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Zoe Fielding of the Australian Financial Review asked Scott Kirkwood the question;"What would you do if you were given $100,000?".For a start I'd give $10,000 away to a charity or community-based group. Getting involved in projects that make a difference in other people's lives brings me rewards that are far greater than the monetary value I donate. A holiday with my family would be a priority. I'd spend $30,000 ' taking them overseas. Next I'd do something relatively boring and put $50,000 into investments. I'd get a $50,000 margin loan so I could invest in a portfolio worth $100,000. I'd use $10,000 to cover the interest repayments on the margin loan for the next couple of years. I'd put the money into assets that would grow over time, but be reasonably volatile in the short- term. I'd choose a parcel of Australian and international shares. I'd allocate 15 per cent to large- cap global companies and 20 or 25 per cent to emerging markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. If you can handle the volatility of emerging markets over the next five years you're certainly going to reap the rewards. About 60 per cent would go into the Australian industrial and resource sectors, split equally between blue-chip companies, managed funds and small-cap resource stocks. I'd avoid investments that don't - agree with my ethics. I wouldn't hold direct shares in online gambling companies, for example. You don't have a say in a managed fund's underlying investments. I wouldn't lose sleep if a fund's overall philosophy was good but it held one or two stocks that I was uncomfortable with. In the current market I'd expect my portfolio to grow at 15 to 20 per cent or more each year. I'd have the interest on the margin loan to pay but overall I'd make a profit. There would be a risk of losing the investments plus the interest on the margin loan, but in the worst event I would still have donated $10,000 and had a family holiday. If I had only $10,000 or $20,000, I'd still donate $2000 to $3000. I'd forget the holiday and invest the rest. Zoe Fielding Page 53 - Australian Financial Review, January 25-28 2007
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