Gyroscopic Investing

Hi Folks,

After having read Fail Safe Investing (what a breath of fresh air!) and this forum, I'm about ready to set up my UK based PP, this is what I've select so far:

Gold

PHGP (http://www.etfsecurities.com/cslgb/etfs ... old_gb.asp).  This is going to be my starting point.  Ultimately I was thinking of holding the bulk in PHGP, but having a chunk in Gold Sovereigns or Britannias (they are VAT & Capital Gains tax free) to use for rebalancing if gold goes over it's threshold - what do you think?  I suppose I could go all to coins, but storage is an issue.

Stocks
HSBC FTSE All Share (http://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/Fact ... UKI&univ=U)

Bonds
The longest dated gilt I can see is the 4% Treasury Gilt 2060

Cash
A 'ladder' seems to be the preferred option, I was looking at equal amounts in the :
5¼% Treasury Gilt 2012 (07-Jun-2012)
8% Treasury Stock 2013 (27-Sep-2013)
5% Treasury Stock 2014 (07-Sep-2014)
4¾% Treasury Stock 2015 (07-Sep-2015)
4% Treasury Gilt 2016 (07-Sep-2016)

I pretty much just picked these to be about 1,2,3,4 & 5 years out, I'm tempted to maybe reduce this to a 1, 3 & 5 year to reduce trading costs - or does that reduce the benefit...? I'm a bit of a noob I'm afraid

How does this look?  Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim

Tim, for the cash (or some of it anyway) is it worth considering index-linked savings certificates from NSI. They are government debt, tax free and pay higher interest than anything else (RPI+0.5% ie >5%). Basically they are a government give away to appease savers.

stone wrote: Tim, for the cash (or some of it anyway) is it worth considering index-linked savings certificates from NSI. They are government debt, tax free and pay higher interest than anything else (RPI+0.5% ie >5%). Basically they are a government give away to appease savers.

Thanks Stone, I'll check that out.  I actually have two PPs to setup, one for my company (just me) reserves and one for my personal investments, so the NSI stuff would be perfect for that.  (I'm just assuming that a company can't get NSI savings certificates, but I'll verify)

T.