Help buying an index tracker

ColdIron

Allow me to be the first to suggest the Vanguard LifeStrategy

It might be a little light on some sectors but probably 90% of the way there

See a rather huge thread on it here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4392271

musashi10

Thanks. I thought that vanguard were charging £2/m admin fees? Or is that someone else?

Edit and is it acc or inc?

Doshwaster

musashi10 wrote: »

HI,

I don't want to invest only in the UK, I want to invest in emerging markets also, but you have to start somewhere, and this is the first one I would like to invest in.

That's fair enough. You have to start somewhere and a UK tracker is as a good a way as any. That's exactly how I started - I making regular contributions to an FTSE All Share tracker until I was a little more comfortable with the way that funds worked and then started diversifying. It's a better approach than not knowing what you are doing and jumping in with a random portfolio of funds.

Now I prefer to track the FTSE 250 rather than the 100 or All Share.

ColdIron

musashi10 wrote: »

Thanks. I thought that vanguard were charging £2/m admin fees? Or is that someone else?

Edit and is it acc or inc?

That was Hargreaves Lansdown's old charging structure which ends soon. HL now charge 0.45% but there are many other cheaper platforms e.g. Charles Stanley Direct are 0.25% and for larger holdings a fixed fee would be better

It's available in Acc and Inc

musashi10

I plan to start off with something small and monitor to see how it goes. £50/m

Is this possible with the vanguaard product?

ColdIron

musashi10 wrote: »

I plan to start off with something small and monitor to see how it goes. £50/m

Is this possible with the vanguaard product?

That depends on the platform you choose but you should have no problem finding many places that will allow £50 pcm

musashi10

Thx man.

when I look at vanguard, it says it yields 1.46%, when I look at the hsbc ftse 100 it says it yields 3.41%. Unless I have understood, doesn't the hsbc one seem a lot better?

ColdIron

Horses for courses, it depends whether you want global exposure or think the UK will provide the best performance in the long term. The FTSE has had a good run recently but that wouldn't have been true a few years ago

As I alluded to in my first post you first need to identify what your objective is, then find a product or products that best match that objective and only then find a platform to host it. Costs should be a lot further down your list than choice of product. You could identify a Trabant as the cheapest car but then be disappointed that it didn't perform as well as your mate's Golf

musashi10

Thanks. I guess my question is what does this yield % actually represent?

I took it to mean what you can expect to gain on the investment based on historic records?

A bit like an interest rate on a bank account might say 3%, I took the yield to mean this is what I would essentially get back based on history (obviously can fluctuate with the market)

IS this wrong?

Linton

musashi10 wrote: »

Thx man.

when I look at vanguard, it says it yields 1.46%, when I look at the hsbc ftse 100 it says it yields 3.41%. Unless I have understood, doesn't the hsbc one seem a lot better?

They track different things so will have different yields. The Vanguard fund lifestrategy funds track a collection of trackers spread across the world. Unless you specifically want to take the income the yield isnt too important being just part of the total return. And its the total return that matters.