rossef2

Looks like we've reached peak gin, read that distilleries have started to shut and vodka sales have overtaken gin. Also noticed Schweppes among others have their own posh mixers available now, not sure where fevertree goes from here?

Out of interest, how far out did you go greg?

Spent most of this year travelling, much to the detriment of my portfolio. Mexico, Cape Verde, Argentina, Brazil and Switzerland. All are beautiful in their own respective ways, however Brazil and Argentina were pretty special (Food, weather, culture, scenery). Rio is special, a city on the beach and surrounded by jungle.

I used to play a lot of golf, 3-4 handicap 4-5 times a week, with a new child I haven't swung a golf club in 8 months. I'll be lucky to break 100 the next time I'm back. Aside from that, learning Spanish and trying to improve my investing. All quite time consuming tasks for such a time restrained life haha

The Puppet Master on netflix (UK) was excellent. I'm guessing it will be available in the US, it's about how a con man swindled millions from people by making them think he was spy. Only three parts, worth the watch.

Someone said to me he doesn't give letters, could just be hearsay though.

HIstorian Victor Davis Hanson had a good piece on Russia and the earlier spat they had with Europe in 2016 (?) when Europe was trying to get the Ukraine into the EU and move western influence closer to Russia. At the time Putin was called all sorts by the media in Europe for annexing the Crimea however Hanson questioned what America would do if, for example, Canada and Mexico voted in Pro Russian governments.

Why more Brits are turning to food banks? If you were recieving state support in the past you weren't allowed to use them, David Cameron changed that which brought about a significant increase in their use. It's meant people using food banks can now use their money to buy alcohol, cigarettes etc instead of food. I don't think that was Camerons intention but the people local to me that I know who use it can now go for a pint in a pub instead of sit in their house drinking cider

I don't work in the finance industry and my experience is somewhat limited. I enjoy researching and investing and I've had some good success over the past few years with some themes and ideas. However I'm aware that in these up markets it might be just the general rise rather than my investing genius that has done that! The topic came to me because I'm currently trying to get some Pension money out of a locked scheme, part of the agreement of me getting this money out is that I'll have to give this to someone to manage at around 1% PA. I'm baulking at the idea of 1% for someone who is unlikely to beat the passive funds. So part of me is thinking, surely it's better to just be in passive?

It's been no more than a quick thought but, if after fees so many of these active funds fail to consistently beat the market, why do people invest in them? Is it to diversify against other things? The chance of outsized returns? Getting a manager on a winning streak? I'd be interested to know what the boards thoughts are on this.

Bought some LSE:FLTR

I think he's just a salesman to be honest. He's got good chat and quite charming but he's trying to sell people the idea that it's easy to make money in markets and anyone can make a million in a few years. He has made a lot of money over the years but I'd question if that was from great investments or from great marketing of his course.

I done the three day course in the past and wouldn't recommend it. There are loads on the course, no idea how many but it could be 100 or more, you are put into groups of around 10 I think and assigned a tutor who runs through some notes for an hour or so then there is a presentation by one of the tutors. This format continues for the three days with Town occasionally doing a presentation. They run through everything although it's very brief and quite basic, then try and show you how to screen using his own screening tool. They then mostly talked about options trading for the rest of the seminar. It seemed like most people in my group were novices who thought they'd be millionaires by the end of the month, I actually gave up for large parts of it because it was so basic. He also tries to upsell his screening tool, 30 a month I think, and a further options trading strategy which is about 8k I think. If you've only been investing for a year and have studied a lot you probably know all the stuff he's going to tell you and I wouldn't bother

Thanks to everyone for your input, haven't been on for a few days so it was great to see some many helpful suggestions. r

Would anyone be able to recommend some books on the insurance industry? I'd like to learn more about it as there seems to be some good turn around opportunities. Thanks