Why the Navra Fund

O

obiwan

Hi,

I have been trying to do some due diligence by researching the property market (being new to PI) and trying to find suburbs with higher capital growth. Have brought a residex report and have been looking at properties within the report, and other areas. I am not having allot of success finding anything within my price range 220-250k. (I am sure others are finding them but not this black duck)

Anyway, I have been seeing allot of threads on shares of late and has got me thinking I might be better sticking my money into the stock market for a short time (12mths), to get a bit more money to increase my buying power whilst the property market is still flattish. (Any feed back welcome)

I have read allot about Steve Navra on this forum, and how great his managed funds are doing. Now this has got me thinking, about his and other managed funds.

Is the Navra fund so popular on this forum because he contributes to it and advertises his courses etc where as other managed funds are not?

Is it because he also invests in property which rings true to allot of others here?

Is it because one person recommends it, on this forum and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon??

How does his funds compare to other managed funds. I intend to do some research of my own, but thought I would put the question to others

Thanks in advance
Obi
 
Steve's fund is an "active trading fund" as different from a "buy and hold" type fund.

My personal view is that there are benefits (and disadvantages) to be found in both, but primarily that one is a "income type" fund (navra) and the other is a captial gain type fund (buy and holds).

There are various tax implications as well as cashflow considerations when deciding on funds.

12 months is a relatively short time horizon for any managed fund available to retail clients. However, IF you are prepared for a scenario that your funds MAY be down at the end of the year (i.e. have that contingency plan in place!) then it may be worth considering.

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
obiwan said:
Is the Navra fund so popular on this forum because he contributes to it and advertises his courses etc where as other managed funds are not?
Click to expand...


I simply liked his reasoning and explanation of how his fund worked - quite similar to my own share trading mentality (but a lot less riskier :) ) so I handed some money over.

Cheers,

The Y-man
 
obiwan said:
Have brought a residex report and have been looking at properties within the report, and other areas. I am not having allot of success finding anything within my price range 220-250k.
Click to expand...
Obi, if you are looking to buy in NSW have you tried the "Future Growth (Budget)" Residex report? This report lists the top 50 lower cost (sub-$400K) suburbs from the Sydney, Wollongong, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Newcastle areas. However, most of the suburbs to make the report are the outer suburbs of Sydney which might be out of your price range?

I've spoken to Residex and they are predicting NSW regional towns in general to show little to no growth over the next 5 years due to recent investor activity. This means you should be able to take your time to do your research with no urgency to enter the market.

In my opinion, unless you can afford to buy in a suburb with predicted capital growth, look at buying interstate, or find a property where you can add value rather than relying on capital growth, you may be better off investing in the Navra Fund to allow you to grow a larger deposit.

Keep in mind that although the Navra Fund has had very good returns, the minimum suggested investment term is 5 years.
 
obiwan said:
I have read allot about Steve Navra on this forum, and how great his managed funds are doing. Now this has got me thinking, about his and other managed funds.

Is the Navra fund so popular on this forum because he contributes to it and advertises his courses etc where as other managed funds are not?

Is it because he also invests in property which rings true to allot of others here?

Is it because one person recommends it, on this forum and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon??
Click to expand...

Hi Obi,

I guess that an important question is missing for this list:

Is it because the Fund is making money for you?

Regards,
James.
 
obiwan said:
I have read allot about Steve Navra on this forum, and how great his managed funds are doing. Now this has got me thinking, about his and other managed funds.

Is the Navra fund so popular on this forum because he contributes to it and advertises his courses etc where as other managed funds are not?

Is it because he also invests in property which rings true to allot of others here?

Is it because one person recommends it, on this forum and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon??
Click to expand...
obiwan

Probably all of these reasons are valid.

One particular feature which appealed to me was that there is no fee if the fund does not outperform the ASX200. I, like many, had seen our funds drop in value when the share market slumped- and even if the fund dropped further than the share index, the managers still took their percentage cut.

I have funds with Navra as well as with Freeman Fox (Peter Spann's group)- Steve and Peter have both been very valuable contributors to the forum, so that has influenced me. Credibility is important, and both of these people, by what they have said in the forum and elsewhere, have added a lot to their credibility.
 
Obviously, Steve has endeared himself here due to his many postings, and several easy to understand investing tips. I would summarize them as:

- balance your investing between property, stocks, and cash, in a manner that allows you to maximally leverage, depending on your risk profile.

- use a cash bond to help maximize after tax cash flows to further leverage.

- use 'rental reality' to help choose when to buy and not to buy property

- invest in his fund with its unique use of dollar cost trading. Steve has said a lot about this concept, though much remains a mystery. However, the mechanics behind DCT have been around for a long time, and there is a good treatment of it by Robert Lichello called automatic investment management.
http://www.aim-users.com/
 
Hi

May I also suggest that the using a managed fund (any managed fund) is a lazy way of investing? Even if it is effective sometimes....

Instead, I would personally prefer to see people learn the techniques involved in trading shares for themselves so that they actively control their investments instead of being passive.

Just an alternate view.....

Dale
 
DaleGG said:
May I also suggest that the using a managed fund (any managed fund) is a lazy way of investing? Even if it is effective sometimes....

Instead, I would personally prefer to see people learn the techniques involved in trading shares for themselves so that they actively control their investments instead of being passive.
Click to expand...
Dale

My problem with the active investing approach was that my pool was too small to have any diversification, which put a much higher risk, having a very small exposure. I had about $30K invested for 2 years- I don't like to have less than $10K for any single share. I made a small profit on some trades- and then lost out by having NAB for 2 years, then selling for the price I bought. In contrast my Navra fund has performed extremely well.
 
Obiwan,

My experience has been similar to Geoff's last post. I bought some direct shares in small parcels and didn't make too much profit and lost some too. I bought another managed fund and held it for years losing money along the way. Then I read about the Navra fund and thier low fee structure and strong track record so decided to get in. Because they trade Aussie blue chips I wasn't afraid to leverage strongly into the fund too which has increased my profits.

In the first quarter that I've been in the fund (since October 14 2005) I've returned 6.5% or $35K on my investment. My borrowing costs (as its all borrowed) are 7.1% pa so I only need a tiny bit more profit and my whole 12 month holding costs are covered and the rest is clear profit.

I'm extremely happy with the Navra fund, but there certainly are others out there that have a strong performance record too. It depends what you're looking for in your fund, but if you need an income fund then you can do a lot worse than going for Navra.

My strategy is the same as yours broadly speaking. I''ve got all my money in shares at the moment and am using the extra income from them to help pay down my PPOR quicker. I should own it outright within two years. I'll then look to buy some IPs if the market shows some signs of life. Otherwise, I'll just capitalise my growth in my shares and keep building my wealth through shares until the time is right to buy property. Shares are certainly my preferred asset category at the moment and will probably remain so for the next 3-4 years if my crystal ball is still working...

Cheers,
Michael.
 
I am not a Steve Navra groupie, but listen to what he says, as I think he has a much more balanced approach to investment advice, then 97% of the financial consultant industry. And I am not in his fund. I believe it doesn't do any better then the ASX 200, and that how well you do is highly dependent on when you enter the fund, as indicated by the attached performance graph.

I think there are a lot of people out there who don't have either the time, energy, or mathematical mind to come to terms with understanding the share market and economic influences on it. though I'd agree some make no effort at all, while I also accept some don't have the acumen for it.

It is sad in this ever more complicated world, that more and more personal time and energy resources have to be committed to understanding/managing money matters (tax, super, investment) and taken away from spiritual/emotional/physical health maintenance, acts of social responsibility, and nurturing of children.
 

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Thanks for your replies

Hi again,

Thanks to everyone and there inputs. It is what I like about this site, everyone is on the same path but taking different roads to get there!

There are few interesting replies out there, the one Ebbie wrote about not to hurry about getting into the property market now as Residex say is not the best time. Does anyone else have an opinion on this. I am sure other people are buying at the moment??

And it seems that one of the major attractions to the Navra fund is you don't have to pay management fees if it doesn't out perform the ASX200. But if you take that into consideration and all other returns is it still a better option than say at BT fund??
 
I have funds in the Navra fund.
I have been pretty happy with the returns in last 12 months - but the last 3 months have been disappointing....however.....
This could actually be a good time to invest in it !! Reason is thus - they have bought when the market went down - and the 20 stocks they actually invest in have underperformed the asx200 in that 3 months. So being contrary to this means these stocks may actually "catch up" to the rest of the market over the next 6 months (but there is also a risk that some of these 20 stocks may actually continue to underperform as some of these stocks have been on a downward trend - try charting BSL for eg and you will see what I mean , I have lost a bit of paper money myself on that one :rolleyes: ).
However over the long term I have great faith in Navrainvest.

Also check with Wealthtrac through your financial adviser - ask them to send out their latest returns booklet. http://www.wealthtrac.com.au/
One of the better performing funds (for example) has been UBS Property Sec fund - with around 19% average over the last 5 years...but only half of that is income and the other half is cap growth - so if you were looking at an "income fund" then this may not appeal......although in the last 12 months ending 31/10 they have returned 16% - with 12% of that as income so they may be changing the way they return to the fund unit holders. Of course that does not guarantee future performance !!
 
obiwan said:
There are few interesting replies out there, the one Ebbie wrote about not to hurry about getting into the property market now as Residex say is not the best time. Does anyone else have an opinion on this. I am sure other people are buying at the moment??
Click to expand...
I haven't been buying property for some time now. I got into the business as I wasn't too confident about the short term future of the property market.

It's like drugs. People who got into the ride when it was going wild got a huge rush. Now that the excitement isn't there anymore, there's many who are still addicted.

Peter Spann has been saying for some time that it's the wrong time of the cycle to be getting into the property market (except for a few exceptions, like land banking). The last time I heard him speak (3 months ago) he was still strongly suggesting shares.
 
I'm keeping a close eye on property where I might get neutral or better gearing, in addition to doing a quick value add.

But my money is in cash, my business growth, and stocks, and stocks are looking like they might keep outperforming property this year. If the US fed go soft on rate rises, then I think that will counter any end of property boom downturn they have over there. And that should stop China from crashing this year, which will help our resources. I'd suggest you read up on materials and energy sectors.
 
In the last two months I have read several reports saying that the US sharemarket will outperform Australia's.
What do you guys think of this?
 
I have to agree with Dale,i just wonder even though last years results
on the ASX are good,they may be very difficult to repeat this year
in several areas,look at it in this simple way,corporate disasters
are always easy to spot with the benefit of hindsight,Indenifying
them in advance is much tougher........i do watch the way the
Narva system trades and in my opinion and mine only some of those
stocks do carry more than the average risk.........
good luck
willair
 

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