Blonde needs help buying shares - please help!

robbieswife2b

Hi

My hubby and I want to buy £300 (yes last of the big spenders!) of shares and would love some advice on how best to do this. I spoke to my bank and they charge £25 to buy and then £25 to sell if you just have one transaction (I can't see us having any more money to invest for quite a while!). Is this about the right sort of price or can I pay less to buy them? Thanks in advance, I have had so many responses from helpful and knowledgable people from this board so I'm sure someone will help.

Thanx

sabretoothtigger

iii would charge less

Seemore_2

There is a guide published on the main board.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/cheap-online-sharedealing

May possibly be a little out of date now.


:beer:

zxof

just a suggestion here... £300 may not a good idea to buy shares, why? because as you said you will need to pay £25+£25 to buy and sell (50/300=16.67%) which means you will need to get >16.67% profit to actually start making some money, even if you can find cheaper place to buy and sell, percentage wise will still quite high..

vaporate

I did see somewhere in my loca Natwest branch that you really need £3000 to invest. I would advise £5000 though.

Personally I would just aim for savings.

consumer

Have a look at Halifax Sharebuilder account....

You can invest from as little at £50...with charge of £1.50 for buying. You can set up monthly purchase if you want to save each month (Freedom to stop it whenever you wish) and no maintenance charges.

Only caveat is - you have to specify date when you want to purchase (Shares are not purchased in real time dealings but sold in realtime)

laehc

Think about an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) because they should be less risky than a single share. ETFs usually aim to track an index. Make sure the management charge is reasonable. Halifax let you invest in ETFs but I don't know the terms, or which ones they allow.
Whatever gets on your shortlist, try to do some research, or ask again before committing. There's also the question, is this a good time to invest. I like emerging markets but think they might come down a bit before going up again. Just my opinion, though, and I haven't got rich.

ed123_2

,,,I would not buy shares for that amount...you need to add a zero to make it worth while,,,,

swiatlo

Buy when it is low, sell when it is high.
you should be fine.

Buy commodities: search for ETFS on iii dot co dot uk

sabretoothtigger

Plain commoditys dont pay you interest, its much more extreme then company shares

Most commodity etf would actually be mostly treasury bonds and some futures contracts If they arent rising in price they will lose you money, sometimes dramatically or at least thats my understanding

I heard of a couple that collected old cans to recycle and pay for their air miles needed to go on holiday, with only 300 quid thats about as near to commoditys a couple should go mostly.
Or last autumn people were talking about a rolling food stock on their shopping, that seems quite sensible on things that can last as prices will probably rise quite alot at some point on foreign goods at least

Best etf for commoditys is CRB imo. Thats a collection of all them from sugar to gold. If the price of one goes up it'll help you not lose money on the other. Eventually your'll make money on average but it wont be a ton more then inflation, lets say 10% per year at best I would guess

I could be wrong on returns however Im fairly certain in terms of risk its by far the better choice then just one singular commodity. That would only make you money if it shot up in the six months after you bought otherwise it will decay in price


An even better idea is to just buy some BP or Shell shares. They yield more then a savings account, they are some of the biggest companies in the world and if oil goes up then you make money and even if it doesnt you will get a dividend while you wait.

https://www.h-l.co.uk/shares/Exchange-traded-commodities

Pssst

I agree with Ed123...it would almost be a waste of money to buy shares with only £300.