Student needs Investment Advice

Farris

Hello, thanks for reading.

I am a 21 year old student and am looking to invest some money, I've built up some savings by working hard and being careful with my money, my savings (around £3000) are currently sitting in a MiniCash ISA.

I would like to take around £1000 of it to move into another investment, not expecting to make big returns, just as an experiment really.

I've been doing some research, here is what I've picked up.....

A FTSE tracker fund would be a good option considering the amount I have and the degree of risk I would be happy with. Does that sound right?

From what I understand, I can take out another Mini ISA, is that right?

Could someone point me in the direction of where to look for a tracker fund? It can be from a high street bank right? Is there any advantage / disadvantage to that?

Also, can you only get a tracker fund where you have to invest for a 3, or 5 year minimum? I would like to be able to access the money in case I really need it at some point. And finally, do all funds require you to pay a minimum monthly payment? Because I'm a student it would be difficult to commit to these regular payments.

Sorry to trouble you with silly questions, I'm just starting out so please be patient with me!

Thanks, Farris.

ohit

Motley Fool at https://www.fool.co.uk has some brilliant articles on this sort of thing.

You take out another Mini ISA, yes, with another broker/provider for the use of investment funds/stocks etc.

Do you have a montly income? Maybe just keep the £3k as cash and pay a bit every month into the stocks ISA to build that up. Smile.co.uk has a simple explanation of this - Pound Cost Averaging.

Also, which funds to choose is a difficult question. It all depends upto you. It's the same sort of thing if you were to buy shares directly in individual companies. Just look for lists and read about each one. It's objective. Where it invests. What sort of risk. Performance in past 3-5 yrs, etc.

Good luck!

Farris

ohit, thanks for answering my questions, you were v. helpfull.

I've been looking into the tracker funds and have noticed that they all seem to have a minimum 3yr/5yr period, not ideal for me really.

Is there likely to be a 1yr deal around??

So I started thinking about online share trading, obviously the risks are higher but I would have the advantage of being able to pull my money out (or whats left of it!!) when I need it.

I would want a wide spead of shares, which leads me on to my main question.... The online companies all quote various prices for transactions, does that mean that each set of shares (for a given company) I buy incurs 1 charge? Sorry if I didn't explain that well... I mean if I brought shares from say 5 different companies in 1 go, would I have to pay 5 x The Charge?

If anybody knows the answer please let me know.

Thanks, Farris.

dunstonh

It depends on who you buy them off. Some firms (usually tied) will have an instruction from their compliance department saying that they should be 3-5 years.

If you use a funds supermarket, such as cofunds or fidelity or go through an IFA, then the term of contribution is your concern only. A funds supermarket allows multiple funds/providers within one ISA account. Charges are based on the amount and not the number of funds.

Reaper

Just to be boring bear in mind a few basic principles about investing in the stock market:

* Don't invest money you can't afford to lose.
* The stock market is more suited to medium and long term investments than short term. Upfront charges or Bid/offer spreads (buy price v sell price) have to be overcome before you start to make a profit.
* If need the money at short notice you may be forced to sell when the market is going through a bad patch.

Since you are as student and only talking about a 1 year investment think carefully before parting with your hard earned cash.

If you do decide to go ahead then try to minimise the up front charges by going through a discount supermarket or a discount broker eg http://www.hargreaveslansdown.co.uk