How much do you keep in reserve?

hi stevio

are we talking about stocks or p2p loans here?

Please specify, in more detail, what you are interested in

I currently have a portfolio that is approximately 30% P2P, 25% Shares, 25% BTL, 20% Cash. The cash is in the usual bank account suspects.

If something juicy comes along, the first port of call would be to sell anything P2P that's becoming rather aged - usually on FS especially if I can sell near par, or sometimes MT/FC. If I'm feeling brave I might dip into my cash and temporarily change the allocations, especially if I have any sitting in sub-2% accounts.

I do very much like platforms which are relatively quick to deposit/invest/sell/withdraw - for me, those are: FS, MT, FC (believe it or not), and Collateral, although I don't have much there at the moment for some reason.

No problem asking - yes, there's a specific reason, well two actually. I sold my house a couple of years ago and am currently travelling whilst on a very uncertain income. So the cash is firstly for a possible future house or at least house deposit, and also for me to mentally cope with having a variable and small income for the foreseeable future i.e. I know I have X many month/years living expenses so I don't need to worry.

As a third lesser reason, there are still remnants of good deals in cash that stand up to P2P (although much less than before) e.g. £2.5k @ Nationwide current, £500pm Nationwide Flex Reg Saver, HSBC Reg Saver, M+S Reg Saver are all at 5%. Ford Money Reg + ISA @ 4%, Tesco £3k @ 3% (x2). All twice over as wife has accounts too.  Definitely alot of faff, and increasingly less worth it, but those rates are comparable to something like ratesetter/zopa so a no brainer in my circumstances.

Edit: Forgot to add that yes, selling on FS is currently quite attractive at the moment IMV. Unless it's a truly great loan, I tend to sell up almost entirely prior to sub 30-days. Even with just over 30 days remaining, often only a minor haircut is required, perhaps -0.2% or -0.3% currently - well worth it given the risks that hanging around for the grand finale often bring. As I'm not a BH, not concerned about missing out on bonus rates.

I think a lot depends on individual circumstances, I currently have about 11% in cash* (with over half of that pretty much instantly accessible) which is far more (years-worth) than I need, so can instantly invest and then rebalance later if something catches my eye. But even when I don't (and I'm consistently way over the last "this is my final p2p pot expansion" it's still not making that much of a dent on my cash...time to find something else to invest in perhaps.

*not including whatever is currently uninvested cash as part of my S&S portfolio because I really can't keep track of that as well

I usaly have between 1-3 percent of my money in cash that doesnt need to strapped down, I have about 15 percent of my money in P2P and the rest is invested in global equity funds though HL in my ISA and lifetime ISA. because of my young age 19 nearly all profit earnings from my business was going into the recent market bull run but ive stopped injecting capital as the bull has mostly ran and market feels overvalued and a shaky brexit under way. You could say brexit risk is more focuse in p2p but I feel diversification will be sufficient enough to continue growing my p2p commitment.

Likewise, I'm impressed. I share the sentiments about market overvaluation, but then have done for years and it keeps going up so I've obviously been largely wrong so far as have endless 'experts'.

The currency risk can go either way, I think we were sitting close to parity with the euro over the 2008/9 crisis, so no reason that can't happen again,or worse, if Brexit really bites. With my current lifestyle living mostly abroad, my spending power effectively dropped by about 15% overnight last June, not something I had planned for, but which thankfully I was slightly insulated from in the medium run by having circa 25% in global shares which rose due to the devaluation of Sterling. A good lesson for anyone planning to live abroad!

Other than that, I find P2P a brilliant outlet to having stopped me trying to play with equities  Every time I've done anything other than just buy chunks of low cost index tracker fund, I've regretted it. 

Watch the fees on the HL Multi-Manager funds though (assuming those are the managed ones you mean?). They're pretty high compared to things like ETFs which will give you broadly similar (in my opinion, not advice, etc) performance over the long term. And all other things being equal, high fees will decimate your returns.

Fundsmith, Woodford, and global ETFs are most of my stock holdings atm.

Also not so sure about calling 5 years long term when it comes to stocks and funds. 15, 20 maybe.

Dead impressed at your investment choices for 19 years old though! I have 4 year old nephew I'm planning to ingrain all this into by the time he's old enough to save some money