Passive investing - starting ?

catoutthebag

please advise

I'm new to this, but want to invest £50pcm in vanguard ls 80:20 or similar product. Would VG be too expensive, and would something else cater for my low, passive investment introduction? Or would I be best lumping £50x12 into VG annually (if that is allowed).

Just want to stick a small sum away and leave it to grow with the indices. ps - feel free to respond in an SS ISA and non ISA scenario (currently have a FA doing my SS ISA at 50pcm as well as a personal pension at a few hundred pcm... given their (FA) fees...wondered if it would be better a) increasing the pcm to £100 with FA isa, b) closing FA ISA and putting £100 into VG/similar DIY in ISA and a small lump sum ~1000 c) continuing FA Isa and my non-isa VG thing?
FYI: the ISA is split: stocks and shares cash, aberdeen multi asset, schroder managed balanced..via novia

Yorkie1

Just in case you've lost your previous copy of this post and the reply on the main Vanguard thread ...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/61246089#Comment_61246089

catoutthebag

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Just in case you've lost your previous copy of this post and the reply on the main Vanguard thread ...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/61246089#Comment_61246089

Erm, medal? Bravo :T

Decided my query was more general than vanguard, don't you think?

Again, your point?

What have you achieved with your post? What is the point of your post, and indeed, your actual existence?

Now that I've completely disposed of your post for everyone to see...

Next reply, please?

R_P_W

catoutthebag wrote: »

Erm, medal? Bravo :T

Decided my query was more general than vanguard, don't you think?

Again, your point?

What have you achieved with your post? What is the point of your post, and indeed, your actual existence?

Now that I've completely disposed of your post for everyone to see...

Next reply, please?

You're a bit odd aren't you!

ColdIron

catoutthebag wrote: »

Next reply, please?

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar

bowlhead99

As mentioned on the other thread if you want broad equity exposure for 50 a month it would seem you could do this very cheaply with Vanguard via Charles Stanley or similar. Be aware that the risk profile may be different - at the moment you are in a variety of multi-asset multi-manager funds, Aberdeen Multi-Asset for example has equities, bonds (including index linked and asian bonds) and alternatives including infrastructure and currency market funds.

One would not typically engage an FA for 50 a month as you are not going to see meaningful life changes from a £500-1000 pot, it is enough to get broad exposure to the main markets. It is hard to screw up. When it gets to £10,000, the allocations become more important - but still, someone's time to review it properly would cost >5% of the portfolio so it's DIY territory for most.

I suppose the FA involvement is there because of the several hundred pounds a month of new pension and the who knows what of existing pension. I assume he is an IFA and not just an FA? If he'll still take care of your pension for the same price he's currently charging for the pension, without doing the ISA component on the side (which I presume he earns next to nothing on anyway) you might as well drop him from the ISA and go DIY for that.

But if he's not charging huge amounts on the ISA and you value the convenience of having your pension and ISA on the same platform, there's no pressing need to pull the ISA £50 a month away from him and start Vanguarding it. As you say, you could just do the VLS outside an ISA (no further tax to pay on dividends if you're not a higher rate taxpayer, no meaningful tax at this level anyway and no CGT worries with only £600 p.a. being invested).

Feel free to "completely dispose" of my post, "for all to see", whatever the hell that means :rotfl:

catoutthebag

R_P_W wrote: »

You're a bit odd aren't you!

Takes an 'odd' person to out an odd person, congrats

catoutthebag

ColdIron wrote: »

You catch more flies with honey than vinegar

Proven wrong?

Who the heck 'thanked' you for that?! Jeez!

ColdIron

catoutthebag wrote: »

Proven wrong?

So umm, how's the vinegar strategy working out for you?

catoutthebag

bowlhead99 wrote: »

As mentioned on the other thread if you want broad equity exposure for 50 a month it would seem you could do this very cheaply with Vanguard via Charles Stanley or similar. Be aware that the risk profile may be different - at the moment you are in a variety of multi-asset multi-manager funds, Aberdeen Multi-Asset for example has equities, bonds (including index linked and asian bonds) and alternatives including infrastructure and currency market funds.

One would not typically engage an FA for 50 a month as you are not going to see meaningful life changes from a £500-1000 pot, it is enough to get broad exposure to the main markets. It is hard to screw up. When it gets to £10,000, the allocations become more important - but still, someone's time to review it properly would cost >5% of the portfolio so it's DIY territory for most.

I suppose the FA involvement is there because of the several hundred pounds a month of new pension and the who knows what of existing pension. I assume he is an IFA and not just an FA? If he'll still take care of your pension for the same price he's currently charging for the pension, without doing the ISA component on the side (which I presume he earns next to nothing on anyway) you might as well drop him from the ISA and go DIY for that.

But if he's not charging huge amounts on the ISA and you value the convenience of having your pension and ISA on the same platform, there's no pressing need to pull the ISA £50 a month away from him and start Vanguarding it. As you say, you could just do the VLS outside an ISA (no further tax to pay on dividends if you're not a higher rate taxpayer, no meaningful tax at this level anyway and no CGT worries with only £600 p.a. being invested).

Feel free to "completely dispose" of my post, "for all to see", whatever the hell that means :rotfl:

I'll have to review what the fees are...

But do you think my isa structure is equivalent in 'exposure' and possible projected returns of say an 80:20 vls? If so, there may be an idea to pull it

Like you say, the fees would be not worth it. He is an ifa and I'm small fry compared to others he deals with. I do remember him waiving something though

Would I still be paying a monthly fee on vls on top of 50pcm investment?

I'm currently just below the high tax threshold

I can understand engaging ifa for pp.,.but an, isa, small 50pcm?!

bowlhead99

catoutthebag wrote: »

But do you think my isa structure is equivalent in 'exposure' and possible projected returns of say an 80:20 vls? If so, there may be an idea to pull it

You haven't said exactly what you currently hold (you left a .. at the end) or in what proportions. It is too much to expect a full analysis as we're not selling you an IFA service. If you want only 20% fixed income instead of the higher non-equity component you might have through the current choices, Vanguard 80 would seem fine as a long term buy and hold for the small amounts we're talking about (IMHO).

Would I still be paying a monthly fee on vls on top of 50pcm investment?

Generally you can't get something for nothing so yes you will be paying a platform fee to whichever platform you use to hold the investment. Example 0.25% at Charles Stanley Direct, 0.35% TD Direct, 2 pound a month at Hargreaves.

I can understand engaging ifa for pp.,.but an, isa, small 50pcm?!

I wouldn't engage an IFA for 50 a month unless it was free as part of another service. But it was you that said you had done exactly that so I'm not sure why you don't understand why someone would do it and what the "!?" exclamation is all about.

On other points:
Yorkie1 helpfully pointed out to all of us that you had posted the same thing elsewhere on the vanguard-specific thread (where you had received a sensible reply within about 20 mins of posting) so that responses could be made without too much duplication (generally duplicate posts are annoying to all).

You flew off the handle at this and RPW thought you a bit odd for doing so.

Coldiron helpfully suggested you would get more free advice by being nice to people rather than condescending.

I took pity on you (we've all been young and naive at some point) and spent some of my personal free time giving a measured response to the facts at hand.

You then make two further posts taking the !!!! out of the other contributors.

If I was a sarcastic person, I would say "wow you seem really grateful for the free guidance you are getting".

Good luck with your endeavours, you will need it.