shares or unit trusts? where should i invest?

littlejaffa

be gently i'm very new to this,

Have a fully saved up isa, an a seperate taxed saver account getting 5.8%.
I've a very low attitude to risk but a very high attitude to profit! savings wise i'm pretty confident in the market/options.

Am keen to gamble a little now - and try out shares or unit trusts but know nothing, i'd be happy to invest a very low amount in a medium/high risk (a few thou) , or a larger amount in a very low/low medium investment...and not touch it for a few years.

But where do i start?
any help apprecaited

benood

Now is a better time to invest than 2 weeks ago I guess.

In your position I expect quite a lot of advisors would suggest a couple of unit trusts - say one UK growth and one European for your medium/high, no doubt I will be corrected on this generalisation in a moment.

You probably need to be more specific about what you mean by a few years - 10+?

Rather than invest a lump sum have you thought about the benefits of regular monthly amounts - you don't need to worry about timing quite as much - some months the market will be high, others low. You actually take on more risk by making irregular large investments (risk of course can be good as well as bad).

cheerfulcat

Hi, littlejaffa,

But where do i start?

Start by educating yourself. Look at Incademy and the Motley Fool. There are also some very good books about; for beginners, Alvin Hall's books are excellent. The Which? guide to saving and investing is worth a look too, as is the Motley Fool's UK Investment Guide. I also like Be Your Own Financial Adviser.

There was a fantastic thread on TMF a while ago, started by a newbie investor; well worth a read.

As a general response to your headline question, " shares or unit trusts? " it's probably best to start out with collective investments of some sort and then, if you take an interest, branch out into directly held shares.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

nrsql

>> shares or unit trusts
If you have to ask then I would say unit trusts or something similar.

Have a look at the various brokers sites for their recommendations. E.g. Hargreaves Lansdowns wealth 150.
You should maybe have something in the UK if you are UK based (I would go with a tracker initially but others will disagree) but apart from that just see what you fell happy with.
I'm guessing you are looking at a mini ISA (max £4000) to go along with your mini cash ISA. To start I would look at drip feeding over the next year especially with what is happening at the moment - funds are usually a min of £50 per month so you could pick a number of them with a spread of risk (and sectors). I would go for at least one high risk which you can look at for a bit of fun - maybe high rewards but certainly volatile.

Think of it as a learning experience and be happy if it does as well as your cash ISA. In the last few years you would have found it difficult not to do a lot better but who knows what will happen in the future.

EdInvestor

You could consider this comparatively simple way to invest in shares which is quite suitable for newbies who want to reduce risks as much as possible.

Jake'sGran

There are some very good funds around but as already mentioned you need to do some research. I like Equity Income Funds and done well with those run by Neil Woodford of Invesco Perpetual. Fidelity European has been good too. I am not as experienced as many on here but there is a lot of information on line and it's easy to look at performance over 1,5,10 years.

dunstonh

funds are about choice and opinion. People will have different views. For example, I wouldnt want Fidelity European as it has been off the boil for a while now. It's been bottom half (and bottom quartile a lot of the time) for nearly 3 years. There are issues going on at Fidelity and Tim McCarron hasnt done a good job since he took over in 2003.

It also highlights the issues of looking at past performance averaged out over longer terms. If you look at 5 or 10 year performance, this fund is up there with the best but if you look at 3 years or less (not long after Tim McCarron took over) the fund has gone downhill.

So, anyone using past performance over 5 or 10 years as their guide could think it is a good fund to be in. Look at performance since 30 months ago, it shows a different story.

Jake'sGran

Dunstonh, I will have a look at the Fidelity site and see what I could switch to as an alternative in view of what you have said. Must admit I don't check my portfolio as often as I should. I did notice that M & G Global Basics had dropped considerably after the Chinese hiccup so I need to watch that more closely too. At least it does not cost me anything to switch to other funds in these companies.