2014 Year End Review

“I don’t like piggy banks – I’m afraid of change!”

That time again to tie it all up and see if it was worth having my money in equities, rather than sticking it in the bank.

Here's what happened:

FTSE100 fell 2.7%
FTSE100 up 1.3% (total return, GBP)
FTSE-All World up 12.69% (total return, GBP)

Investimouse's fund which is a holding of investment trusts, tracker funds, bonds, fixed interest, and individual company shares is called The Team Dave Fund of Fun-ness. The individual company shares are generally high yielding quarterly paying shares (income is everything) but occasionally I do have a punt on something little. It is compared to the FTSE All-World each year rather than the UK only indices.

The Team Dave Fund of Fun-ness is up 14.76% this year (total return, GBP).

So slightly ahead of its comparative index. Still feel it needs more international exposure, but very pleased to do so well when everyone else is having a bad year.

Slightly annoyed last year about:

- Tesco - Clarke should probably be in prison, along with many of his cohorts.
- Bankers - I hate them all. Crowdfunding and individual finance can't come along soon enough and kill off their corrupt industry.
- The US justice system which continues to pick on BP despite their having made all of Florida an infinitely better place to live. Quite how BP are continually blamed for something American companies and employees caused is beyond me.
- Russia and Putin - madness
- Crawshaw - on the day I had researched it, Crawshaws price was 6p. At the last second I bought Tangent instead as my punt stuck for the year. Tangent earned me 25%, however Crawshaw would have ten-bagged my money. Sleepless nights.

Things I'm looking at this year:

- When exactly to go big on oil again. How long will Putin be happy with just fighting the Ukraine?More than likely his best option is to either rile the Iranians into attacking Israel (big risk) or start supporting ISIL and helping them create a larger conflict in the middle east, specifically by riling them up in Saudi Arabia. More unrest = higher oil price.
- Finger poised on the buy BHP button. Big divs, exposure to energy and all commodities.
- Creightons is my punt stock
- B&M European in retail looks good (I think...)
- Others which have me intrigued for 2015 are CityFibre, Telecity, Shell, Tungsten, Porta, Accumuli

Here's some share tips from round the media for 2014:

Daily Mail - This is Money tips
Guardian
Stockopedia - Top Naps
Independent - Top Ten to Follow in 2015
Telegraph - Questor share tips for 2015 (plus here's last year's results)
iii - Aim share tips for 2015

Some of the other blogger 2014 'year in review' style posts:

DIY Investor
Retirement Investing Today
Investing Sidekick
DIY Income Investor
Wexboy
Adventures in Equities
UK Value Investor


Good luck for the coming year!

And to end a superb cartoon from XKCD:

Portfolio review - April 2013 Update

General boost from all markets heading upwards slightly in March so the team dave fund of fun-ness rose slightly too.

Free money from the following companies:

Raven Russia prefs (RUSP)
Natwest prefs (NWBD)
Beazley (BEZ)
Real Estate Credit Investments (RECP)

for a total of £97.03 in dividend income (a new monthly record). Thanks mostly to the good chaps at Beazley who seem determined to make sure I get rich. Nice one them.

No other action this month. I have a tiny amount of cash sitting on the sidelines awaiting buying opportunities but I can't see anything obvious at the moment.

What to do with all that money when we finally get there?

This is a slightly premature post because I'm nowhere near the stated goal of being a millionaire yet. But, just in case any of use eventually gets there, what should we do with some of that money?

Some might suggest an awesome car like a new Ferrari 458 or Bugatti Veyron. Of course buying one of those isn't going to leave much change out of a million. Best perhaps to think that we've got millions (plural). Right, we've got a car and a nice house now, bought a bunch of gadgets, hired a very attractive Eastern European lady to clean the house, a bunch of cool gadgets, and even donated some of all that money to charity (cause we're nice). The yacht is being steam cleaned ready for next weekend's attempt at a fastest time between Barbados and The Bahamas. So we've arrived at a place where we're not sure what to do with our money...here's what some other lunatics have done, who clearly have too much:

Kristi Malakoff makes art from money. Here's a few pieces.

This is made from three Turkish 100,000 Lira bills

This item is made of four bills, from Brazil, Zambia, Egypt and Bolivia

Won Park does much the same thing. Here's a few pieces from his gallery:

A F1 racing car made from two $1 USD

Ox made from a single USD

Photographer Philippe Petremant likes to mix up his notes and creates new portraits from the famous faces on our currency. Here's a few of his best:

Chairman Mao in cowboy hat and groovy porn star moustache.

Mahatma Gandhi’s eyes on the face of Saddam Hussein.

I'm not sure who the individual components of this are, but he looks pretty cool.

Here's a bloke who doesn't just like to fiddle with money, he likes wearing it. Obviously a few cents short of a dollar upstairs in the head, Datta Phuge from India paid £14,000 to make a solid gold 24 carat shirt.

Control yourselves ladies, Datta is looking F I N E...

But if we get really rich and want to make a statement, then here's another method of blowing your money. Follow the KLF's lead and burn it all. After their decision to leave the music industry and become artists, The K Foundation (Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) formerly music band KLF, decided to burn a million pounds in 1994. Clearly this is mental behaviour and not at all endorsed by Investimouse. Should you be considering doing such a thing, email me first and we'll have a chat.



There you go, just some of the things we can do with money when we've got absolutely stacks of it. Till then, keep saving and figuring out how to make more of it.

Portfolio End of Year Review 2012

The Team Dave Fund of Fun-ness had a half decent year in 2012. Of course, this was part of a general uplift in the world economy, but at least I didn't have another disaster like 2011.

Overall, my ISA fund is up 9.79% this year. Not a massive result but fairly pleasing (considering last year's -25% figure).

In comparison the FTSE 100 was up 5.84% for 2012. However, that probably isn't too valid to my fund as although I have some UK shares, there is also plenty of emerging and global trusts and funds in there too. Probably best to compare it with a World Index which is up 9.52%. So I'm basically tracking a global uplift.

If investing weren't so much fun the obvious thing to do here would be to just buy a World Index tracker fund or ETF like the iShares MSCI World. But then you wouldn't get the buzz of those lovely dividends and worrying about share prices, dodgy company management, new equity issues, etc. Actually the more you think about it the better it sounds.

Here's my tiny fund as it stood on Dec 31, 2012. Still slightly under water following the crash but making gains now on a regular basis.

Round up of some of the financial goodness that has piqued my interest this week

Firstly, Munch's masterpiece, The Scream is going up for auction. One of four versions of the painting, this one was produced in pastel, comes with the original poem he created to explain the work and is the most vibrant of the four. The only one also available in private hands. If I had the money, this is what I would spend it on. There is nothing better in the world than this. It makes me marvel every time I see it. Amazing.

If you want to buy it for me (it's going to be about $80M), I'll be forever grateful. I'll buy you a beer too, plus you'll get visiting rights to see it twice a year.

The UK's public finance borrowing tipped past £93Bn for the tax year to date. Surprisingly this is apparently good news. About £16Bn less than last year and on track to meet the overall target of £129Bn. God the sums are astronomical aren't they? Where does it all go?

From the same paper, Why are deficit-cutters so afraid to talk about tax? A reasonably well written argument on the need to increase tax as well as cut spending. Apparently the UK pays some of the lowest tax in Europe. However, coming from NZ, the tax here feels huge compared to home. Still, it would be difficult to ask the wealthy to pay more tax. The top 10% of earners already contribute 50% of the tax take.

‘Superinvestor’ Walter Schloss Dies at 95. 16% return a year for over 50 years. That's clever stuff. Still you can't spend it in heaven. Hope he had a good life.

Just like the UK, Germany have realised that all those wonderful green energy investments don't really work and have cut the subsidies to their solar power schemes. Pity it has taken them this long, they've spent £130bn so far. And as a consequence have the second highest electricity costs in the world, second only to Denmark, the world's leading wind farm people.

Real-time data now available in Google Finance in the UK. If you use this service to track your profile or just pick up prices, it just got a whole lot more timely and accurate today. Good news. It still has its problems (inconsistent fund data, dividend pricing, lack of PE and yield information on most shares, no screener or filter) but is heading in the right direction.

and Lastly, what about this as an investment for the future? If you like collectibles, here's something a bit novel. To celebrate 500 episodes of the Simpsons, here's Kid Robots collectible 6" Matt Groening figure. Bound to be worth a fortune in years to come. Especially if he dies early!

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