What to do with my monthly savings

mattih5

Just a quick question. On the website you posted (Trustnet) does the column named "1y %Perf" mean this is what could or has been made on your investment in that one year period?

So on "CS MMGR EMERGING MARKETS" if you was to have invested a year ago you would have made £465 ontop of your say £1000 investment?

Cheers

al_yrpal

mattih5 wrote:

Just a quick question. On the website you posted (Trustnet) does the column named "1y %Perf" mean this is what could or has been made on your investment in that one year period?

So on "CS MMGR EMERGING MARKETS" if you was to have invested a year ago you would have made £465 ontop of your say £1000 investment?

Cheers

Yep,

Thats right, those are the investment growth for the periods in the columns, and if it were in an ISA it would be a tax free gain.

dapoodee

al_yrpal wrote:

This means that if you invested £1000, in 12 months time that would have become £1300 or £1400, and the next year £1,820 to £1,960 tax free if its within an ISA. My £5k within a Korea fund is now £9k after 1 year. I have quite a few funds approaching that. Cash ISA's are just tax free savings at 5% or so. Its good to have a bit of money in cash through for emergencies. As you are so young you can take more risks.

An equity is a share. Funds are made up from shares perhaps 50 to 200 different shares constantly monitored, bought and sold by the fund manager. A fund of funds is when the fund buys stakes in lots of other funds that he thinks are doing particularly well. In essence he is then doing what you or I might do investing in the funds we fancy.

I am interested in this method of investment, but who is the fund manager?

[Deleted User]

Sounds very interesting.. i've currently got just under £10K in my ISA after being in mattih5 position for 3 years (graduated, ok salary, £300 a month savings). I'd love to grow this money as fast as possible so I can get a bigger deposit to put on a flat.

My parents have warned me against buying shares directly because they say the market is very high at the moment - i'd much rather have someone who knows what they're doing do it for me.

Are there any high-street options for this kind of funds investment?

al_yrpal

ringo_24601 wrote:

Sounds very interesting.. i've currently got just under £10K in my ISA after being in mattih5 position for 3 years (graduated, ok salary, £300 a month savings). I'd love to grow this money as fast as possible so I can get a bigger deposit to put on a flat.

My parents have warned me against buying shares directly because they say the market is very high at the moment - i'd much rather have someone who knows what they're doing do it for me.

Are there any high-street options for this kind of funds investment?

You can use an Independent Financial advisor to choose your funds for you. He will make a charge, or take an initial commission. Its best to ask around locally for someone who has a good reputation. Avoid banks etc because they only push their own products and these tend to perform poorly.

Or, you can use the tables at https://www.trustnet.com to make your own choice. Go to Unit Trusts/Oeics /Prices perforrmance. By using the filters at the top you can get UK Funds, Funds of Funds, Emerging Markets etc. Clicking on the 1yr, 3yr or 5 yr gives you performance figures (clicking twice gives reverse order). Clicking on the fund name gives you all the information on each fund including the manager. There are extensive 'Investment Help' files on this site. If you visit Jupiter's site you can order a book called 'Fundology' which gives you all the lowdown on investment and lots and lots on fund investmet. This book is bang up to date and very good indeed.

Don't put all you eggs in the investment basket at once. It would be good to open a cash Mini ISA this year where you can put up to £3,000. You can also open an equity mini ISA with funds up to £4000. Some fund groups allow you to hold your investment in several of their funds within the ISA thus diversifying your investment and you can swop funds at any stage for a small fee. Invesco, Jupiter, New Star, and Neptune and others do this.

Funds go down as well as up. The trick is to maintain your investment in funds that go up, and go up better more than the rottern 5% you get on savings. The Funds of Funds I pointed out do that and last year they must have averaged a 35% gain.

Which shares do your parents mean? There are always opportunities somewhere in the world, funds give you access to these. Investment does not cease at the UK tideline! BRICS - Brazil Russia, India and China are on a roll - you've read it in the papers.

mattih5

Hi,

So how does one go about arranging to put money into one of these Unit Trusts?

Is it basically a metter of using TrustNet to scout for the best or most appropriate fund to invest in and then basically contact that company?

savingforoz

Mattih5 - yes to the first, no to the second. Decide on the fund you want, then do through a discounter, who will refund most if not all of the initial commission (often in the region of 5%) and can offer rebates on the annual charges as well. Check out https://www.fundchoice.co.uk or https://www.hargreaveslansdown.co.uk. Through outfits like that, you can buy several funds at once in an ISA wrapper.