Analysing both of these investments the assets are located in the following ways:

Asset Allocation Q1 2010

This chart shows the aggressive nature of my current portfolio, I am currently happy to take higher risks for potentially higher returns. At the moment, my strategy is to adjust this every 5 years to increase the proportion of cash/bonds & guilts. These two categories can be further split down into the following fund sector allocations:

Fund Sector Allocation Q1 2010

A lot of my portfolio is allocated to specialist sectors; including agriculture and Indian and Russian funds. Whist this is potentially a dangerous balance these three funds alone are currently providing me over £3000 of profit. Hopefully in the coming months I am going to add an emerging markets fund to this portfolio to increase the specialist allocation. The bond allocations provide a more secure income providing some diversification to the overall portfolio. Drilling down into these asset allocations we can see in the following chart even clearer how they are distributed:

X-ray Asset Allocation Q1 2010

They are distributed globally as follows:

Global Distribution Q1 2010

In 2010 I am going to try and increase my contributions in ‘emerging asia’. I am also going to invest heavily in oil & gas production in New Zealand due to some personal beliefs in this area.

Drilling down into which sectors are involved the following bar chart shows where my money is allocated:

Sector Share Q1 2010

Heatlh care, technology and oil & gas will be my main investments this year. Oil and gas due to it’s up and coming rebound and through the recent lack of exploration, this should take off towards Q3/Q4 of 2010. Technology as I think this year will be a big year of 3D TVs, Blu-Ray and new computing devices ad screens combined with a recovering economy this sector should drive well this year. Health care I believe is always a good investor, when a bio-technology firm strikes big they strike very big so some good choices in this sector could really help my portfolio.

So, this is a brief over view. I will update monthly with how it is doing and half yearly with the asset allocations. What do you think? How does this differ to your portfolio’s? What would you recommend I change if anything?

Over the last 3 weeks whilst getting back into driving I have been implementing fuel saving tips and changing my style of driving to improve my miles per gallon (MPG). Here are a few simple tips that will allow you to save money:

1. Don’t Idle, you get 0 MPG by idling.
2. Don’t drive aggressively, there is no need to accelerate rapidly. This can decrease your fuel efficiency by 33%. In town driving it can be 5%.
3. Don’t drive above 60MPH, efficiency decreases rapidly above 60.
4. Empty you car. Excess weight needs fuel to move it.
5. Keep the aerodynamics clear. Keep windows up, and store things like bikes and luggage in the car not on it.
6. Don’t use cruise control. It is not as efficient as a human at regulating a constant speed when inclines change.
7. Keep your tyres at the correct pressure. Doing so will increase your fuel efficiency by up to 3%.
8. Replace your air filters to increase efficiency by up to 10%.
9. Drive proactively. Watch what is happening ahead of you, if you see traffic lights are red then take your foot off the gas long in advance so that you don’t need to stop at the lights. This not only saves you fuel in the drive up to the lights but also saves you fuel when accelerating again when the lights change.