long term investment

huwgus

looking for some advice on where best to invest a sum of around £8K to £10 k. possibly for a period of up to ten years.
a S/S ISA seems to be the best place from the comments i've read on here. any help/advice?

dunstonh

On that criteria you could probably get around 17,000 options with an infinite number of variations.

What has your own research told you so far?

huwgus

that's kind of the problem, far too many options
but was thinking about 25% in a cash isa, 75% in a S/S isa

middlepuss

huwgus wrote: »

that's kind of the problem, far too many options
but was thinking about 25% in a cash isa, 75% in a S/S isa

A S&S ISA, yes, but that still leaves the main question: within the S&S ISA what will you invest in?

Perhaps a worldwide index tracker unit trust? Or a big investment trust such as Foreign & Colonial? Anyway, go for something big and solid - don't be tempted to go for a single company (eg one bank's shares!) or some go-go technology fund that could do well but could sink without trace.

brasso

I can tell you what I would do, but as you're not me, this information is pretty useless.

Yes, first of all, an equities ISA. As I like a bit of risk, I would start by investing 5 x £2000 in emerging markets, technology, smaller European and US companies etc. Exactly what, and exactly what sort of asset class, I would know only after doing some research at sites like Hargreaves Lansdown, Digital Look etc.

Actually, scrap that. This is what I would invest in first -- and it could be the best £20 investment you could make: go to Amazon and buy these two books --

"The Long and the Short of it" by John Kay; and "Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results" by Tim Hale.

Two of the best books I've read on investing. Both aimed at the British reader, and both written with intelligence and insight. Best of all, written for the non-expert. And neither offer get-rich-quick "secrets". In fact their conclusions are quite conservative, but are backed up with endless examples and some really good analysis.

twinkle10

huwgus wrote: »

that's kind of the problem, far too many options
but was thinking about 25% in a cash isa, 75% in a S/S isa

If you are ready to invest in any other option without cash, insurance or such assets then you should think about gold and such commodities or properties as these are having high values in market.

dunstonh

In 10yrs it will be worth a lot, even if it only continues to get the 15% PA it has been getting last few yrs.

Believe that at your peril.

Jegersmart

60% in gold bullion is just nuts imho......:O

J

brasso

MrInvestor wrote: »

For me personally, I have invested around 60% of my capital in gold bullion.The shift of wealth from the West to Asia means that India and China are currently the biggest purchasers of gold in the world. As their economies are expanding very rapidly, it is unlikely that they will be shifting this in the near future. The result of this is that the price of gold will keep going up -supply and demand!

It's not that I particularly disagree or agree with your wager on gold. I simply don't have the data to make a statement with that degree of certainty. And you don't have it either. It's a bad recommendation based on a hunch that the Euro and US dollar are going to collapse.

On a practical note, can I ask you a couple of things?

If your hunch is right, how do you actually realise the value of your stash of gold bullion? If international currencies are crumbling, how will you ever sell the stuff? Or are you envisaging reducing your pile to a million certified fragments, and dropping a couple of these shavings into the till as you leave Tesco, while the starving masses look on in envy?

There's no problem having 5% or so of an investment portfolio in gold ETFs or gold miners as a hedge, but to buy and stash physical gold as protection against a total collapse in the global economy is not a wise investment strategy.

Just out of interest, how do you armageddon types actually store the stuff? Surely not in the vaults of the bank that is about to collapse and be pillaged by the same starving mobs that were staring at you outside Tesco? So I guess you have to hide it under the bed? Or you dig a hole in the garden? What do you think will happen when the emaciated masses find out there's a bloke along the street who has a stash of the precious stuff hidden under the 3rd hydrangea from the left in his back garden?

Nutcase.

gadgetmind

Even the hyper-cautious capital preservation Investment Trusts have way less than 25% in gold, and those guys are *not* stupid.

With a ten year horizon, a good spread of global equities, with some bonds for rebalancing, should do the job rather nicely.

brasso

MrInvestor wrote: »

I've simplified it for you. You even quoted it above.

I quoted it? Your hunch? 60% of your wealth on a hunch? The most vocal gold bug I know of is the editor of Moneyweek- Merryn Whatsername. In a podcast I heard recently she recommends people devote "at least 5%" of their portfolio to gold, and in extremis, 15%. Your strategy is crazy.

MrInvestor wrote: »

Blah blah blah. Us armageddon types? You are the fool that brought armageddon up. There is a world outside of the UK. If the Euro collapses, there are still 6 billion people living outside of the EU. As I already mentioned, the wealth of the west is shifting to the east. It is pretty straightforward ...surely even you can figure out the consequences of that.

I can imagine a range of scenarios, which is where we differ. You have the comfort of inner certainty about where the economic trend will lead. I don't. You see a trajectory (as we all do) and presume that this trajectory will continue its course, leading to an inevitable conclusion. I don't. I presume that 'events', either designed, or those of the black swan variety, will change the trend. Might make it better, might make it worse. We don't know. Well, you do, but the rest of us don't.

At least you put an "if" in your explanation, but you then proceed as if the "if" was really a "when".

Anyway, back to the interesting stuff. Where do people like you keep their crock of gold? Or is this stash of bullion you have as illusory as your sense of logic? I strongly suspect it is. ;)m