Alan Donegan's Blog

Vanguard Developed World versus Global index fund.  Investor Series

3/1/2021

 
You have decided you want to start to invest.  Yay! You are on your way to financial independence!  You have decided Vanguard index funds are the way forward. Super!  You log on to their website ready to invest and you see the HUGE selection of funds available to you!  Which one do you buy?  Where do you start? â€‹ What does it all mean?
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The clash of the titans! The FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund versus the Developed World ex. UK. Vanaguard!
For an overview of which Index Fund to choose start here.  This article is to help you decide whether to invest in the Vanguard Developed World Ex. UK Fund or the Vanguard FTSE Global All-Cap Index Fund and what the differences are!

​We are going to break down the differences between the two funds and, given that nearly all of our money in invested in the Developed world fund, whether we are going to change that going forwards. 

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The impact of fees on investments. Investor Series

26/12/2020

 
Sometimes things are getting gradually worse but you just don't notice!  When I was in my late twenties I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing football and stopped playing sport. I was forced into being a couch potato.  What I forgot to do was stop eating.  Major error! 
Alan Donegan: Investor Series.  Fees on investments
1% can make all the difference! Compounded over time. Wow
I didn't notice the weight slowly piling on week by week. A year passed and I was obese!  I hadn't noticed the small change each week until it was too late. ​

Fees are very similar.  They are small enough that you don't really notice them at the time, they are hidden from you and they just gradually erode your wealth over time.  You wake up a decade or two later and you aren't worth what you thought you would be!  Fees are the hidden element in investing that makes everyone else wealthy apart from you! Let's tackle fees together

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Shit Happens

22/12/2020

 
Shit happens, things go wrong and problems keep coming at you! A successful life is not defined by a lack of problems. There is only one group of people in society that don’t have problems. And they are in the cemetery! Problems are one of the characteristics of being alive. 
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Katie and I going to get a Coronavirus test last week.
Therefore success is determined not by the elimination of problems but by how you react to them.  This week I and Katie have had some problems.  The Donegans are human after all.  It is how we react that is important. 

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Decoding the Vanguard Website: Investor Series

13/12/2020

 
You are ready to buy into an index fund and invest your hard earned cash!  You log onto the website and you are all good to go but then you start to look at the different terms.  You open it up and it is filled with jargon and indecipherable charts! What is NAV? OCF? Risk rating? Portfolio data?  How do you make sense of all this!??
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The language of finance can be complex when you're starting out! Katie and I are going to break it down and help you work out how to read the Vanguard website.
You panic, close the laptop and go back to watching Netflix! When Katie and I started to look at the Vanguard site to choose which fund we had several false starts and were nearly put off investing!  Open up the Vanguard site and let's go through it line by line together...... (this is the UK site but most of the terms are the same globally)

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Billionaire Librarians

29/11/2020

 
If the answer was more information then all librarians would be billionaires.  They have access to all the information you could ever need, books on sales, building businesses, health, biographies of the greatest minds in history.  They are surrounded by ground breaking thoughts, ideas and inspiration form all of humanity. 
Alan Donegan: Rebel Entrepreneur Podcast: Self Development books and building the courage to take action
Can you really tell a human's success in life by looking at their library? Or nowadays their playlist on YouTube?
In fact all of us have access to this knowledge.  We have YouTube, the internet, podcasts and a wealth of knowledge that our ancestors could only have wished they could have access to.  So why aren't we all millionaires with Lamborghinis and philanthropic foundations that cure diseases?  Is more information the answer?

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Which Index fund should I invest in? Investor Series

13/11/2020

 
It was lunch time and I was starving!  Katie and I had made our way to Wholefoods to buy some lunch. We headed straight to the prepared food. There were deli counters as far as the eye could see.  I was starving which means I was not in the most resourceful state!  I was immediately  overwhelmed by choice. 
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There was fresh food as far as the eye could see!
I wandered around the counters in a trance, staring at an incredible selection of food.  I didn't know what to choose or even where to start!  After what seemed like 20 minutes of wandering I decided I needed to limit my options.  I decided to have soup and headed to the soup section.  There were 20 different soup flavours to choose from.  I nearly had a melt down.  I was just hungry and tired! I needed food!

This is the paradox of choice.  The more options there are the harder it is to make a decision. This was just deciding what to have for lunch!  Can you imagine how I felt looking at investment options for the first time?  Maybe you can?

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What is an index fund? Investor Series

10/11/2020

 
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What is an index fund? The language of investing can be hugely complex at the best of times! Even a simple term like index fund takes a lot to properly explain.  If you want to feel confident investing then the first step is to build your investing knowledge and financial vocabulary. The more you understand something the more confident you will feel starting!  Writing this article has double Katie and my knowledge about index funds!  We hope it does the same for you!
The short explanation: Index funds give you an easy and cost-effective route to diversify your investments across the globe and partake in the growth of the global economy. Sounds sexy; but what the hell does it mean! What is an index fund? What is contained in an index fund? Which index funds should I buy? Why do I care? Let's get geeky together!

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What is diversification? Investor Series

9/11/2020

 
I was sat sipping a coffee with a new friend.  He was telling me that his strategy was to invest in stocks that he knew something about.  So he picked individual companies that he felt he understood and invested his money into them. 
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He worked for a multi-national logistics company and specifically in aviation.  His area of expertise was airlines.  So he had taken his money and invested it into aviation and travel companies.  In March 2020 when Covid-19 knocked the stock market sideways his stocks plummeted.   When the stock market recovered in May; his stocks didn't.  He had the opposite of a diversified portfolio!  What is diversification?

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What gets measured gets improved

7/11/2020

 
What are you measuring? 

Que smutty jokes!  

Seriously though what are you measuring each month? Each week? Each year? What are you tracking?
Alan Donegan: what gets measured gets improved
Alan Measuring something
One of the most interesting questions I have been exploring this year is "If things continue as they are am I happy with the direction?" 

To be able to answer that question you need to be able to know whether you are going in the right direction or not.  The only way to do this is to measure something...….

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Where are you heading?

20/10/2020

 
This morning I stepped on the scales, as normal, and measured my weight, body fat and muscle mass.  I've done this every week for the past 8 years.  It fluctuates daily and this doesn't bother me at all.  But the long term trend....  Where am I heading? That is something to pay attention to.  

Are you getting fatter over time?  Are you getting poorer over time? Is your business shrinking over time?

​Where are you heading?
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My ever growing belly
The first thing I did was create a graph obviously.  Scroll down to see which way my belly is heading!  And FAR more importantly to start to think about where you are heading? Where's your destination is likely to be? Are you are going to like it or not!???

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    Alan Donegan: PopUp Business School Co-Founder, Entrepreneur, Financially Independent Pizza Lover, Marvel Movie fan and soon to be Script Writer

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