No mortgage, no debt ... now what?

atush

quotememiserable wrote: »

I do it like this. Open an account with TD direct, transfer your money to it, purchase units in your chosen fund, nothing more to do. Pop back and check the current value from time to time.
When you buy a fund, such as Fidelity Special Situations (to take one example) that fund is made up of a wide range of shares selected and traded by the fund managers, you don't have to do any individual share buying or selling.

I agree.

It is best not to obsess daily over the price of any funds you choose to invest in. This leads to new investor panic, and selling.

If you pick a range of low cost trackers, or a lifestyle fund such as Vantage, you can do it yourself yet sit back and not worry too much about it day to day. If you invest monthly from your spare income, you will take advantage of Pound Cost Averaging. This will give you some protection form market volatility, in that when markets fall, you get more units of investment for your monthly subscription. When prices eventually rise, this will boost your investment significantly. I like Fideltiy SS and invest in it. But not sure that one fund is best for someone who says they are 'risk averse'.

Then you go back every once and awhile and check on things, see what is happening. Keeping up on the major happenings around the world/markets could be a good idea as well. Pick a new tracker fund, once in a while.

Cornucopia

£1k per month just about goes into a full ISA - half cash, half S&S.

I would do that - perhaps using an index-tracked fund that you can easily keep tabs on.

Your investment will then be nicely balanced between cash, property (that you already have) and S&S.

Alternatively, you could consider buying a second property (holiday home?)

quotememiserable

joe_mcclaine wrote: »

I could certainly live with that.

Right. Say you decided to put £1000 each month, and alternate between buying a UK fund (I believe you should always keep a good proportion in your own currency) like Fidelity Special situations, and an emerging markets (if there is long term value to be gained, surely this will be the place) like the very high performing Aberdeen Emerging Market Fund.

Both those links take you to trust net and there's loads of info there on the huge range of funds available. You can see the sectors they target and the shares they currently hold plus their historic performance versus benchmark.
You can transfer money into a TD ISA account (up to your limit, of course) and then buy these funds directly off your own pc screen.

edinburgher

A small point, but if you're a basic rate tax payer, I think you're getting 2.4% on your 123 acc after tax, not the 2.8% you seem to believe?

quotememiserable

By the way, the initial purchase charges on those funds (typically 3-5%) don't apply to TD accounts. They have deals with all the big fund managers.

atush

joe_mcclaine wrote: »

Yep, my mistake.

And something I pointed out many posts ago. But they still took issue.

edinburgher

And something I pointed out many posts ago. But you still took issue.

I didn't spot that, sorry to repeat you Atush

atush

quotememiserable wrote: »

Right. Say you decided to put £1000 each month, and alternate between buying a UK fund (I believe you should always keep a good proportion in your own currency) like Fidelity Special situations, and an emerging markets (if there is long term value to be gained, surely this will be the place) like the very high performing Aberdeen Emerging Market Fund.

Both those links take you to trust net and there's loads of info there on the huge range of funds available. You can see the sectors they target and the shares they currently hold plus their historic performance versus benchmark.
You can transfer money into a TD ISA account (up to your limit, of course) and then buy these funds directly off your own pc screen.

well, Quote. I happen to agree with your strategy as an UN Risk averse investor.

But I would like to point out, that this is not something a Risk Averse investor should be lead to invest in. As those two funds carry perhaps higher much higher risk than a balanced portfolio of trackers and bonds.

Perhaps the OP misstated their attitude to risk, but these threads are read by more than the OP.

atush

edinburgher wrote: »

I didn't spot that, sorry to repeat you Atush

No problem, too bad the OP didn't notice

They seem to have taken a not quite understandable dislike of my opinion.

quotememiserable

atush wrote: »

I happen to agree with your strategy as an UN Risk averse investor.

But I would like to point out, that this is not something a Risk Averse investor should be lead to invest in. As those two funds carry perhaps higher much higher risk than a balanced portfolio of trackers and bonds.

Perhaps the OP misstated their attitude to risk, but these threads are read by more than the OP.

'Tis true what you say. OP's explanation of their risk attitude has developed some way in the course of the thread - it turned out not to be well stated in the initial post. The thread has to be taken as a whole so anyone who reads only the first post and then my proposed fund selection would be missdirected.