split, which helps bring the individual share price down. I remember Nvidia did one back in June 2024, it was a 10 for 1 split and I didn't know about it. Because I was heavily invested in them at the time riding the upwards trend, my portfolio dropped like a stone as it takes a few days to settle - I thought Nvidia had completely crashed and shat myself until I found out it was a stock split lol.

I think you can buy partial shares through what's known as fractional shares, but I've never done it myself or know much about it to be honest.
 
Just hit a slight snag in my plans.

My biggest pension has a 32% tax free allowance.
So I was planning to do DD based on 32% per month tax free and the rest taxed as required.

Just checked with the fund manager and they don’t draw down.

So I can either withdraw the 32% and invest somewhere else, but this will reduce my total pot and then move it to another company.
Or
Move it all to another company but it will probably reduce my tax free to 25%.
 
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