Maybe "Ace-hole"

pop rocked by page turn

Robbed.

Disgraceful

Always worth having a quick review at the end of the year. 2022 was pretty bad but 2023 has been great. Everyone that's been a good boy and has been putting cash in on a monthly basis should be sitting pretty. All that cash you put in during the grim 2022 has borne fruit and 2023 S&P is up just shy of 25%, and don't forget the dividends you can add to that. It's vital you put in during the good and bad years because the graph always tends up.

You can never fully predict the year ahead but the USA should be just fine. It's shoring up its manufacturing and the move towards isolationism should continue. The rest of the world isn't looking great but stick with the US - as always, and that pension pot will grow. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/12/26/sp-500-notches-fresh-2-year-high-how-2023s-rally-compares-to-recent-years/?sh=1afad28e5a60

Remember that'll you'll end up making more money from the S&P in bad years when you bought cheap. This is the beauty of long-term monthly investments. 2022 might've seemed alarming for new investors but it'll make you more cash then buying during a good year and the secret is not to panic. I love the bad years - the worse the better, as long as they go back up which the S&P will. Also the cheaper the tracker fund the better so make sure you're not being overcharged, they all do the same thing.

Individual companies are always a risk and should be avoided unless you've spare cash to gamble. Some S&P companies had a terrible year but that's usually the case. It's fine because you spread the risk. AI was the big money maker this year but we shouldn't really care what sector is because we're buying into 500 companies and it'll even itself out. The US is arguably stronger than it's been for decades now it's less reliant on riskier economies. It'll have good and bad years but it'll only get stronger.

Climate change will be the biggest driver of economic outlook for everybody over the coming decades and we'll have to see how that pans out. What the US does have is enormous amounts of land so it can adapt even if California and Texas go on fire.

I think i need to move mine to a diff provider, perhaps that Hargreaves one that I've seen mentioned a few time. The one i setup with doesn't have built in support for automated contributions and i think charges higher for transactions, so it's basically just been sat with the lump i put in years ago.
Figure i cash out that one and put it all into the Hargreaves one and then set up a monthly £50 to go in?

I'm wondering whether to reduce UK exposure in my pension as it's currently sat at about 20%. I have eyes on a different fund that will maximise US (Vanguard Global All Capp Acc). Just not sure whether to wait a year as some feel that UK is undervalued.

Although UK growth is extremely mediocre right now is it made up for to some extent in dividend payout? Wondering whether to leave it for another year or just act now. Maybe 20% ain't too bad a weighting?

I won't have to manage it. I invest into one global fund that has too much uk weighting (imo). Don't fancy going all in on S&P but the global fund I'm looking at is majority US.

I mean, Russia could nuke the States but if America goes down it'll take all every economy with it.

As long as it's long term the S&P is a no-brainer. Always America for investing and in the AI era it's going to dominate, like it always has.

Are they not all evil capitalist / petro brands that you despise?

I still need to consolidate my three pensions into one place, but it's tedious if that one place isn't where my current pension is being paid, and I cba to move that.  So I'll probably continue to do nothing and hope they each grow over time... I'm sure an actual pension adviser would tell me I'm an idiot tho.

I forgot I also had an ISA ticking up too, so that's nice.  I fear that's not going to bring my retirement forward any, tho...

There are ethical funds.
Funk is your man for those.

But the share price doesn't affect the day to day business of a company so it matters little tbh. You need political change to make the bad ones suffer. Arms companies are having a field day since the Ukraine invasion and no amount of ethical investing is going to change that. The other option is to just hope people don't work for horrible companies but that's a pipe dream I guess.

acemuzzy wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

But the share price doesn't affect the day to day business of a company.

Yes it does

How?