Welcome to my blog.
A little bit about myself first. I am a 54 year old male living in the North West of the UK, near to Manchester. I am married (for over 30 years) with two grown up children, a girl of 26 and boy of 22. I currently work in Local Government trying to make some sense of Government policy, but have spent over 25 years in the private sector in the IT industry.
I am starting this blog because I believe people can benefit from both my good and bad experiences of investing. My main investments are company shares, tracker funds and property. All of my investment decisions are now made by myself. I do not pay for any “independent” advice. This was not always the case. I used to line the pockets of “independent” financial advisors and “professional” fund managers only for these people to lose me money, and expect to be paid for it. Things came to a head when I was sent a proposal from a pension company suggesting I increase my monthly contributions. The proposed monthly increase stated how much my financial advisor would also get every month in commission until I retired. Basically, I would continue to pay him for years in the future for doing nothing. At around the same time I was invited to present to a gaggle (is that the correct collective noun) of IFA’s on how the internet would change their business. What amazed me was the car park of the hotel where the event was being held. It was full of rollers, jaguars, mercedes etc. Ironically, my presentation outlined the threat the internet posed to their business as their “punters” became more informed.
All my decisions are based on research and investigation. I spend a lot of time reading about other peoples experiences of investing. Invariably they close their text with “DYOR” which is an acronym for “Do Your Own Research”. The point being, I am not a qualified financial advisor or property consultant. So all I can offer is the benefit of my experiences. As always, before making any investment decision – DYOR
