Beginner - how to invest 10k?

jimjames

swingy wrote: »

Thank you all for your points of view - it's all valid. I'd very much NOT invest my money myself - I don't have the knowledge, and building up the knowledge is something I think could easily take the 3-5 years I'll need it back within!

What I really want is to hire an informed professional to invest this amount for me, managing it themselves, knowing when to sell etc. I was under the impression FAs provided this service, but I may have misunderstood - if so, can you point me toward the service providers I'm looking for, assuming they exist?

I won't do anything rash, I'm just gathering information from more experienced investors. By all means if doing something completely different than stocks/shares/bonds has worked for you tell me about it.

The difficulty you will find is that there are very few, if any, IFAs who would be dealing with sums of the amount you've mentioned as the cost to you would be prohibitive. The amounts that seem to be mentioned are around £50k-£100k upwards.

It really isn't that difficult to do research and make your own investments. There are books often mentioned here as well as websites and once setup it doesn't take much time to sort out each year.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Wilkins wrote: »

That was a silly thing to say and I apologise. I accept that you have done well in your investments (as have I), but we have been in a bull market for the last few years when almost anyone could have made money. This is not necessarily going to continue.


If the OP ventured into equities s/he could easily be sitting on 30% losses in 3 years as opposed to just preserving real value in cash.

Ironically those who invested back in 09 are now sitting on 100 to 200 % gains so if the market dropped 30% they will be back to only 70% plus. In the last year some people have made 60% so would only drop back to 30% upside if it all tumbled down next week. Unless we have a drop of 130%!!

innovate

swingy wrote: »

What I really want is to hire an informed professional to invest this amount for me, managing it themselves, knowing when to sell etc. I was under the impression FAs provided this service, but I may have misunderstood - if so, can you point me toward the service providers I'm looking for.

Swingy, reality is that no respectable (emphasis on respectable) IFA will do anything about a possible one-off £10K investment. And you shouldn't engage with anyone who is a mere FA, as opposed to an IFA - the I stands for Independent and is crucial since only IFAs can offer you the full range of investments available in the market. All others have some sort of a limitation/agenda that they are unlikely to declare to you unless you ask them some very pointed questions - which as a newbie you are unlikely to be able to think of.

Plus, you do not get the advice of a respectable IFA for free. They will mostly charge by the hour now, and they don't work for a lot less than £150-£250 an hour. Or %age equivalent of your investment sum.

Anyway, as you say you want your money for a house deposit in the next 3-5 years, your choice should be savings, not investments. Whilst investments could rocket, mostly they don't based on historical evidence, and they could nose-dive instead. Whilst with savings, you will know exactly how much money you will have for your deposit 2-3 years down the line. If house prices were to start to run away whilst you are saving up, you would most likely find interest rates to also climb, so you can adjust if needed.

swingy

Thanks all. Back to the drawing board then!

DaveTheMus

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

You don't sound very experienced to me. Experienced investors wouldn't gob off the way you have coercing people into investments way beyond their risk profile.

People *may* think their risk tolerance is high but when it comes to the crunch they fill their pants when the chips are down and then slag off investing as being "gambling" and would never touch it again.

Maybe not, I've made money and lost money, but I know that I don't shy away from riskier companies, however, only with 20%-25% of my money in AIM companies.......the rest is in good solid blue chip companies and a single fund, Fund smith (because Terry Smith is very impressive IMO), with some physical gold and silver as a hedge.....I'm thinking of buying a BTL or two too fund my retirement but now isn't the right time.

I'm no investment tsar but I'm experienced enough to work competently with the investments I've chosen, and that's vital, I never invest in something I don't understand.....to my detriment sometimes....for years I've been an avid watcher of Keiser Report and for years he was banging the bit coin drum...this is in 2011 when they where pennies......I didn't invest because I couldn't get my head round it.

bigadaj

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Ironically those who invested back in 09 are now sitting on 100 to 200 % gains so if the market dropped 30% they will be back to only 70% plus. In the last year some people have made 60% so would only drop back to 30% upside if it all tumbled down next week. Unless we have a drop of 130%!!

Yes but this is in a time where equities have performed very well this may well not continue.

Similarly if you have sums invested in Asia over the last year you would be down a significant amount in most cases, so equities are no place for those who can't accept risk to capital and are looking at a relatively short and fixed time frame.

You may say that choosing Asia is selective but it's many people chosen area for out performance in the future.

planteria

bigadaj wrote: »

Similarly if you have sums invested in Asia over the last year you would be down a significant amount in most cases, so equities are no place for those who can't accept risk to capital and are looking at a relatively short and fixed time frame.

You may say that choosing Asia is selective but it's many people chosen area for out performance in the future.

it is part of my SIPP, around 20%, with Africa, Russia and Latin America too. and yes, i am down...but not too far. long-term, happy to be invested in these areas.

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

bigadaj wrote: »

Yes but this is in a time where equities have performed very well this may well not continue.

Similarly if you have sums invested in Asia over the last year you would be down a significant amount in most cases, so equities are no place for those who can't accept risk to capital and are looking at a relatively short and fixed time frame.

You may say that choosing Asia is selective but it's many people chosen area for out performance in the future.

Well choosing Asia for outperformance comes at a risk. Passive approach less risky. Just ask Tim! I am so glad I avoided Asia and EM's like the plague. Not to say I won't consider it in the future but right now its a bit of financial black hole.

mike88

I bought a few Asian UTs/ITs last year and am already significantly down. Fortunately these only represented about 6% of my investments but it does show the danger of investing money that is required in the short term.

bigadaj

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Well choosing Asia for outperformance comes at a risk. Passive approach less risky. Just ask Tim! I am so glad I avoided Asia and EM's like the plague. Not to say I won't consider it in the future but right now its a bit of financial black hole.

A passive approach will mean an increasing exposure to Asia as those economies, stock markets and companies continue to get larger.

I'm also not so sure of a financial black hole, unless you mean they are in the black rather than the red. From a country perspective Asia is dominated by creditor nations, remember all the major debtors are in North America and Europe!

Ironically the poor performance is primarily down to teh state of teh developed econmoies and the fact that they can't borrow more from the Asian creditor nations to buy their goods, primarily china.