Naive but keen to learn+have £30-£60 p.m- Help please?

bob_dob

ColdIron wrote: »

The figures suggest a goal of about £2k - £3k, perhaps a small home improvement or holiday. The trouble with investing for a fixed objective with a short timescale is you could easily under or overshoot by 50% which isn't a very well thought out plan and there are other options that better suit this sort of goal, principally cash

On the other hand if the goal is much more open ended I can't see that a defined timescale applies

Could I suggest the OP needs to have a better idea of what he plans to achieve before selecting a vehicle to achieve it and consider this in the context of other savings and future obligations

No problem- There is no 'goal' as such so the original 3-5 years that I quoted doesn't really apply. Open ended is my choice. I hope this helps?

Gromitt

Have you read Tim Hale's "Smarter Investing" ? Something like that really is a must read before you plan on leaving the "safety" of the banking savings accounts (always get back what you invest plus perhaps 2% or so) and heading for investments (where you could get back significantly less than you deposited, but you could also get back significantly more).

jimjames

bob_dob wrote: »

Thank you ALL!! That is inspiring stuff!!

Yes I do have savings of £3000-£4000, mainly in an ISA, but am keen to start something else long-term.

Thank you for all the help.

So passive or actively managed, do you think?

PS- Sanchsoot49, I can see me getting addicted too! I'm like that!

I started with passive funds and I think that is a good place to look initially as it means you only need to select areas rather than trying to find right manager too.

Just make sure if you go that route that you check charges as some like HL impose a platform fee which can eat into small investments.

I also started like atush using Investment trust savings schemes which can be a very low cost way to get into the stock market with a wide variety of investment areas available.

atush

Could I suggest the OP needs to have a better idea of what he plans to achieve before selecting a vehicle to achieve it and consider this in the context of other savings and future obligations

No, because I didn't know exactly what I would spend the money on at the time.

I was mainly aware that money in your Current acct gets spent, so any time we had a raise I suggested a place to put some of it so it would not be spent.

Sometimes people think too much about the spending bit, I was thinking about the not spending it bit lol

atush

passive over active as a newbie.

Either thru lifestyling funds or general ITs

bob_dob

Thank you all (again!!).

Okay, please could I bother you all again to ask for any recommendations as to where to start looking at passive fund. A fund supermarket?

jimjames

The link I posted above is a good place to start:

http://www.cavendishonline.co.uk/

To do some research have a look at www.hl.co.uk but they are expensive for small amounts in trackers.

Lois_and_CK

I also started with £50 a month until I became more comfortable with investing and learnt more. It's better than nothing :-)

I'd second the recommendation for starting with passive investing, and I'd recommend reading Tim Hale's book, Smarter Investing, on the subject.

You might also like to read this ongoing thread about the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds. It's a pretty big thread now, but its contributions are mainly from beginner passive investors so it's well worth a read:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4392271

bob_dob

Thank you all. I appreciate the help! I will buy the book!!