New to Saving & Investing

Forever

I have decided that I want to go with HL.

This is because they have an informative website, a helpdesk and the majority of the funds don't come with an initial sign-up fee. This means I only need to pay the yearly management fee.

Thank you very much jem16; you have saved me a small fortune and not only that, I now have a much wider scope of funds to select from

jem16

Forever wrote: »

I have decided that I want to go with HL.

This is because they have an informative website, a helpdesk and the majority of the funds don't come with an initial sign-up fee. This means I only need to pay the yearly management fee.

At the moment, yes. Hopefully the changes won't affect you too much but you can always transfer if they do. Better at least to get started.

Thank you very much jem16; you have saved me a small fortune and not only that, I now have a much wider scope of funds to select from

A fund that seems to be getting used a lot are the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds. £2pm fee but you would only choose one fund as it's a portfolio fund. However TER is only 0.32%.

Forever

jem16 wrote: »

At the moment, yes. Hopefully the changes won't affect you too much but you can always transfer if they do. Better at least to get started.



A fund that seems to be getting used a lot are the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds. £2pm fee but you would only choose one fund as it's a portfolio fund. However TER is only 0.32%.

They look like a nice little earner. Although I am guessing that you wouldn't expect to do these for too long with the tracker fee changes on the way.

Hmmm... I am now thinking about doing one of these for a year or two....

jem16

Forever wrote: »

They look like a nice little earner. Although I am guessing that you wouldn't expect to do these for too long with the tracker fee changes on the way.

At the moment the fund already charges a Platform fee of £2pm, so an extra £24pa on top of the TER.

No-one knows what HL will change to though.

Forever

jem16 wrote: »

At the moment the fund already charges a Platform fee of £2pm, so an extra £24pa on top of the TER.

No-one knows what HL will change to though.

Thanks for that Jem. These Vanguard investments do look good but like you say, it's hard to say what the situation will be like in 2 years time.

Forever

Update:

Equities & Bonds for S&S ISA

It may have taken time but researching funds has really paid off. I have found that the consistently 'good ones' are regularly commented on in different places on the internet.

I have also found a way to analyse investment funds on the trust net website (this website is fantastic for potential investors!) where you can x-ray your potential portfolio to see how it is weighted as well as comparing histories of various funds. Seeing how these funds have done over time have made me change my mind over some of my previous potential investments too.

However, I am now investing in the current funds:

Low Risk - mainly intl/UK bonds with a bit of equity:
Invesco Perp Distribution
Jupiter Strategic Bond

Medium Risk - intl bonds
Threadneedle Emerging Market Bond

High Risk - intl equities
First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders A
Newton Asian Income

I am not feeding much money into my investments. This is because I missed investing at the beginning of the recent upturn (what a shame!). I am also wanting to see what happens in the Euro zone as all investments will drop in value if it breaks up - and I want more of my money ready to invest during this upturn instead

Funds for future consideration:
Invesco Perp Income & Growth Acc - dividends are great!
Invesco Perp High Income - dividends are great!
Lionbridge fund - it is an extremely volatile fund but overall, it has made some decent money which appears to be due to the skills of the fund manager
Vanguard Lifestyles - I want to see what happens with fees in a couple of years time
Murray International IT

Cash ISA, Savings & Fixed Bonds

As for saving accounts, I am still in the process of getting this sorted out with banks and building societies. This is a slow process but I am getting there.

As I don't know how much financial exposure our banks and building societies have to the Euro zone, I am splitting up my money between 3 of them to limit my risks. I think I am being very cautious here but I don't think it will do me any harm either.

Property

I want to leave my options open on this.

If the Euro zone breaks up, I like the idea of buying property in Europe at bargain basement prices.

Commodities

Gold is now in a bubble so it is a bad time to invest at the moment as a long term investment.

I am keeping my mind open to other durable commodities that may be good for long term investment but I haven't seen anything yet.

Linton

Forever wrote: »

....
I am not feeding much money into my investments. This is because I missed investing at the beginning of the recent upturn (what a shame!). I am also wanting to see what happens in the Euro zone as all investments will drop in value if it breaks up - and I want more of my money ready to invest during this upturn instead
....

I dont think this is a good reason not to drip feed. The whole point about drip feeding is that you dont need to make guesses on future events, you just pay in and get the benefits from the occasional crash when the investment is cheap. Trying to time an upturn usually means losing out - you dont accept it is a real upturn until after the market has risen significantly.

On the Euro in particular, two points...
1) You are investing for the long term. During the next 10-20 years time anything could happen, what is happening now will probably be pretty irrelevant.

2) The markets already know about the possible (though unlikely IMHO) collapse of the Euro. Markets hate uncertainty, when an uncertainty is resolved they tend to rise. So for example, if a company is rumoured to be in trouble its shares fall. Quite often they will then rise when the accounts are published in the annual report.

Forever

Linton wrote: »

I dont think this is a good reason not to drip feed. The whole point about drip feeding is that you dont need to make guesses on future events, you just pay in and get the benefits from the occasional crash when the investment is cheap. Trying to time an upturn usually means losing out - you dont accept it is a real upturn until after the market has risen significantly.

On the Euro in particular, two points...
1) You are investing for the long term. During the next 10-20 years time anything could happen, what is happening now will probably be pretty irrelevant.

2) The markets already know about the possible (though unlikely IMHO) collapse of the Euro. Markets hate uncertainty, when an uncertainty is resolved they tend to rise. So for example, if a company is rumoured to be in trouble its shares fall. Quite often they will then rise when the accounts are published in the annual report.

Hi Linton,

I am still drip feeding payments into these funds but I could easily be paying more.

And I am trying to keep in mind that in 10-20 years anything can happen. But I would prefer to increase the amount I am feeding into the funds when they are going down in value so that I can maximise the returns later on - especially as I know I have the cash to feed into my funds now but not if I will have the cash later on.

As to whether the Euro zone will break up, I really have no idea. I think I want to see what happens to Spain at the end of the year and also what happens with Germany's elections next spring. If it's still together with a German pro Euro zone PM after next spring then I'm sure fiscal unity will happen. I hope so as I think this is the best end result possible despite the pain some countries will endure to get there.

But maybe I've just been reading too much media hysteria and I am currently being too cautious

So do you consider me being too cautious here and to take the long term view or if I should wait until after next spring before drip feeding more money into these funds?