financial portfolio management

this has been something i have always kept a keen eye on, yet to be honnest havn't acted upon. Which in heinseight has been a costly annoyance. So before jumping in with any investment just thaught i would put up my plan for scrutiny.

a few notes first though (more detail in further sections):
- around £30k to 'play' with.
- i am quite bearish.
- wish to spread risk as much as possible, over sectors / regions.
- aim to buy house within 2 years (when market bottoms out), - a big factor, though something i don't want to affect the plan too much with, as it is a long term plan.

PORTFOLIO:

CASH - 50%
STOCKS / SHARES - 40%
COMMODITIES - 10%

CASH
short term - 25%
medium term - 25%
long term 50%

short term
bills, living expenses, emergency cash etc...
basically kept in a current account.

medium term
easy access cash, kept in a 'higher interest' internet account, basic purpouse to float between long / short term cash aims when needed or good investment oppertunity appears.

long term
high interest bonds, ISA, currencies.
bonds for 1-5 year periods, ISA for tax free good interest (want to be using my full allowance here), currencies are very interesting, something i would aim to trade.

notes on cash: - although this is a long term plan, i feel now is a bad time to invest in the long term plan, due to low interest rates and a weak pound, though the ISA would still get the full allocation due to the ability to pay in restricted ammounts every year. the immediate place for the long term allocation would be placed in a medium term plan of an internet account.

STOCKS / SHARES

this is an area i will have to do a great deal more research into, however i do have a basic outline of how to spread the portfolio. Admittidaly i will be looking into 'managed funds' spread over various regions with differing risk levels and both income / growth funds.
i have also dabbled with a virtual stock portfolio with pretty good results, though will only do this with minimal cash for real.

this i understand is a volotile time to be looking into the markets, though i would rather be buying into the markets now than at there peak.

COMMODITIES

basically a safeguard for any portfolio, gold / silver / platinum etc....
a physical holding would be an option, though i would probably be looking at more of internet gold exchange and physical storage provider, as a basis to trade from.
At the moment gold looks overpriced, though silver looks an immediate option, though i am kicking myself for not going with my gut on gold and platinum when they were £430 and sub $700 respectively not long ago.
base metals are also something to look into, though i havn't researched much yet.
again i may invest in silver immediately, and look into base metals, but can see this sector of my portfolio reserved in the 'mid term cash' for better opportunities.

30K loose change hanging around? :ooo
Have a look on here, these have all the investment plans you should need http://www.fidelity.co.uk/

Now is a good time to get into a £7000 ISA, and spread the risk across 3-4 funds. Fidelity have all the graphs. You need to go by the ones showing consistent growth prior to 2008 though.

Then in 9-12 months, when the £/$ exchange rate should be 1.6-1.7, and house prices there will have reached rock bottom, buy a property in the USA. I've been looking at ones that sold for $250,000 in 2005 now going for $120,000 :yikes: .....but in around 10+ years prices will have bounced back. Get a nice little whore-hole in Vegas :D

cheers for that keith, been looking at a 'fund manager supermarket' type thing on iii.co.uk similar to the fidelity one, the custom searches are very helpfull.

as for a US house - quite fancy california, :wink

bit of an update (not much),

put a bit of cash into 3 fund's which i did plenty of research into (holdings etc... ) which i liked the look of and thaught were a good time to buy, 2 euro region which are doing poorly down nearly 15% each and 1 in the china region which is holding it's own. in heindseight i perhaps invested too early, as i wanted to buy at the bottom, but since things have got worse. will keep an eye on them but will more likely wait till late summer or even the end of the year (maybe longer) till investing more in funds, perhaps when the markets start to pick up.

commodities wise i over bought (from the allocated 10% commodities allowance) silver which i am glad i did as it has had a strong recent run, and i really like the look of its future potential, and still think it's a steal at the price now.
gold did top $1000 again this week but i am still not keen, perhaps it's because i am still kicking myself for not buying at $740 late last summer.

cash wise there is simply nothing to get excited about, my nationwide e-saver did pay a very good 4.75% (i think) now down to bugger all, along with everything else, so just topping up my ISA. my dad still has his cash in 'icesave' paying 7.2% tax free :yikes: i got out as soon as i could without hesitation, but as it's guaranteed perhaps i should have left it there.