Hope you find a contract soon, Mara. Indeed unprecedented times…

But opening an ISA now is probably a good thing, should pay off in a few years time. I’m still surprised the stock market has held up so well given the circumstances…

I hope you and your family are staying safe! Definitely strange times, it took us all by surprise too. You’d think that you would be able to tell when an economic recession is approaching but here’s the proof that anything can suddenly happen.

I took the opportunity to open a stocks and shares ISA and I managed to put some money in around a month ago. I couldn’t put much as I still haven’t been able to find a contract (coronavirus just after IR35!!), but I’ve already made a nice profit =)

We also decided to pause the purchase of a property we were going to buy as an investment. Not only it would be difficult to let it out at the moment but if we’re really heading to a recession property prices might go down.

Let’s hope things get better soon!

Hey Martin, the 60% maximum stock allocation before retirement comes from EarlyRetirementNow analysis on the subject.

I can’t recall the exact place there are like 40 articles on it. If there was a Nobel prize for Safe withdrawal rates, he would be the guy!

A *very* good book on de-accumulation is McClung’s Living Off Your Money. I should probably put it 3rd on the list of FIRE resources.

The idea is that we want to protect ourselves from big portfolio losses just before and after retirement. Think 5 years before and 5-10 years after (depending on retirement expected horizon). Otherwise, we risk experiencing a big drop combined with selling stocks to fund retirement. Which is a recipe for depleting your fund much faster than expected.

Hey Peter,

Yes, I’ve read the Tim Hale’s book. It’s really good! But I think he only spoke about the asset allocation in your accumulation phase. I don’t think he spoke much about how to allocate when you are close to retirement.
I haven’t checked the other book, I can give it a go!

Thanks!

Hi Martin,

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is really good book, if you have not read that already.

Permanent Portfolio as another good book.

Thank you, Michael.

Been using standing desk for all this time, and I did not get an adjustable one on purpose as I did not want to give myself a choice of sitting down. It forces you to take regular breaks. Playing with children has helped, whenever I get a chance to take a break, and before lockdown popping into gym first thing in the morning was priceless.

Fortunately, I caught the dip of the market in the second and third week of March so I am happy so far as value of investment has gone up since the rally, however, lesson I mentioned was the fall prior to that. Although not directly affected, this was a really useful reminder. Another tip following reading your posts was to create a spreadsheet, and I played around with it to add frequent market crashes and corrections at different points. One of the lesson for me to avoid the mistake of optimistic returns over the long run, as it never happens in practice. Jonathan Hobs from Stopsaving.com has a couple of good spreadsheets that help you calculate DCA for different funds and I suggest you look into that.

Thank you so much for giving me the inspiration and direction and I am looking forward to FIRE journey.

To be honest, most of all I miss the situation just being normal. Keeping 2m distance, don’t touch anything, trying to order something online.. All of a sudden I am aware about anyone who sneezes or coughs :D Not great :)) But then again, this is nothing compare to people actually hit by the virus, so cannot really complain!

In terms of investing, my allocation of 70/30 is apparently okay for me. I haven’t though about selling and so on. I am actually more anxious about how can I take advantage of the situation.
This sentence “Then a 60% equity allocation is the maximum to go for if you want to FIRE in 5 years or less.” got me thinking. Can you recommend a book or other resources about asset allocation in terms of FIRE? Or how did you come up with that number yourself?

Regards,
Martin

Lovely photo. Would be nice to be able to transport yourself to somewhere like that now.

Amazing story, Sharon. Having a garden is priceless right now… And I think the weather has changed so much in the UK lately that you’re going to enjoy it more and more going forward.

It’s funny you talk about unexplored footpaths. My parents just told me that they discovered a path which leads to a picturesque little river full of nature. It’s 15-30 min walk from their house. How long have they been living there? 30 years!! But too busy with work to go around.

They also never took more than a week of holiday per year, until now. Couldn’t help but share the picture they sent me (Rhodes, Greece):

With so much WFH you may want to share some tips with us PP78! I found that having a regular routine is important otherwise you end up working all the time. Also, it’s easy to forget to take breaks. Sometimes I’ll spend 3 hours looking at the screen. Having a standing desk helps I must admit.

May your investing journey be prosperous. I think DCA is a very good strategy going forward. Can’t blame you for lump sum investing in the beginning. Although unlucky this time, it’s the correct play from a math point of view.