dealtn wrote:
However I recognise the relative simplicity of a mechanistic investment strategy that is probably better than simply buying an annuity, and for those who adopt it I wish them the best in it meeting their requirements. But I would suggest that anyone confident enough to be selecting shares to grow capital it is foolish to limit yourself to a subset of the investing universe, particularly where the number of shares available isn't a deep pool, and by the nature of having high yields have associated higher risk.
The only reasonable justification I have come across for people doing so in the accumulation phase of such investing, is that by not adopting such a strategy, when the time comes to manage a HYP in the "living off Income" stage it can be more difficult than if the lessons learned etc. weren't discovered earlier.
It's difficult to keep up with the discussions surrounding any potential different strategies, but I think in the main there are two thing not being given enough credit by those looking to criticise the HYP strategy -
1. It's a relatively
simple strategy in terms of the *time* having to be spent on it - in one of your earlier posts you've mentioned a quite valid 'rinse and repeat' total-return approach, but that clearly seems to be a 'busier' strategy than HYP, which has investment-inaction at the very heart of the approach. Time matters for many people, and many people might prefer not having to spend too much of it on investment-matters....
2. Your point above regarding the move from an accumulation phase to then taking income is one, I think, that's not given enough credit. I've been very happy to use an income-strategy very similar to HYP during my accumulation phase, and I think it's a great benefit to be able to track how things are going with one eye on the 'income-switch' that will hopefully get thrown at some future point in time. Knowing that I will have nursed myself over and through the quite natural investment-bumps inherent with *any* investment strategy is, to me at least, a very worthwhile benefit of taking this approach. Why put myself through more than one set of those bumps if I don't have too, and who's to say how high any other particular bumps might be?
Cheers,
Itsallaguess