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Whether it’s being set on fire multiple times or jumping off an 80ft cliff, there isn’t much veteran stuntman Riky Ash hasn’t done.
Building up a healthy pension pot from his successful film and TV career is, however, something the 56-year-old can’t lay claim to.
The lack of a guaranteed retirement fund doesn’t faze him though.
“Pensions are antiquated and don’t work, I’m not fussed about saving into one,” he said.
Instead, the majority of Mr Ash’s wealth is tied up in the value of his five Lamborghinis, worth around £2.5m.
“I absolutely love the cars and have a vast knowledge of them. I know more about Lamborghinis than any Lamborghini dealer in the country.
“I didn’t buy them as investments, but it’s been an absolute bonus that they’ve gone up in value since I’ve had them.”
The collection, made up of Countach, Miura, Jalpa, Gallardo and Aventador, spans multiple decades, with the latter worth around £1m.
Mr Ash plans to sell four and keep one, although he’s yet to make up his mind which.
“I get offers on them all of the time, and I will eventually sell,” he said.
“Putting that money and having it earn 5pc in a savings account doesn’t interest me though.
“Aside from premium bonds, where I have £50,000, I haven’t bothered with savings accounts since 2008 as I think interest rates should be at least 10pc – anything below that is pointless.
“I’m really keen on putting the money to better use and buying gold, as when there’s volatility in the world the price of precious metals always seems to go up. I’d like to know if it’s worth doing and if it’d make life easier for me as I think keeping gold is easier than Lamborghinis.”
Mr Ash, who lives in Nottingham, has no mortgage to pay off, no debts and no children. He’s also keen on exploring investment opportunities.
He has taken a coaching session with financial planners Bestinvest, but doesn’t have experience with wealth management.
“I know I need to be in it for the long term, but I don’t really know where I’d start,” he said.
“I think it’d be good to have a good spread of investments.”
Charles Ambler, co-chief investment officer at Saltus, says:
As an asset class, gold doesn’t have a yield, meaning it is difficult to forecast.
However, when looking at gold as an investment, it is important to understand the drivers of the market: both buyers and holders, such as central banks, international retail buyers, the Indian consumer and contract speculators, that will use derivative products rather than buying physical gold.
Gold is often thought of as a global macro hedge, so it’s an asset class that is designed to benefit from sudden negative macro events such as political or economic stress.
In real terms, an investment of £10,000 over the last 10 years would be worth £21,500 today.
Not a bad return, however we should caveat that the value of gold is currently high and inflation has been very low for a lot of the last decade which enhances the real return per annum – it is also highly volatile.
For context, over the longer term, gold has typically done circa 8pc per annum but with volatility of 23pc; over the same time period, global equities (the great companies of the world) have achieved circa 12pc per annum with lower volatility of 17pc.
There are now very large and very committed, newish, buyers in a market in the form of the Chinese and Russian central banks.
They have put a major floor on the gold price vs history which has caused prices to rise and for the traditional inverse relationship between the gold price and real yields to break down somewhat.
Real yields have been rising in the post-Covid era as central banks in the West raised rates which should, all else equal, have caused gold to fall in price
However, this has not been the case as certain central banks started to increase gold buying following the invasion of Ukraine and US sanctions on Russian dollar-based reserves.
To put some context on this, during 2023, the Chinese central bank was the largest buyer of physical gold at 225 metric tonnes, the next closest country was Poland at 130 metric tonnes followed by Singapore at 30 metric tonnes.
According to the World Gold Council, China’s buying is the largest by a central bank since 1977. These additional buyers are causing gold prices to structurally shift up.
There is a strong argument to be made that de-dollarisation will continue and hence these central bank buyers are unlikely to step away from the gold market for some time.
On top of this, as central banks begin cutting rates, this will lower real yields, which should make gold relatively more attractive to potential buyers. All of this suggests that gold will likely continue to rise in price.
There are similar storage needs for gold as there are with expensive cars – a secure location with adequate security and insurance.
These conditions come at a cost. It is very unlikely that household insurance would cover bullion and so a separate policy would be required which would have specific requirements on storage.
Another option for Mr Ash is to buy a physical gold Exchange Traded Fund (EFT).
A physical gold ETF is a listed instrument that owns physical gold and participates in the price changes but without having the risk of theft.
John Moore, senior investment manager at wealth manager RBC Brewin Dolphin, says:
Selling a tangible and highly enjoyable collection of Lamborghinis is going to be a big shift in mentality for Mr Ash.
Combined with his limited experience of investments, he would benefit from spending more time with an adviser to frame his goals and understand how to respond to inevitable market volatility.
Given his current circumstances, I am going to assume a medium- to high-risk approach, substantially invested in equities.
Mr Ash should still have some liquidity, with around 2pc of his assets in a high-interest, easy access account that would offer a reasonable return and flexibility.
A further 8pc could be allocated to short duration gilts that trade below par, offering tax-free capital upside on the assumption that they are held to maturity.
With the equity allocation, he could allocate around 70pc to overseas stocks and shares with a bias towards household names, which have good long-term growth prospects.
Luxury goods group LVMH is likely to be of interest, while Nestlé and Novartis offer more “little and often” transaction appeal and the Swiss franc exposure will help with wider portfolio balance.
Turning to the US, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon offer leadership in their respective technology-driven areas and would provide exposure to AI growth opportunities.
Visa and Booking Holdings offer a proxy on financial transaction growth and discretionary spending trends. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway provides an investment trust-like approach to collecting a range of assets.
Adding an S&P 500 tracker will broaden the market exposure in the USA. Actively managed funds like GQG US Equity Growth and BNY North American Income will also further diversification, without duplicating other parts of the portfolio.
Looking at Asia, I believe that this is best accessed through funds and Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders and Fidelity Asian Values Investment Trust offer attractive, well-researched, but slightly different, approaches. M&G Japan takes a flexible approach to a market that is often difficult to read but has opportunities for patient investors.
Adding some global exposure will help add coverage and balance.
Scottish Mortgage looks for businesses that offer growth potential from disruptive trends, but also has exposure to Tesla, Ferrari, and Northvolt in its top 15 holdings.
Turning to the UK, Diageo and Haleon offer consumer-based growth from international markets. Ashtead is a great play on infrastructure spending trends, while Experian and RELX have great positions in the financial, legal, and medical data world.
BP owns the Castrol brand recommended for Lamborghini engines and the company’s portfolio offers a hedge against energy needs and oil price spikes.
Finally, Mr Ash has mentioned exposure to gold, which I would suggest should be no more than 5pc of the portfolio.
We typically recommend buying direct exposure to the gold spot price through the likes of an iShares Physical Gold ETC or similar. This removes the need to store physical metal and takes away the risk of investing in gold miners, which typically operate in politically risky parts of the world.
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