Saving for Retirement - Stock Market Exchange Traded Funds | October 2023

Welcome to this month's ETF Investment Update

Guest author: @hoosie

What is SPI?
SPI tokens are growth investment tokens that pay a weekly dividend. They have been circulating for over 2 years, on STEEM HIVE. Mostly sold for 1 HIVE, each token today is worth over 4 times its HIVE issue value and 12x its dollar value. On top of that, token holders receive roughly 8% every year from weekly dividends. We raised $13k from issuing SPI tokens which has been used to grow a diverse portfolio of investments, many of which provide streams of passive incomes. SPI tokens are part ownership of all SPinvest tokens, accounts, assets and income. The price of each SPI token is its liquidation value as SPI tokens are 100% backed by holdings. Hardcapped to roughly 94,000, no more can be minted or issued. Adding, hold and compounding has us on the road to major growth and these tokens are still growing in value.

SPI tokens are part ownership in an actively managed fund. We have our hands in over 20 investments with the lion share being HIVE, BTC & ETH. We do not FOMO or chase pipe dreams. Tried and tested works best and is safest. Our motto is "Get rich slowly" and compounding down on sound investments is our game. You should invest in SPI tokens with the mindset of not selling for 3-5 years minimum. Follow @spinvest for weekly holdings and earnings reports.

Introduction

I invest in stock markets through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Share Funds via Fidelity UK. My investment strategy is for long term gain (5+ years), and I tend to DCA in when I can (but I wouldn't bet my mortgage on it or put my family at financial risk). I invest in ETFs and funds as I like spreading my investment across a basket of shares, as opposed to trying to pick individual shares, which would be too risky for me. I tend to stick to solid funds within the US, UK and Europe, and have a liking for tech funds. I do not day-trade, or look for short term flips. Please take that into account, and always do your own research!

What's Happening This Month

Monthly KPIs

I use a number of Key Performance Indicators to help me gauge how the overall markets are performing and it also helps me to try to understand where money is moving.

Looking at the monthly change columns:

• BTC is the clear winner with an 8% rise over the month,
• I'm actually surprised that the FTSE has been flat while gold and the US markets have dipped. I'd normally expect to see the FTSE follow the US markets (or worse !),
• I'm also surprised at how much gold has dipped, and is closing in on $1800. That could be an indicator of investors being more confident in the markets. Gold always spikes when things are in turmoil as its a safe place when everything else is loosing value, hence with the inflation problems, etc, thats why its been high (it was just over $2000 for a while). If gold keeps dropping, then I would expect to see a positive change in the markets,

1 month chart for BTC - Credit - CoinMarketCap website on 07/10/23

The BTC chart for the month (above) is quite interesting showing nice solid growth over the month. The question will be for how long. If that continues to happen, then we'll see more investors sinking money into crypto generally.

1 year chart for the S&P 500 - Credit BBC News Website 07/10/23

As per the above, the S&P 500 has done well over the year, peaking in August and then falling a little.

1 year chart for the NASDAQ - Credit BBC News Website 07/10/23

Unsurprisingly the NASDAQ shows a very similar pattern (above).

1 year chart for the FTSE100 - Credit BBC News Website 07/10/23

However the FTSE100 UK market shows quite a different picture having peaked back in Feb. It could be beginning to level out, but its hard to tell. But it makes me think that if I wanted to pick somewhere to put some money just now, that I'd probably pick the FTSE100 as it has more room to grow, compared to the SAP500 and NASDAQ.

Recent Trade activity

I havent bought into any more funds over the last month. I did have some dividends come in over September, but not quite enough to go and invest. I have a decent dividend coming towards the end of October, so I'll look around for something then.

I did buy into the Schroder UK Listed Equity Income Maximiser (SCKZI) fund back in August, which is something I've been putting money into the last 2-3 months. For me it has a nice balance of low ongoing management fees (0.26%), nice consistent growth since its inception and quarterly dividends. Its UK focused so based on the KPIs, I'd probably put more into this if I were to invest.

When I bought into last I paid £0.52/unit, and its currently sitting at £0.5176/unit - so down a little, which corresponds with what we are seeing with the FTSE100 graph above.

Monthly Fund Focus

Last month I discussed dividend hunting, in a manner of words. That is, making more of an effort to invest in funds that give a nice dividend, with the ultimate aim of having dividends coming in, in every month of the year (I'm currently missing November, May and August). That gives me cash to play with each month - whether to withdraw for living, or to invest further.

Accordingly, I thought I'd mention where my dividends came from during September.

In September I had dividends from two different funds:

1. Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 UCITS ETF (EQQQ)
2. Schroder US Equity Income Maximiser fund (SCUZI)

EQQQ is quite a good performing and well known Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). It provides dividends quarterly (which for me means Sep, Dec, Mar and Jun). To be fair, EQQQ is growth focused, so you really are buying into it for the growth in price, and not so much for the dividends. I've looked at my returns for the year and it has worked out as 0.42% of my holding. Not great I guess, but as said EQQQ is all about price growth.

EQQQ 5 year price chart - Credit Fidelity Website

The 5 year EQQQ price chart above demonstrates what I mean. Its doubled in price in 5 years.

SCUZI is quite a different fund. Being an income maximiser, it is trying to give good dividends, and as such will sacrifice somewhat on price growth.

I'm getting around 4.8% worth in dividends from SCUZI annually, based on the last dividend in September. It also pays out quarterly, but I've only bought into it recently.

SCUZI 5 year price chart - Credit Fidelity Website

The 5 year growth chart for SCUZI does not show the same performance. I still think its good at over 50% growth, however, they are also punting out decent dividends every quarter.

In summary I'm happy with both. One gives me better cash flow to use now, the other will hopefully give me better growth over the long term. I think its good to have a balance across the portfolio and not be too reliant on just a few funds. That way, you are spreading your bets across less risk. Yes you could argue that there are bigger gains to be made and that I should have put it all into PEPE coin a few months ago. I just cant take that risk, so I'm going for what I hope is a lower risk option, that still has decent promise.

Round-up

Its interesting to see the price of gold dropping and BTC beginning to rise. If gold continues to drop, then I'd expect to see the markets rise. There has also been relatively good news about inflation rates beginning to stabilise/drop, and hence interest rates are also hopefully going to stop rising - although I think we've got months to go on that front. So maybe things will brighten up in 2024. If thats the case, then its a good time to invest now (both in crypto and the stock markets).

And heres looking forward to my October dividends which will be larger and allow me to invest some more !

Thats my round up for the month.

If you have any advice to share or tips for funds, I'd love to hear about them - and feel free to leave feedback on the post - I'd love to know what you think !!!

All the best @hoosie

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