A lot is said about investment performance targets – the goal of this investor is simply to outperform a Passive all-market global mixed fund. This should be possible, as Terry Smiths Fundsmith fund has proved for a few years now (he has comfortably beat this with his fund year on year). Can I do this? This is yet to be proven “consistently” nor in bad times.

This means in turn all non-Fund investments ideally need to return a average minimum of 8% a year. This is growth and dividends. However, this is on average so I do expect some investments to comfortably beat this, and some to not. I expect to measure this on at the earliest 2nd year of holding, unless the business fundamentals change (ie a profit warning).

Unlike Terry Smiths fund however, I do not intend to artificially limit myself to not investing in certain categories of the market, nor to copy “his” holdings – however I may duplicate a few when I agree. I would put Energy, Insurance, and Finance in the “investable” universe, as many times, you can tell when an asset is distressed and under-valued, and why shouldn’t you take “value” when it is offered. However for these classes of investment “buy and hold” may be unwise, this is a buy and exit when appropriate share-class in my book – as a personal investor costs of trading are quite low, so near irrelevant as a private investor. For example I see banking shares as having particular “value” at present (March 2019), as I suspect they are massively undervalued due to Brexit at present.

Disclosure: I do own the Terry Smith Fundsmith fund in both my ISA and SIPP as I regard him as the “active” fund to beat. If I manage this I have earned my %. Given Fundsmith charges are 1%, I have immediately saved that if I succeed. I am however more than happy to pay these charges for the investment performance to date (which is near triple the benchmark on average).

The fund chosen for “this” investor as the main “Target” benchmark however is the Vanguard 60% ACC fund – which in last 12 months has returned circa 5% – based on my own investment performance keeping this at ~ 25% of my primary SIPP fund. This is because it has a low management fee, is owned by the holders of the fund, and is therefore in “our” best interests to keep these fees low.