This year I’m going to try not to break the rules – the rules for investing my savings.
My biggest mistake was investing in Marks and Spencer. My second biggest mistake was throwing in the towel and crystallising a 27% loss. Had I held on I would be sitting on a 30% profit this morning. My switch into Babcock International may turn out well but I must not buy shares in individual companies.
I bought three Vietnam investment trusts in 2018. Collectively they have gone up by 75%; a good diversification. Because of a deeply discounted (32p) Rights Issue Rolls Royce has more than doubled. MP Evans’s policy of increasing divends allied to a strong palm oil price underpins the share price. The dividend this year is likely to be 50p – not a bad return on shares I bought, many years ago, for £1.
I have two runners in the Baillie Gifford stable: Scottish Mortgage and Monks. The former has had a setback recently; down from a high of £15.68 to £11.80. Monks has a more diversified portfolio but has fallen from £14.90 to £12.90.
My two tortoises are the McInroy & Wood Balanced Fund and Personal Assets investment trust both of which chug along clocking up gains of around 8% a year. My main portfolio went up 11.5% last year but the MSCI world index went up 18%. My ISA did a little better, flattered by re-investing dividends and contributing additional money.
This year I will try and stick to the rules: buy more tortoise funds and eschew individual companies.