long term savings

elantan

ok i kinda get what you are saying .... dont save my money as cash save it as shares/funds etc cause i will get more for it that way ... isnt that what a personal pension is though ? isnt that my money being invested every month in stocks and shares? ...

i have an H&L share fund which i put £5k into over a few years a long time ago now ... it has never made a profit it has always lost me money ... now i accept that is a risk i have to be prepared to take but i dont want that to continue really ... no ppoint in saving £5k to only find it worth £4.8k in a few years is there really ...

i aint exactly knowledgeable about what to buy and when to buy it (and more importantly when to sell it) so i would need a relatively stable and safe way of saving it .... so where would i start to learn about this ?

bendix

I don't know where to begin.

I'm out. I simply don't have the patience anymore.

calypso_rhapsody

Don't let your bad experience of the H&L fund you hold put you completely off investing in stocks and shares .... instead how about looking at it more closely to see what lessons you can learn from it. It is, as several posters have pointed out, on average true that investment in equities over the long term has historically served better than savings in cash.

So if your H&L fund has miserably underperformed over many years it is not in line with what most would expect. There may be many reasons - you bought in at the top of the market? the fund you invested in was very narrow and in a volatile sector that has not performed well (maybe Japan?), etc etc ...

If you can understand why this investment has been so poor (and i would guess out of line with the market in general) then you can perhaps see a way to make future equity investment more in line with your expectations? There is of course always risk in investing in equities - but as has been said there is risk of value-erosion in cash too. At least annual reviews is a good idea.

I think there are some platforms where you can invest as little as £50 a month .. HL may well be one.

If you do decide to stick with cash, or temporarily save in cash, then regular savings accounts are worth a look - many are paying rates that beat ISAs even after basic rate tax. There's a good summary on this site.

elantan

bendix wrote: »

I don't know where to begin.

I'm out. I simply don't have the patience anymore.

sorry you lost your patience with me ... i can understand it must be frustrating trying to help someone that doesnt have a clue

Lokolo

elantan wrote: »

sorry you lost your patience with me ... i can understand it must be frustrating trying to help someone that doesnt have a clue

Don't worry, he's always like that

elantan

calypso_rhapsody wrote: »

.

So if your H&L fund has miserably underperformed over many years it is not in line with what most would expect. There may be many reasons - you bought in at the top of the market? the fund you invested in was very narrow and in a volatile sector that has not performed well (maybe Japan?), etc etc ...

If you can understand why this investment has been so poor (and i would guess out of line with the market in general) then you can perhaps see a way to make future equity investment more in line with your expectations? There is of course always risk in investing in equities - but as has been said there is risk of value-erosion in cash too. At least annual reviews is a good idea.

I think there are some platforms where you can invest as little as £50 a month .. HL may well be one.

If you do decide to stick with cash, or temporarily save in cash, then regular savings accounts are worth a look - many are paying rates that beat ISAs even after basic rate tax. There's a good summary on this site.

that makes sense .... i think i will spend the next few days looking at where i went wrong before so that i can try and not make those same mistakes again ... thanks

money_maker_2

I dont know much about s&s but there are some of those investments for like 6 years that you can protect your money and still gamble with the stock market. They are bonds tho, so if you decided to look at this you would prob need to save up a lump sum.
Not sure if these are any good tho. I know some banks/b.societys offer them and you are guarenteed all your capital and could potentailly earn up to about 50% lol.
They try selling me one every time
What are people thoughts about these?

padington

Save it in gold and silver at bullionvault. Make a direct debit, sit back and watch.

elantan

Hasn't the gold Market topped out now though ? Last I heard it had went stratospheric but was on it's way back down ?

A friend has told me to invest in uranium .... But that doesn't sit well with me so I wont bother

lesley_jane

New to this but need some help and you all seem to know about savings etc. I have £56k to invest over the next five years and have been to see Santander who I bank with, they suggest a stocks and shares bond but there is a risk that i could loose some of my original investment which would break my heart as this is my divorce settlement! any suggestions as to what would work best?