advice needed please =)

Phaelok

Hi everyone,

I have recently maxed out my e-isa account with Natwest for £5100 in this new financial tax year and will shortly be receiving around £4500 but I am unsure where to put it simply because of the low interest paying current accounts.

I was thinking about opening a S&S Isa but will happily admit that I don't know much about it only that there is a risk to the funds I put in this type of account. If I chose to open a S&S isa how does this work exactly? i.e. do i get to see the daily 'value' of my total investment in this account once the stock markets close?

Apologies for not sounding too 'clued' up on this, however I am willing to put a small of money in there and make regular contributions to this type of account but would welcome your advice.

Thanks in advance

JonnyFinancialAdvisor

Hi Phaelox

Am an active Professional Financial Advisor, and a lot of my cleints are in the same boat as your self.

Firstly as ISA is an allowance not a type of account. This allowance also called a wrapper can be used to safeguard £10200 each year from income & capital gain tax.

You have used your cash part good. Now you can fully use your Investment ISA allowance also.

The most common type of investment ISA is called an OEIC, which stands for an Open Ended Investment Company. These are great as they are very flexible and allows you to change your fund, make withdraws without costs etc. However due to the nature of the beast, they should be held for 5 plus years.

You choose the risk, ie No Risk, Low, Medium & High.

They are made by investing in Government Bonds (Gilts) and Shares. Low risk would be all Gilts, medium Half & Half and High Risk would be all shares.

They are managed by professional fund managers, that look after your funds every day. They will change the shares in the fund to try and reduce risks and add value. Ie one of the funds for my own cleints made 58% in the last 12mths and even in 2008 ie the big crash our higest risk fund only fell by 16%. So over 2 years even with one of them being the worst in a long time, these investors have got far more money than people in cash ISA.

You should only view your Investment on a 3/6 monthly investment as they will move every day and looking closer will not give a true view and can even cause panic.

Also some banks have a great deal, for my clients if they opened an Investment ISA, we can transfer there cash ISA over and give 5.5% which would be more than your getting.

Last March, I put £10,000 for a client into High Risk fund, She wanted enought to give her 4 child £3000 each and I was able to bring her in this Feb and Give her 4 cheques for £3000. ie 20% growth she was delighted, but not as delighted when I presented her with a 5th cheque for £3875 for herself.

If your investment falls, just hold on until it comes back up. Only people that panic and close on bad days lose money, as most ISA invest in 2000 plus companies and to lose all your money all have to close, ie Tesco, BMW, Honda, Shell, Vodafone etc etc

opinions4u

JonnyFinancialAdvisor wrote: »

Am an active Professional Financial Advisor ...

Hi Jonny.

Welcome to the board.

I'd suggest that you take a look at this link and consider adding a signature to clarify your professional status (e.g. "I am a tied adviser employed by a high street bank" or such).

If you go to Quick Links > Edit Signature it's quite simple to do.