The Money Thread...

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pjbetman
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by pjbetman » Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:57 am

Jenuall wrote:Bitcoin currently processes something like 5 transactions per second. VISA handles nearly 2000. There are plenty of examples of times when the system has been put under stress from higher than usual transaction rates and failed to scale well


Just like the internet over the past 25 years then. It's an engineering problem, and a solution will be engineered, just like the internet did.

EDIT: I wonder how many transactions are settled per second, VISA v BTC?

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Jenuall
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Jenuall » Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:22 am

pjbetman wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Bitcoin currently processes something like 5 transactions per second. VISA handles nearly 2000. There are plenty of examples of times when the system has been put under stress from higher than usual transaction rates and failed to scale well


Just like the internet over the past 25 years then. It's an engineering problem, and a solution will be engineered, just like the internet did.

EDIT: I wonder how many transactions are settled per second, VISA v BTC?

I have absolutely no doubt that improvements will continue to be made to scalability of crypto currencies, but many of the core mechanisms under which they work are inherently a hindrance to fast, large scale changes.

Last edited by Jenuall on Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
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That's not a growth
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by That's not a growth » Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:52 am

pjbetman wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Bitcoin currently processes something like 5 transactions per second. VISA handles nearly 2000. There are plenty of examples of times when the system has been put under stress from higher than usual transaction rates and failed to scale well


Just like the internet over the past 25 years then. It's an engineering problem, and a solution will be engineered, just like the internet did.

EDIT: I wonder how many transactions are settled per second, VISA v BTC?


I come across this mentality at work quite a bit, and see it in the media too, and it really irritates me. Just because a different problem was solved doesn't mean it's inevitable that this one will be.

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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by pjbetman » Wed Feb 10, 2021 1:30 pm

That's not a growth wrote:
pjbetman wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Bitcoin currently processes something like 5 transactions per second. VISA handles nearly 2000. There are plenty of examples of times when the system has been put under stress from higher than usual transaction rates and failed to scale well


Just like the internet over the past 25 years then. It's an engineering problem, and a solution will be engineered, just like the internet did.

EDIT: I wonder how many transactions are settled per second, VISA v BTC?


I come across this mentality at work quite a bit, and see it in the media too, and it really irritates me. Just because a different problem was solved doesn't mean it's inevitable that this one will be.



There's been many problems overcome with this technology, much worse than scalability and speed restrictions. There's a MASSIVE vested interest by extremely talented people (millions of them) around the world working on this stuff, albeit in a non-coordinated way. Now we have hedge funds and corporate investment into this technology, it's only a matter of time before they apply a concerted effort to these issues and get them fixed. It may be a hard fork, possibly a series of soft forks, who knows. It may completely fall flat, who knows. I'd say we're about half to solving all the issues over the past 10 years. The next 2-4 years will see most of those issues solved, with room to evolve further. This train aint stopping.

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Fuzzy Dunlop
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Fuzzy Dunlop » Wed Feb 10, 2021 1:40 pm

I don't see Bitcoin as a currency for everyday transactions, it's more a store of value/reserve.

Do you often contemplate the complexity of life?
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Tomous
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Tomous » Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:49 am

My wife has paid her full allowance for the tax year into a cash ISA (which she opened this year). She now wants to transfer the full amount to a stocks and shares ISA. Is this possible without penalty? Thanks

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That's not a growth
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by That's not a growth » Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:14 am

Would it be a new S&S ISA, as I think you can only open 1 ISA per financial year, if I remember correctly.

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Tomous
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Tomous » Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:47 am

Yep, it would be a new ISA

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KingK
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by KingK » Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:21 pm

Think she would be able to do a transfer if she contacts the S&S provider to arrange the xfr

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ignition
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by ignition » Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:54 pm

You're allowed to pay into multiple ISAs per year so long as they're of a different type.

As far as I understand, if she already has an S&S ISA then she could transfer from the cash ISA into that, and if she doesn't have an S&S ISA then she could open one and transfer in. What she cannot do is open and pay into a second S&S ISA in the same year.

Also I think if she's transferring funds that were paid into the cash ISA within this financial year then she would need to transfer the whole balance. If previous years, then you can choose how much.

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Rocsteady
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Rocsteady » Fri Feb 26, 2021 10:29 am

Put a fair chunk of money into bonds recently as a 'safe haven' since I anticipate potentially buying a house in the near future. Things are not going to plan :dread:

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poshrule_uk
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by poshrule_uk » Sun Feb 28, 2021 4:43 pm

Does anyone here understand much about pensions?

I have started a new job and my SIPP is with Hargreaves Lansdown investing in the Blackrock Consensus 85 as the default option.

I have always invested in the default options in all jobs but I feel I should maybe take on some more risk which I'm happy to do but I'm not really keen on having something to manage so a passive fund seems good but I'm not really sure where to start. Vanguard LS is always something I hear about but should I lump it all into that or should I split it between different funds?

I also have a previous pot to transfer over (I won't lose any benefits by doing this) worth just under £60k at present which I think is the reason I'm stressing out as it seems a big choice.

Does anyone here have any advice/recommendations/what do you all do?

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Grumpy David
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Grumpy David » Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:46 pm

poshrule_uk wrote:Does anyone here understand much about pensions?

I have started a new job and my SIPP is with Hargreaves Lansdown investing in the Blackrock Consensus 85 as the default option.

I have always invested in the default options in all jobs but I feel I should maybe take on some more risk which I'm happy to do but I'm not really keen on having something to manage so a passive fund seems good but I'm not really sure where to start. Vanguard LS is always something I hear about but should I lump it all into that or should I split it between different funds?

I also have a previous pot to transfer over (I won't lose any benefits by doing this) worth just under £60k at present which I think is the reason I'm stressing out as it seems a big choice.

Does anyone here have any advice/recommendations/what do you all do?


Blackrock Consensus 85 and Vanguard Lifestrategy both overweight the UK stock market.

By market cap, the UK stock market is around 5% of the global stock market but is 30% of the shares.

There's some logic to over weighting the home market but I think this argument is stronger for people living in the USA than the UK.

With Vanguard Lifestrategy, there's more than 1 version e.g. Lifestrategy 80 is 80% shares and 20% bonds. 60 is 60% shares and 40% bonds etc.

Generally the older you get, the more you want that percentage to tilt in favour of bonds.

I'd have to double check Blackrock Consensus 85 but I reckon it would probably be similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 based on the name and probably look to keep equities and bonds in 80/20 split.

The Vanguard Target Retirement funds are essentially the Lifestrategy fund but aimed towards pensions as the closer you get to your target age for retirement the more it tilts towards bonds. This makes it the lazy invest and forget option which is probably what most people want but I'm not so keen on it. I think it plays it too cautious by moving into bonds too early and too steeply and has the same issue as the Blackrock and Lifestrategy of being too heavily concentrated on the UK stock market.

I'm the best part of 4 decades away from state pension age so I can take on a lot of risk knowing time is on my side to ride out the risks. So I'm 100% equities which suits my risk profile. I don't think I'll change that for a very long time.

My personal strategy is:

Workplace pension is with Aviva SIPP (in the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) which I periodically transfer to Vanguard directly.

Vanguard website for their SIPP (far cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown or Aviva but limited to just Vanguard funds but that's not an issue for me)

And the reason for the FTSE Global All Cap is because it's fully passive (tilting to the UK is an active decision for better, for worse), it's in large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks, it's in essentially every country and only in the percentages that reflect their size, it's diverse as a result too as it's in every sector and geography and it's low cost both as a SIPP platform and the underlying fund itself and has no bonds which I don't want at my age. Basically it's "if you can't find the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack".

poshrule_uk
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by poshrule_uk » Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:57 pm

Grumpy David wrote:
poshrule_uk wrote:Does anyone here understand much about pensions?

I have started a new job and my SIPP is with Hargreaves Lansdown investing in the Blackrock Consensus 85 as the default option.

I have always invested in the default options in all jobs but I feel I should maybe take on some more risk which I'm happy to do but I'm not really keen on having something to manage so a passive fund seems good but I'm not really sure where to start. Vanguard LS is always something I hear about but should I lump it all into that or should I split it between different funds?

I also have a previous pot to transfer over (I won't lose any benefits by doing this) worth just under £60k at present which I think is the reason I'm stressing out as it seems a big choice.

Does anyone here have any advice/recommendations/what do you all do?


Blackrock Consensus 85 and Vanguard Lifestrategy both overweight the UK stock market.

By market cap, the UK stock market is around 5% of the global stock market but is 30% of the shares.

There's some logic to over weighting the home market but I think this argument is stronger for people living in the USA than the UK.

With Vanguard Lifestrategy, there's more than 1 version e.g. Lifestrategy 80 is 80% shares and 20% bonds. 60 is 60% shares and 40% bonds etc.

Generally the older you get, the more you want that percentage to tilt in favour of bonds.

I'd have to double check Blackrock Consensus 85 but I reckon it would probably be similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 based on the name and probably look to keep equities and bonds in 80/20 split.

The Vanguard Target Retirement funds are essentially the Lifestrategy fund but aimed towards pensions as the closer you get to your target age for retirement the more it tilts towards bonds. This makes it the lazy invest and forget option which is probably what most people want but I'm not so keen on it. I think it plays it too cautious by moving into bonds too early and too steeply and has the same issue as the Blackrock and Lifestrategy of being too heavily concentrated on the UK stock market.

I'm the best part of 4 decades away from state pension age so I can take on a lot of risk knowing time is on my side to ride out the risks. So I'm 100% equities which suits my risk profile. I don't think I'll change that for a very long time.

My personal strategy is:

Workplace pension is with Aviva SIPP (in the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) which I periodically transfer to Vanguard directly.

Vanguard website for their SIPP (far cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown or Aviva but limited to just Vanguard funds but that's not an issue for me)

And the reason for the FTSE Global All Cap is because it's fully passive (tilting to the UK is an active decision for better, for worse), it's in large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks, it's in essentially every country and only in the percentages that reflect their size, it's diverse as a result too as it's in every sector and geography and it's low cost both as a SIPP platform and the underlying fund itself and has no bonds which I don't want at my age. Basically it's "if you can't find the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack".


That's interesting, thanks

So if I understand you correctly, you have your work pension paying into a single fund (Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) but you will from time to time transfer all the funds out to Vanguard and into there funds directly?

Whats the benefit of that, or is it simply because your pension is where it is due to your work so your hand has been forced?

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Grumpy David
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Grumpy David » Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:25 pm

poshrule_uk wrote:
Grumpy David wrote:
poshrule_uk wrote:Does anyone here understand much about pensions?

I have started a new job and my SIPP is with Hargreaves Lansdown investing in the Blackrock Consensus 85 as the default option.

I have always invested in the default options in all jobs but I feel I should maybe take on some more risk which I'm happy to do but I'm not really keen on having something to manage so a passive fund seems good but I'm not really sure where to start. Vanguard LS is always something I hear about but should I lump it all into that or should I split it between different funds?

I also have a previous pot to transfer over (I won't lose any benefits by doing this) worth just under £60k at present which I think is the reason I'm stressing out as it seems a big choice.

Does anyone here have any advice/recommendations/what do you all do?


Blackrock Consensus 85 and Vanguard Lifestrategy both overweight the UK stock market.

By market cap, the UK stock market is around 5% of the global stock market but is 30% of the shares.

There's some logic to over weighting the home market but I think this argument is stronger for people living in the USA than the UK.

With Vanguard Lifestrategy, there's more than 1 version e.g. Lifestrategy 80 is 80% shares and 20% bonds. 60 is 60% shares and 40% bonds etc.

Generally the older you get, the more you want that percentage to tilt in favour of bonds.

I'd have to double check Blackrock Consensus 85 but I reckon it would probably be similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 based on the name and probably look to keep equities and bonds in 80/20 split.

The Vanguard Target Retirement funds are essentially the Lifestrategy fund but aimed towards pensions as the closer you get to your target age for retirement the more it tilts towards bonds. This makes it the lazy invest and forget option which is probably what most people want but I'm not so keen on it. I think it plays it too cautious by moving into bonds too early and too steeply and has the same issue as the Blackrock and Lifestrategy of being too heavily concentrated on the UK stock market.

I'm the best part of 4 decades away from state pension age so I can take on a lot of risk knowing time is on my side to ride out the risks. So I'm 100% equities which suits my risk profile. I don't think I'll change that for a very long time.

My personal strategy is:

Workplace pension is with Aviva SIPP (in the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) which I periodically transfer to Vanguard directly.

Vanguard website for their SIPP (far cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown or Aviva but limited to just Vanguard funds but that's not an issue for me)

And the reason for the FTSE Global All Cap is because it's fully passive (tilting to the UK is an active decision for better, for worse), it's in large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks, it's in essentially every country and only in the percentages that reflect their size, it's diverse as a result too as it's in every sector and geography and it's low cost both as a SIPP platform and the underlying fund itself and has no bonds which I don't want at my age. Basically it's "if you can't find the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack".


That's interesting, thanks

So if I understand you correctly, you have your work pension paying into a single fund (Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) but you will from time to time transfer all the funds out to Vanguard and into there funds directly?

Whats the benefit of that, or is it simply because your pension is where it is due to your work so your hand has been forced?


Yeah, forced hands is why I've got that process.

The reason for transferring it into vanguard is that their platform charges lower fees.

Aviva SIPP is 0.4%.
Vanguard SIPP is 0.15%.

The FTSE Global All Cap itself is 0.23%.

So 0.63% vs 0.38%.

Doesn't sound like a lot but it is with the power of compounding over decades.

poshrule_uk
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by poshrule_uk » Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:39 pm

Grumpy David wrote:
poshrule_uk wrote:
Grumpy David wrote:
poshrule_uk wrote:Does anyone here understand much about pensions?

I have started a new job and my SIPP is with Hargreaves Lansdown investing in the Blackrock Consensus 85 as the default option.

I have always invested in the default options in all jobs but I feel I should maybe take on some more risk which I'm happy to do but I'm not really keen on having something to manage so a passive fund seems good but I'm not really sure where to start. Vanguard LS is always something I hear about but should I lump it all into that or should I split it between different funds?

I also have a previous pot to transfer over (I won't lose any benefits by doing this) worth just under £60k at present which I think is the reason I'm stressing out as it seems a big choice.

Does anyone here have any advice/recommendations/what do you all do?


Blackrock Consensus 85 and Vanguard Lifestrategy both overweight the UK stock market.

By market cap, the UK stock market is around 5% of the global stock market but is 30% of the shares.

There's some logic to over weighting the home market but I think this argument is stronger for people living in the USA than the UK.

With Vanguard Lifestrategy, there's more than 1 version e.g. Lifestrategy 80 is 80% shares and 20% bonds. 60 is 60% shares and 40% bonds etc.

Generally the older you get, the more you want that percentage to tilt in favour of bonds.

I'd have to double check Blackrock Consensus 85 but I reckon it would probably be similar to Vanguard Lifestrategy 80 based on the name and probably look to keep equities and bonds in 80/20 split.

The Vanguard Target Retirement funds are essentially the Lifestrategy fund but aimed towards pensions as the closer you get to your target age for retirement the more it tilts towards bonds. This makes it the lazy invest and forget option which is probably what most people want but I'm not so keen on it. I think it plays it too cautious by moving into bonds too early and too steeply and has the same issue as the Blackrock and Lifestrategy of being too heavily concentrated on the UK stock market.

I'm the best part of 4 decades away from state pension age so I can take on a lot of risk knowing time is on my side to ride out the risks. So I'm 100% equities which suits my risk profile. I don't think I'll change that for a very long time.

My personal strategy is:

Workplace pension is with Aviva SIPP (in the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) which I periodically transfer to Vanguard directly.

Vanguard website for their SIPP (far cheaper than Hargreaves Lansdown or Aviva but limited to just Vanguard funds but that's not an issue for me)

And the reason for the FTSE Global All Cap is because it's fully passive (tilting to the UK is an active decision for better, for worse), it's in large cap, mid cap and small cap stocks, it's in essentially every country and only in the percentages that reflect their size, it's diverse as a result too as it's in every sector and geography and it's low cost both as a SIPP platform and the underlying fund itself and has no bonds which I don't want at my age. Basically it's "if you can't find the needle in the haystack, just buy the haystack".


That's interesting, thanks

So if I understand you correctly, you have your work pension paying into a single fund (Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap) but you will from time to time transfer all the funds out to Vanguard and into there funds directly?

Whats the benefit of that, or is it simply because your pension is where it is due to your work so your hand has been forced?


Yeah, forced hands is why I've got that process.

The reason for transferring it into vanguard is that their platform charges lower fees.

Aviva SIPP is 0.4%.
Vanguard SIPP is 0.15%.

The FTSE Global All Cap itself is 0.23%.

So 0.63% vs 0.38%.

Doesn't sound like a lot but it is with the power of compounding over decades.


So is the Vanguard pension all into the Lifestyle 100% or do you have different funds you use and what is your % mix?

What age do you think you will start reducing your risk? I'm still over 30 years from retirement so I'm comfortable with some risk

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Grumpy David
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Grumpy David » Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:05 pm

poshrule_uk wrote:So is the Vanguard pension all into the Lifestyle 100% or do you have different funds you use and what is your % mix?

What age do you think you will start reducing your risk? I'm still over 30 years from retirement so I'm comfortable with some risk


Do you mean Lifestrategy 100?

I'm only invested in FTSE Global All Cap which is a different fund. It doesn't overweight the UK and it has small caps included.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-ftse-global-all-cap-index-fund-gbp-acc/overview

I'm 100% in the above fund which is just equities.

I'm very sceptical on bonds. In an economics sense, negative interest rates exist when the rates are below inflation, they don't just have to be actual below 0% interest rates to be negative.

The safest bonds which are chosen for their negative correlation to stock markets are USA long duration bonds and without the currency / exchange rate risk, the UK equivalents. I see no reason for me to take such a low interest rate given the only benefit is stability/off-setting which I don't need yet.

The more risky Eurozone states bonds don't offer a sufficient interest rate to reflect their systemic risk whilst the junk bonds like Argentina offer good interest rates but you'd have to be mad to lend money to Argentina.

I'd probably look to introduce bonds to my SIPP when I'm in my mid 50s, but the reasoning behind why I might do this or potentially even stay 100% in equities into my 60s is long post in and of itself.

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That's not a growth
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by That's not a growth » Mon Mar 01, 2021 5:01 pm

strawberry float sake. I knew this day would come eventually, but it still hurts. Virgin are reducing the interest rate on my Help to Buy ISA from 2.75% to 1% in two weeks. Bastards.

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Grumpy David
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Grumpy David » Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:02 pm

The WFH tax code change has been extended into the 21-22 tax year.

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/

Very easy to sort out too.

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Meep
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PostRe: The Money Thread...
by Meep » Wed Apr 07, 2021 12:02 am

Grumpy David wrote:The WFH tax code change has been extended into the 21-22 tax year.

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2020/04/martin-lewis--working-from-home-due-to-coronavirus--claim-p6-wk-/

Very easy to sort out too.

I think it only work out around £64 to your advantage but definitely worth the time to put through anyway for all it takes.


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