Portfolio Construction & Strategy
Practical blueprints for mixing funds based on your goals, time horizon, and appetite for risk, from core-and-satellite to income versus growth.
Core-and-Satellite Strategy
A widely used approach that pairs a low-cost, diversified core with smaller, higher-conviction satellite positions.
Building a Core-and-Satellite Portfolio: Balancing Stability with High Growth
Explains how to structure a core-and-satellite portfolio, pairing a diversified core with targeted satellite positions to balance stability with growth.
Read guide →How Many Funds Do You Actually Need? Avoiding Over-Diversification
Looks at why holding too many overlapping funds can dilute returns without genuinely reducing risk, and how to avoid over-diversification.
Read guide →Choosing Satellite Positions: Sector, Regional, and Thematic Tilts That Make Sense
Guidance on picking satellite fund positions, from sector and regional bets to thematic tilts, that genuinely add something to a core portfolio.
Read guide →Rebalancing Your Portfolio: How Often and How to Do It Without Triggering Tax
Covers how and when to rebalance a portfolio, and how to do it tax-efficiently inside an ISA or SIPP and outside a wrapper.
Read guide →Model Portfolios: Should You Copy a Ready-Made Fund Allocation?
Weighs up the pros and cons of using a platform's or fund manager's ready-made model portfolio instead of building your own allocation.
Read guide →Home Bias: Why UK Investors Often Over-Allocate to the FTSE 100
Explores why UK investors tend to overweight domestic shares, and the diversification cost that this home bias can carry over time.
Read guide →The All-World Tracker as a Single Core Holding: Does It Need Satellites at All?
Considers whether a single global tracker fund is enough on its own, or whether satellite positions still add meaningful value.
Read guide →Overlap Risk: How to Check If Your Funds Are Secretly Duplicating Each Other
Explains how to check for hidden overlap between funds that quietly hold many of the same underlying companies, weakening diversification.
Read guide →Tilting Toward Value or Small-Cap: Satellite Strategies with Academic Backing
Reviews the academic research behind value and small-cap tilts, and how investors use them as satellite positions alongside a core holding.
Read guide →Building a Portfolio Around Your Pension, ISA, and GIA Together, Not Separately
Explains why it helps to treat ISA, SIPP, and GIA holdings as one combined portfolio rather than managing three separate accounts.
Read guide →When to Simplify: Signs Your Portfolio Has Become Too Complicated to Manage
Sets out the warning signs that a portfolio has become too complicated to manage sensibly, and practical ways to simplify it again.
Read guide →Risk Tolerance & Asset Allocation
Matching the mix of equities, bonds, and other assets to your genuine capacity and appetite for risk, at every stage of investing life.
The 60/40 Portfolio in the 2020s: Is It Still Safe for UK Retirees?
Examines whether the classic 60/40 equity-bond portfolio still works for UK retirees given recent market and interest rate conditions.
Read guide →De-risking Your Portfolio: How to Shift from Equities to Bond Funds as You Age
Explains how and when to gradually shift a portfolio from equities toward bond funds as retirement approaches, reducing risk over time.
Read guide →Understanding Volatility: What Standard Deviation Really Tells You About a Fund
Explains how to interpret a fund's standard deviation and volatility figures when comparing the investment risk of different funds.
Read guide →Multi-Asset Funds: The One-Fund Solution for Hands-Off Investors
Explains how multi-asset and all-in-one funds work, and who they suit as a simple, single-fund solution for hands-off investors.
Read guide →How Much Risk Should You Take in Your 20s, 30s, 40s, and Beyond?
A guide to how investment risk and asset allocation might reasonably shift across your 20s, 30s, 40s, and later decades of life.
Read guide →Sequencing Risk: Why the Order of Returns Matters Most Near Retirement
Explains what sequencing risk is, and why the timing of poor investment returns matters far more near retirement than during accumulation.
Read guide →Gold, Commodities, and Alternatives: Do They Belong in a UK Portfolio?
Assesses the case for gold, commodities, and other alternative assets as diversifiers within a UK fund portfolio.
Read guide →Risk Tolerance vs Risk Capacity: Why They're Not the Same Thing
Explains the difference between how much investment risk you feel comfortable with and how much risk you can actually afford to take.
Read guide →Target Date and Lifestyle Funds: Automatic De-Risking Explained
Explains how target date and lifestyle funds automatically shift their asset allocation as a chosen retirement date approaches.
Read guide →How Bonds Actually Behave When Interest Rates Rise: A UK Investor's Guide
A UK investor's guide to how rising interest rates affect bond prices and bond funds, and why duration matters so much.
Read guide →Cash as an Asset Class: How Much Should You Hold Outside Your Portfolio?
Looks at the role of cash savings alongside an investment portfolio, and how much an emergency fund might reasonably need to cover.
Read guide →Behavioural Risk: Why Investors Sabotage Their Own Asset Allocation in a Downturn
Covers the common behavioural mistakes investors make during market downturns, and how these undermine a carefully chosen asset allocation.
Read guide →Income vs Growth
Choosing between accumulation and income fund structures, and building a portfolio for the income stage of life.
Accumulation (Acc) vs Income (Inc) Fund Units: Which Should You Choose?
Explains the difference between accumulation and income fund share classes, and which suits different account types and investor needs.
Read guide →Top UK Dividend Funds for a Reliable Monthly Income Stream
Looks at what to check for in UK equity income funds that aim to deliver a reliable, regular income stream for investors.
Read guide →Natural Yield vs Total Return: Two Ways to Fund Your Retirement Income
Compares a natural-yield income strategy with a total-return drawdown approach as two different ways to fund retirement income.
Read guide →Dividend Growth Investing: Why Rising Payouts Matter More Than High Yield
Explains why funds and shares that consistently grow their dividend can outperform those simply chasing the highest current yield.
Read guide →Reinvesting Dividends: The Quiet Power of Compounding in an ISA or SIPP
Explains how reinvesting dividends inside a tax-free ISA or SIPP wrapper can compound returns significantly over the long term.
Read guide →Global Equity Income Funds: Diversifying Beyond the UK's Dividend-Heavy Market
Explains why global equity income funds can reduce concentration risk compared with relying solely on UK-only income portfolios.
Read guide →Sustainable Withdrawal Rates: How Much Income Can Your Portfolio Safely Provide?
Explains how sustainable withdrawal rate research applies to a UK retirement portfolio funded through fund investments.
Read guide →The Dividend Trap: Why a Very High Yield Can Be a Warning Sign
Explains why an unusually high dividend yield can signal underlying trouble rather than a genuine income opportunity.
Read guide →Bond Income vs Equity Income: Building a Diversified Income Portfolio
Explains how bond income and equity income funds each contribute differently to building a diversified income portfolio.
Read guide →Multi-Asset Income Funds: A Single-Fund Approach to Regular Income
Explains how multi-asset income funds combine different asset classes to deliver a single, diversified regular income stream.
Read guide →How UK Dividend Tax Actually Works Outside an ISA or SIPP
A plain-English walkthrough of how dividend tax is calculated on fund income held outside a tax-efficient wrapper.
Read guide →Bucketing Strategy: Splitting a Retirement Portfolio Into Short, Medium, and Long-Term Pots
Explains how the bucketing approach splits a retirement portfolio into short, medium, and long-term pots to manage sequencing risk.
Read guide →