S&S ISA Novice Questions

bongoali

gadgetmind wrote: »

Now, aren't those some fancy words for a beginner! Someone's been doing some reading.

The dealing costs on ETFs, shares and Investment Trusts make it hard to drip-feed money in.

I'm sure many here can recommend some funds, but while I hold a few myself, I haven't exactly gone for a balanced portfolio, so there isn't much point in me sharing my holdings.

The other option is trackers, and HL now provide a few of these, but there are monthly fees for holding them, and this is per tracker. However, they also have Vanguard Lifestrategy trackers, which are like a portfolio in one tracker. Sadly, the catch is that the HL charge will be 4% of your year one cost (assuming £100pcm), 2% after year two, and so on, which kind of misses the point of trackers, which is low low fees.

Your best bet might be to start with some carefully chosen funds and then consider a switch to trackers when your pot is larger. By "carefully chosen" I mean that you have a good geographic and sector spread, and are avoiding some of the more trendy and unproven types of funds.

haha.. thanks go go gadget, yes i have done lots of reading but still very much a novice. thanks for replying, will check the fees out. i think i want an unmanaged fund (if there is such a thing, where i dont have to do anything other than put the money in!).
had someone point me to H&L and their website has lots of info to start on. im thinking of 4 x £50 funds (with no fees) looking at BRIC, UK for 2.. as for sectors.. not sure.. energy/oil companies?

there are so many funds on there i am a bit bamboozled so any other tips i'd appreciate - thanks again

Mikeyorks

bongoali wrote:

but my son was born before the date when child trust funds moves to junior isas so can't use junior isa.

Then you can move the CTF to an 'investment' variety?

But - I would personally do what you intend if you don't use your own S&S allowance. As having some control as they get to the obnoxious late teen years - can be beneficial! And that is the voice of bitter experience. Having seen some £10k squandered in the first 4 months of Uni. And then having to bail him out to the tune of several £k pa for the next 3 years.

gadgetmind

bongoali wrote: »

im thinking of 4 x £50 funds (with no fees) looking at BRIC, UK for 2.. as for sectors.. not sure.. energy/oil companies?

Maybe you need to start a new thread such as "Which four funds for long term growth?" thread.

I do have a couple of small fund-holding portfolios on HL (part of the ISA holdings of my wife and myself) but as I say, they are part of larger holdings.

I use Ruffer Total Return and Old Mutual Strategic bond for the steady eddy elements. First State Global Listed Infrastructure alongside serves a similar purpose but doesn't correlate with gilts/bonds and I also have a big chunk of TroyTrojan in there.

I have Rathbone Global Opportunities, M&G Global Basics and JP Morgan Global Equity Income for global growth.

I then have First State Global Emerging Markets for some EM exposure.

I do hold other ITs in there, and some smaller companies funds, but those above are the backbone.

A bit of a rag-bag!

Could we boil down to four funds that provided a balanced portfolio. Now there's a challenge!

saveonarola

Keep an eye out for HSBC's World Index funds. They're like the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds mentioned above by gadgetmind, but it may be possible to find them without an annual charge or dealing charges, which is likely to be cheaper for small investors, even though the funds themselves have a significantly higher management charge (TER) than the Vanguard funds. The funds have only just been launched and so I don't know where you can get them. The only place I've seen them is on the broker rplan.co.uk, which I don't think has a platform or dealing charges but I'm not 100%; it seems to be very new. All a bit obscure, I know, but it may be worth investigating because these funds could be just what you're looking for: a whole portfolio in one fund, you just pick the one that suits your strategy and risk level (you will have to learn a bit about asset allocation, but it's quite simple really). Having said that, wait a couple of months and these HSBC World Index funds should be available everywhere and you can pick a more established platform that (likewise) has no platform or dealing charge, like iii.