Time to start investing? £50pm

fimonkey

I'm still non the wiser about 'investments' per se, but I'm wondering about 'taking a punt'.

I'm talking abuot an initial sum of £1K, followed by £50 per month (I can afford to 'lose' this so to speak), and with the FT much lower now I see that this drip feeding will buy me more at the moment (conversely understand the opposite will happen when markets rise).

So my level of risk is low to medium, I am looking to beat 5%p.a. (on growth or dividends which I'd re-invest). I would prefer this to be in a fund as they are more 'diversified' and I would like to hold this fund in an S&S ISA, adn I'm looking for long term growth (5 years minumum)..

Is this possible? What kind of fee's etc would I pay? Or am I better off putting this £50pm into a regular saver (which I currently do) and sticking with the interest?

Thanks in advance

Lokolo

Hargreaves and Lansdowne are very going for investing in funds but they require a minimum of £100 a month. They take around a few % in fews annually.

And yes drip feeding is good at the moment but as soon as the markets recover etc. its best not to continue.

sabretoothtigger

hl are 50pm afaik

Lokolo

£100 a month minimum but with £50 each fund.

The form I filled in last month said I had to invest at least £100 a month for regular deposits.

Lokolo

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Lokolo/HLISA.jpg

The form to invest. Minimum Lump Sum of £3k or £100 monthly.

fimonkey

If it's £100pm, does it have to be every month or can I put in £100 pm every other month?

Also, I would choose just one fund in the first instance, what funds are low to medium risk and what returns do they give?

What 'fee's' do H&L charge? per transaction or per year on overall amount invested?

And, how would I then go about holding the 'fund' in an S&S ISA?

Many thanks in advance once again.

Lokolo

You don't know what returns they give, just look at previous, but previous returns should not be considered what future returns you will get.

If you go here http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/fundscreener/default.aspx?lang=en-GB you can use morning stars fund filter to see what sort of funds you might want to invest in.

And unfortunastely no, it would have to be £100 a month. If you can afford the extra £50 a month it would be awesome.

And with HL (hargreaves lansdowne) their Vantage ISA, the one in the picture above, is a Stocks and Shares ISA.

if you make 5% in the next year, I'd be surprised.

it will depends where you invest, and thats the whole point of drip feeding at the omment, so if value goes down, you buy more units, then when things rise you get a better return.

And investing is longterm, 1 bad year won't kill the whole investment (hopefully )

Lokolo

Of course it could but its not likely. Thats why you use funds, spread the love, spread the risk.

cloud_dog

loaner wrote: »

1 bad day could kill the whole investment. Drip feeding helps, but is no insurance policy in the current market conditions.

loaner, you are correct but only if you have a short(ish) timeframe in mind.

A few years ago :rolleyes: when I drip invested monthly I used to pray for the market / inestment to go down, at least for the first couple of years. As long as you understand your goals, timeframes, and can understand the psycology now might very well be a good time to start drip investing.

cloud_dog

cheerfulcat

fimonkey wrote: »

I'm talking abuot an initial sum of £1K, followed by £50 per month (I can afford to 'lose' this so to speak), and with the FT much lower now I see that this drip feeding will buy me more at the moment (conversely understand the opposite will happen when markets rise).

So my level of risk is low to medium, I am looking to beat 5%p.a. (on growth or dividends which I'd re-invest). I would prefer this to be in a fund as they are more 'diversified' and I would like to hold this fund in an S&S ISA, adn I'm looking for long term growth (5 years minumum)..

Is this possible? What kind of fee's etc would I pay? Or am I better off putting this £50pm into a regular saver (which I currently do) and sticking with the interest?

Thanks in advance

Hi, fimonkey,

As far as investments are concerned, I'd suggest that anyone with small monthly amounts to invest over the long term looks at investment trusts or tracker funds.

Many of the investment trust companies have regular savings plans with £50 as a minimum. If you went down the tracker route, you can buy exchange traded funds through a broker - no minimum and if you set up a regular investment scheme with Selftrade or Halifax sharedealing it'll cost just £1.50 in fees.

ISA charges will be on top of this, of course.

sabretoothtigger

So dont invest in just one market, I'd choose a country with a growing population personally. UK and other western countries have problems with ageing workforces and ever more pensioners, on a fundamental basis I would not expect the best growth in that environment

Dont invest anything you cant afford to 'spend' but when times are gloomiest can be best time to invest especially in this kind of regular balanced way. The stockmarket could fall alot more though, I think its still not nearly as bad as it could be yet