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Beginers Investing Book/Website

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MoKev
MoKev Posts: 5 Forumite
in Savings & investments
Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone could recomend any books or websites similar to this that would be good for a beginers guide to investing.

Basically I have about £10k in savings and I am thinking of investing this in someway as I can not currently afford to get on the housing market (I would like to do this but I would be buying on my own as a first time buyer).

Hence my thoughts on trying to invest to make the savings I have work a little harder.

Any advice welcome.

Comments

  • Jamesarcher
    Jamesarcher Posts: 4 Newbie
    Hi,
    I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but from this link you can order free brochures which give advice and information about investing.
    http://www.dianomioffers.co.uk/partner/iii/brochures.epl?showmenu=1

    Good luck!
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 119,640 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    You should note that investing is typically for periods of 5 to 10 years plus. So, you may find that investing is not the best option for you if you cannot afford to leave the money there that long.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • purch
    purch Posts: 9,865 Forumite
    trying to invest to make the savings I have work a little harder

    It's always a good idea to make them work a little harder, as long as you remember that when you do that they can sometimes run out of puff and fall over in a heap.

    A couple of sites with basic info are Incademy or the Motley Fool
    'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'
  • munk
    munk Posts: 993 Forumite
    My advice if I had my time over would be:
    • Don't invest everything at once - if you have £10000 to invest fully in the stockmarket, only invest half of it to start with for one year and if you still feel comfortable then, invest the rest.
    • Don't overestimate your risk profile - if you think you can tolerate a 20% drop in your investment in one go, build up your portfolio so it has a downside risk tolerance of only 10-15%. Again if you're ok with it after a year, increase the risk.
    • Don't underestimate the pain of seeing your investments fall in value - it's all well and good having a 'paper portfolio' (a virtual portfolio) and seeing that fall, but when it happens in reality and you have money invested, it hurts like hell :)
    • Don't overdo the number of funds/holdings you invest in to start with. Portfolio diversification is good, but if you overdo it it's hard to maintain the portfolio especially when you're starting out. Think about a max of 8-10 funds perhaps for £10k.
    • Only invest money you can afford to not have access to for at least 5-10 years.
    Websites For Newbie Investors Re books, I personally liked the book 'Intelligent Asset Allocation' (something like that), by William Bernstein. It gives a good overview of portfolio theory and diversification with moderate maths included. Examples in the book are from an American point of view, but the info in the book is generic.

    Someone recently recommended the book Fundology, written by a fund manager with Jupiter I think(?)... perhaps John Chatfield Roberts? Was slightly sceptical about that one because it was written by a fund manager, but might be worth checking out the reviews on Amazon etc to see.

    Good luck!
  • meester
    meester Posts: 1,879 Forumite
    munk wrote: »
    My advice if I had my time over would be:
    • Don't invest everything at once - if you have £10000 to invest fully in the stockmarket, only invest half of it to start with for one year and if you still feel comfortable then, invest the rest.
    • Don't overestimate your risk profile - if you think you can tolerate a 20% drop in your investment in one go, build up your portfolio so it has a downside risk tolerance of only 10-15%. Again if you're ok with it after a year, increase the risk.
    • Don't underestimate the pain of seeing your investments fall in value - it's all well and good having a 'paper portfolio' (a virtual portfolio) and seeing that fall, but when it happens in reality and you have money invested, it hurts like hell :)
    • Don't overdo the number of funds/holdings you invest in to start with. Portfolio diversification is good, but if you overdo it it's hard to maintain the portfolio especially when you're starting out. Think about a max of 8-10 funds perhaps for £10k.
    • Only invest money you can afford to not have access to for at least 5-10 years.
    As for websites for beginners, I'd echo http://inacademy.com/ also read through the guides on http://bestinvest.co.uk/ (look at the 'classroom' guides, something like that), check out http://morningstar.co.uk/ (look at their help pages) and also http://trustnet.co.uk/ (again check their help pages, especially good for understanding the various statistical ratios that apply to fund performance).

    Re books, I personally liked the book 'Intelligent Asset Allocation' (something like that), but William Bernstein. It gives a good overview of portfolio theory and diversification with moderate maths included. Examples in the book are from an american point of view, but the info in the book is generic.

    Someone recently recommended the book Fundology, written by a fund manager with Jupiter I think(?)... perhaps John Chatfield Roberts? Was slightly sceptical about that one because it was written by a fund manager, but might be worth checking out the reviews on Amazon etc to see.

    I bought that one.

    A bit thin, and for the latter half an extended advert for their funds.

    It explains how OEICs and UTs work, has a discussion of risk, value/growth investing, and how they basically buy funds 100% on manager performance and when the manager changes the performance goes down the toilet.
  • MoKev
    MoKev Posts: 5 Forumite
    Thanks to everyone for replying - looks like my naivety in investing (i.e. the fact that some of you are saying 5-10 years) may mean that this isn't the best option for me.

    Oh how depressing to be a first time buyer!

    Still I'll take a look at the sources you have given and see if it might be the right way to go.
  • munk
    munk Posts: 993 Forumite
    Maybe drip feeding in money might be a better idea - most online brokers like Hargreaves Lansdown allow you to invest from £50/month per fund (some allow as little as £20 like iii.co.uk I think). This way you could start investing in a portfolio now with a view to 'offsetting' (ie paying off the balance of) your mortgage in another 10-20 years time with the investment. You should be able to see at least 6-8% pa if you have a balanced portfolio and just rebalance once a year or so.

    Just a thought :)
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