Portfillio size? Whats normal for a personal self managed porfillio?

[JemT]

Indeed, $3,000 is not a truly economic order value, but if you are buying shares because you enjoy doing so then it is a reasonable benchmark.

[ENP]

If a main goal is to save up for a house in term deposits over the next 2-3 years, does it make sense to have a 3-6k share portfolio on the side also? More as a hobby?

Anyone else do this type of thing?

[shasta]

If a main goal is to save up for a house in term deposits over the next 2-3 years, does it make sense to have a 3-6k share portfolio on the side also? More as a hobby?

Anyone else do this type of thing?

It comes down to your intentions & time frames, if you are wanting to save specificially towards a deposit for a house, you dont want any risk, or to lose any capital.

But the question is what will give u the best return v risk over that period.

Usually the returns from the markets do better than bank interests rate when inflation is factored in, but some years the returns are negative!

We are at the bottom of the economic cycle, & interest rates will rise as the NZ economy rises, so your options are:

1. Do nothing, let the interest accumulate in the bank a/c & add to it as required (into chq or call a/c)
2. Put the money into a bank term deposit short (locking in say 5% for 2 - 3 years might miss out on higher rates, but provides certainty & u know what u will have after "x" period)
3. Put the money into the NZX debt market, ie TEL, FBU, IFT bonds
4. Put the money into shares in the top ASX 100, ie blue chips, with dividends or reinvest shares
5. Put the money into high dividend yield stocks, outside the main ASX indexes
6. Put the money into the speculative end of the markets, where u may lose it, or double it.

Have a think about those options

[ENP]

The bulk (90+ percent) of the funds will be kept in bank accounts and term deposits.

But what about 3-6k or funds into stocks? How is stock investing with 3k any different than spending 3k on gold clubs, a new bike or any other hobby?

[shasta]

The bulk (90+ percent) of the funds will be kept in bank accounts and term deposits.

But what about 3-6k or funds into stocks? How is stock investing with 3k any different than spending 3k on gold clubs, a new bike or any other hobby?

Those other hobbies cost u money, & $3k isnt too much to lose, so you could go have some fun with it, or select 1 stock with a short term focus/chart based & try & turn it into $4k, or $5k etc

If u want to look at stocks with good charts etc, have a look at the ASX Breakout thread, some very good TA chartists lurk in there.

Plenty of fundamental investors like myself on here too, just depends what risk u are prepared to accept!

[buns]

But what about 3-6k or funds into stocks? How is stock investing with 3k any different than spending 3k on gold clubs, a new bike or any other hobby?

I'm not to sure where you are going with this. Are you saying you want to do it as a hobby? If so why not just paper trade?

If it is a hobby thing I would go golf clubs any day over watching 1 company/stock wangle about.

[buns]

Those other hobbies cost u money, & $3k isnt too much to lose, so you could go have some fun with it, or select 1 stock with a short term focus/chart based & try & turn it into $4k, or $5k etc

The intention is buying a house right? So whatever you do with this tiny bucket of cash isn't going to change to much for this house goal.

It's simply not worth stressing over.

The lessons/learnings from taking $3k to $5k is probably the more important thing, as these can be used again to mutiply much larger sums of cash. But again, that is not the intention behind this question right?

[ENP]

The question is..

I enjoy reading about stocks, companies and the economy.

However, my main goal is to buy a home in 2-3 years time. I don't want to risk my capital but also want to learn and keep a pulse on stocks and investing.

[Te Whetu]

I wouldn't want to paper trade for fun... seems boring. Paper trading is good for learning but it's hard to do just for fun.

I started investing in Jan 2004, my first investments were: $385 in FTB, $805 in MET and $490 in NPX. This was a total investment of just $1680 + $97.50 in brokerage spread over three stocks... i.e. I paid 5.8% in brokerage JUST to get into them. Looking back I wouldn't recommend investing so little but it certainly helped me get into investing, which I'm not sure if I'd have done otherwise. Since then I've developed and learned a lot, I now work in finance dealing with free cash flows and discount rates etc. and love it.

I do find it amusing that I had more diversification 7.5 years ago than I do now... sad almost.

Cheers

Te Whetu

*Once again, I DON'T recommend people invest c.$2k over three stocks + brokerage...

EDIT: Oh and ENP, if you don't want to risk capital and since you are going to need the capital soon, the best thing is likely to be paper trading to learn. As I said above, I don't personally find it that "fun" but it is the safest way to learn.

[h2so4]

The bulk (90+ percent) of the funds will be kept in bank accounts and term deposits.

But what about 3-6k or funds into stocks? How is stock investing with 3k any different than spending 3k on gold clubs, a new bike or any other hobby?

I can't see a problem, it's only 3-6% of savings.

How much are you saving per month?