My beginner’s class has finished, and I started to play once a week at the club with other people who also just finished the beginner’s class.
We just play, play, play for about 2-2.30hrs. The teachers are around so we can ask questions if we get stuck.
This session is so much fun!!!
I made some stupid mistakes, but was told that’s how we all learnš
The worst mistake I made this time was wasting my Trump cardš¦ I was a declarer, and I somehow miscounted the total number of trump cards that my opponent had and played the trump card even after the opponent ones’ have all been drawn out..
Such a silly mistake….. I’ll never do that again.
“draw out trump suit from the opponent as soon as possible, but stop play the trump cards once they have all been drawn out from the opponent ā¼ļø”
I do… very much, but not all the time. Sometimes I feel down thinking about her.
I really donāt know why….
My mum is a kind and wonderful person. She is lovely to her grandchildren too.
She did so much raising me and my brother, and I really appreciate that. Still I have to admit that my feeling towards her can be mixed sometimes.
Is it a mother/daughter relationship thing? I have read some books about it, but I still donāt really understand.
I would like to find an answer. I need to be aware of my own emotion and felling. So Iāve decided to write about it in this blog. Although a little by little…
I may never find the answer, but facing my own emoation may be a good thing.
Now you have decided on your asset allocation, you can think about how much foreign exposure you want to have.
We all tend to invest more in your own country (domestic bias). It is scary to invest in something foreign, something unknown.
Invest in foreign market is too risky, so I only want to invest in my own country.
Is that right??? In some ways… yes. When you invest in a foreign market, you are taking a currency risk (unless your ETFs are currency hedged), so your risk is higher. But what if something happens to your own country, your government??? Can you be 100% sure that it will not happen?
As a UK investor, we have seen this in a past few years….Brexit!! Yes, historically we have a very stable government & currency, but right now…not really. Who would have thought that the whole country would be rocked like this by this Brexit thingš¦
We all have seen how Ā£ has devalued against other currency. You can argue that Ā£1 is still Ā£1 in this country, so it doesnāt matter. But what if the inflation picks up and buying food in a supermarket becomes more expensive? Your Ā£1 now doesnāt hold as much value as few years ago, so you have lost some money in that way.
If you had some investment in a foreign market (for example, US$), the appreciation of US$ can offset the inflation in UK.
I believe that investing in overseas market is one way to diversify your risk. Of course, you donāt want to invest too much in foreign market especially getting closer to your retirement age – there needs to be a balance. But then, you just donāt know what will happen to your own country, so putting all your eggs in one basket is too risky.
So what is the magic number??? What % of the investment should be put in the foreign market???
I really am not sure…..
Personally, Iām not too risk averse, so Iām actually happy to put about 50% (or more) into foreign market. One main reason is that we own a house in this country, so a big chunk of our investment is a property in Ā£.
Country allocation is one thing that there is no particular rule. In general, older you are, more risk averse you should be so you should invest more in a domestic market. But then, do you own any other assets domestically? If property, how many ? How much do they value?
These are the things you need to think about. If you are not sure, you could even start off putting just 5-10% into the overseas market, and increase the portion as you study and feel more confident.
āDonāt do anything you donāt know & donāt want to doā
Heel height (5.5cm) is perfect. It is not too heigh to make it uncomfortable to walk, but still give a feminine look
Ankle strap gives sexy/feminine feel
Pointed toe shape is stylish, yet comfortable
They go well with skirt, jeans etc
A rubber sole gives a good grip
A sole has a soft cushion
Reasonable price (Ā£45)
I already have some outfits in mind to wear with these heelsš
To be honest, I used to think that Clarks shoes were comfortable but not stylish….but they have some lovely lovely collection of shoes this season. I’m definitely going to check their shoes from now on!!
I found a pair of cute ballet flats also in Clarks which I’m debating whether to buy for the summer.
The fund manager/broker you are going to buy ETFs from (don’t forget to study their charges!!)
You understand the difference between investment & speculation.
You can think about how to allocate your investment into different products.
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To make it simple, I will divid it into 3 different categories.
High-grade Bonds ETFs (Safest)
Share ETFs (Medium)
Speculation (Can be high risk so only if you want toš)
So how do you divide them?
People used to say that if you subtract your age from 100, that is the % you should allocate into buying non-bonds products (mainly shares I guess).
For example,
If you are age 35 (100-35=65), you put 65% into shares & 35% into bonds
If you are age 60 (100-60=40), you put 40% into shares & 60% into bonds.
Older you are, higher your bonds allocation should be to make your investment safer.
However, our life expectancy has risen, so “100 minus your age” might not necessarily apply now these days. Some advice that “110-your age” or even “120-your age”
It is up to you which rule you want to apply, but I will apply “110-your age”rule today.
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So if you are age 40. You should be putting 110-40 = 70% into shares &30% into bonds. Simple right??
For me, I would put commodities such as gold, oil etc ETFs into speculation. Also If I were going to buy a particular stock, I would put that into the speculation category as its risk is not diversified like S&P500 ETFs.
If you decide that you want to put 10% of your investment into speculation, you can take that off from 70% share allocation. So the final asset allocation will be
30% into high-grade bonds ETFs
60% into stock ETFs
10% into speculation
If you want to take more risk, I guess you could take 5% off from each bonds & share allocation.
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This is just a guideline so you don’t necessarily follow this. I’m sure that there are more sophisticated way to apply this theory, but I like making things simple and easy to understand. So this is the way I do itš
I bought a lovely set of underwear from the online shop Shein. It was a matching set and only about Ā£8. They looked lovely and very reasonable – I had to try!!
But but but… I tore the knicker on the first dayš¦ How did I manage that???
When they arrived, they looked really nice. The colour was as it looked on their website & the fabric was so soft. I was pleasedš
However, when I tried to pull it down, tearing sound came & I realised that it was torn on the side. Actually not only one side but both sidesā¼ļø
I’m not sure how that happened. I didn’t pull it particularly hard or anything…
I was so shocked for few seconds… and bursted out laughing. I never tore an underwear like that before in my life (or any men in my lifeš). Anyway, it went straight into a bin.
Shame… I really love Shein though. I think their clothes are great. Very reasonable & fashionable!!! But their underwear, I’m not sure. Maybe I was just unlucky.
Ā£8 for my laughter. Not great, but not too bad either because it made me laugh a lot.
If you don’t want to be exposed to the currency risk, you can look for a currency hedged ETF. For example, iShare has a S&P500 ETF with US$ hedged to GBP. If you buy this type of ETF, you are exposed to the risk of S&P500 share price movement, but not US$:GBP exchange rate movement.
The downside is that the choice of products is limited, especially hedged against GBP. Also the fee tends to be higher than the unhedged ETFs.
I guess most investors are happy to take some currency risks especially if you are investing for a long term. Then you can just look at the simple unhedged ETF products. In my opinion, simpler the better unless you really need to purchase more complicated products š
How does hedging work??? Let’s not go into thatš At this stage, all we need to know is that with the currency hedged ETFs, you are not exposed to exchange rate risk.
Assset allocation between investment & speculation (if you want to speculate a bit)
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Now, we need to understand the risk of purchasing ETFs – focusing on the equity ETFs this time.
Risk is a complicated concept, and you can go into real death and read a whole book (or 2 or more!!) about it.
However, as a private investor who is thinking about sticking to those simple products, you don’t need to worry too much about the complicated concepts (I think… š)
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So what risk am I taking when Iām purchasing an equity ETF?
The risk of share price movement (in this case the whole market movement such as FTSE100)
The risk of currency movement (if you are purchasing non-uk ETFs)
For example, if you are an UK investor and purchasing S&P 500 ETF (US market), you need to be aware that you are exposed to the movement of US$.
People tend to focus on the equity price movement only, but the currency movement plays a big role in your total fund performance.
Letās say
S&P500 went up by 5% in the last year, but the US$ weakened by 3% against British pound….. your overall gain is only 2% (ignoring the cost you are paying to your broker/fund manager).
S&P 500 went up by 5% in the last year, and the US$ strengthened by 3% against British pounds… your overall gain is 8%
If your investment strategy is for a long term, the movement of the stock market or currency over the short period of time shouldnāt matter too much. However, you need to be aware that you are taking currency risk as well when you are buying a non-domestic product.
This concept leads you to decide your country allocation. Do you want to invest majority in UK or do you want to allocate more for non-UK investment etc…..
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Saying that, Iām sure that there are some non-UK ETFs with its currency being hedged. The concept of hedging is an another thing, which I will talk about it later.
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The most important thing is to make sure that you don’t forget about the currency exposure risk when you are buying ETFs of the overseas markets.
āThe course of true love never did run smoothā
This is one of the quotes from Shakespeare. I love the sound and the flow of this sentenceā¤ļø
There are different ways that you can interpret this quote. For me, I can’t talk of love without my children as they take up so much of my emotion.
It is slightly different from what Shakespeare is saying, but the love you have for your children never runs smooth. So many obstacles & so difficult at times, but still you love them and you can’t ignore the feeling. You want to stick to it no matter what….. This is true love, no???
I have this love because they are my children, but can I give the same love to another man???
Such a hard work… Can I do this for a man? Can I walk on this course with so much difficulty? To be honest, I’m not sure if I can (luckily, my husband doesn’t read my blogš )
If you can, I agree that is true love. How often does that happen… not so often, I bet! But I guess, many of us can survive without true love – life could be easier that way. Love is so difficultā¤ļøš§”ššššš¤š
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