This week, the Fool community pondered the value of working and investing for longer, selected some investment trusts, and rode a Boris bike.
For many, the purpose of investing in a high yield portfolio, consisting of a diversified variety of shares, often blue chip ones, that pay a good dividend, is to finance their retirement.
Of course, when to stop work and start living off the proceeds of your careful investments can be a tricky decision, and how much income you're getting, how much capital you might draw down (and, in fact, whether you want to draw any down at all), and how long you're likely to live all come into the equation -- you could be in trouble if you outlive your funds.
Fool regular Gengulphus was pondering that this week, and came up with some calculations for us…
"As a result of the helpful links provided by Cludgie and Arb (many thanks to both of them!), I have been able to do some calculations of the chances of outliving your capital that take the variability of both how long you will live and investment returns into account. (As a bit of shorthand, I'll use "failure" in the rest of this post to refer to the event of outliving your capital.)"
What was the conclusion? Well, it's a very long and very interesting thread, so you'll really have to read it all for yourself.
Picking high-income funds
Investment trusts provide a very Foolish way to invest for the long term, as their investors and their shareholders are one and the same, and they have to put their interests first. So if you want a pooled investment vehicle, an investment trust or two is something well worth considering. And that's exactly what Avalaugh is pondering at the moment, saying…
"I'm looking for Investment trusts to fund on a monthly basis, with the following in mind:
1) Reliable dividends with a history of doing so, for security in retirement,
2) A range of about 5 funds for security,
3) The tricky one - most investment trusts that fit the criteria above have yields of 2-3% ideally I'd like funds with yields of 5% like the City of London investment trust,
Does anyone have a list of 5 or more funds that fit this criteria?"
Did the regulars on the Investment Trusts & Unit Trusts board have any helpful suggestions? You bet they did, and you can read the thread to find them.
Ride a Boris bike
London isn't exactly the easiest place for commuters to get around, and with the congestion charge it isn't a cheap place for driving either. So the latest public bicycle scheme, affectionately known as Boris bikes, should be a good idea, no?
At the moment only registered users can ride them (though there'll be a PAYG scheme for visitors later), but you can have one for half an hour for no charge, or £1 for an hour. And one of our cycling Fools, ITGirl1000 has been trying one out. How did she find it? Well, it didn't go completely smoothly…
"First of all, I would say that the process of registering for membership has not been without hiccups. In fact, the customer service has been reminiscent of NTL or Utility Warehouse, but maybe this is just teething issues."
But overall, the verdict was favourable…
"All in all, I was pretty impressed. A lot of thought has gone into the design of the bicycles and overall I had a very pleasant ride. The gears and the upright riding position means you have to take it easy and enjoy the view, this is no road racer. But for someone like me who would much rather cycle than use public transport, but doesn't visit London enough to make it worthwhile keeping a bike at the station, they are ideal."
Read on for the whole informative, and entertaining, story.
And finally
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Last week's roundup: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
