Thanks for sharing Atanas. I assume you’ve tested your risk tolerance of being almost 100% equities? :)

However, why not Europe and Japan, in other words, ~25% of the world’s GDP? Europe ex-UK in particular is reasonably priced compared to historical standards.

You probably think that they will offer very low returns going forward. I still remember a quote from Lars Kroijer: “Perhaps you’d be right to say so, but you would also be saying that you know something the rest of the world has not yet discovered.”

Great article as usual!

I am trying to get on the path to FIRE and soon will start dripping into the market. The portfolio I came with is pretty close to yours, however, it’s a bit more adventurous (a.k.a reckless ):

45.00% iShares North American Eq Idx (UK) D Acc OCF 0.07%
15.00% Vanguard Glbl Small-Cap Idx GBP Acc OCF 0.38%
15.00% iShares Emerging Mkts Eq Idx (UK) D Acc OCF 0.20%
10.00% iShares Glb Prpty Secs Eq Idx (UK) D Acc OCF 0.20%
5.00% iShares UK Equity Index (UK) D Acc OCF 0.06%
5.00% iShares Pacific ex Jpn Eq Idx (UK) D Acc OCF 0.15%
2.50% Vanguard UK Govt Bd Idx GBP Acc OCF 0.15%
2.50% Vanguard UK Infl-LnkdGltIdx A Grs Acc OCF 0.15%

I would be glad to have your take on the assets split given the heavy emphasis on US and emerging markets and exclusion of Europe and Japan. I am a bit worried that it’s bit too aggressive (or not?) giving my time horizon of 15Y.

Thanks Ms ZiYou! I also heard about their lending in one motor company which went left. However, I really liked that they were quite transparent about it, and they also covered
everything from their pockets, so the provisional fund and the investors were not affected.

By the way, well done on raising the visibility on FIRE through a blog. We need more women!

I’m running down my P2P as the rates weren’t looking too good, and yeah, I’m not sure how they’ll cope with a real credit crunch since they aren’t too transparent about who you are lending to. I’ve got some of the dodgy ratesetter loans, where they lent to company that fell on bad times and Ratesetter now owns part of it or something complex.