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How should I start investing?

13

Comments

  • grey_gym_sock
    grey_gym_sock Posts: 4,508 Forumite
    Hmm but food selling is the one business that won't go completely bankrupt as we all have to eat!

    there will always be food retailers, but that doesn't mean that some of them can't go bankrupt.

    consider that you can invest in a fund which spreads your money across the shares of 1000s of the biggest companies from all part of the world (including tesco), or you can invest in a single company (e.g. tesco).

    how do you think the risks of those 2 options compare?
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,891 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 27 April 2014 at 11:14PM
    I'm sure people who bought Greek bonds and funds pre-2008 would disagree!

    Not sure which funds you are referring to but as far as I'm aware no Greek bonds lost 100%.

    If you're prepared for 100% loss then that's fine, it just doesn't stack up with your declared risk averse nature. Elsewhere someone risk averse defined themselves as worried if they lost more than 10%.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • innovate
    innovate Posts: 16,217 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Hmm but food selling is the one business that won't go completely bankrupt as we all have to eat!

    By your logic, no bank could have gone "completely bankrupt" as we all need accounts for our money (not least to receive our salaries into, and to pay for our food)
  • iAMaLONDONER
    iAMaLONDONER Posts: 1,669 Forumite
    there will always be food retailers, but that doesn't mean that some of them can't go bankrupt.

    consider that you can invest in a fund which spreads your money across the shares of 1000s of the biggest companies from all part of the world (including tesco), or you can invest in a single company (e.g. tesco).

    how do you think the risks of those 2 options compare?

    A diverse profile reduces risk.However would S&S ISA be a wise move?
  • iAMaLONDONER
    iAMaLONDONER Posts: 1,669 Forumite
    innovate wrote: »
    By your logic, no bank could have gone "completely bankrupt" as we all need accounts for our money (not least to receive our salaries into, and to pay for our food)

    To be fair it wasn't the retail part of banking that went bust but I accept your point
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 18,891 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    A diverse profile reduces risk.However would S&S ISA be a wise move?

    That's entirely your choice. But you asked the question saying you wanted to buy shares!

    A S&S ISA will avoid you having to account for CGT and any transactions on your tax return but only you can judge if that matters to you.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • I'm a newbie looking to begin investing as well.

    Something that I can't seem to work out is if I should be buying indvidual stocks simply via a broker or within a S&S ISA?

    If I am understanding it correctly, the HL product allows me to invest in trusts and funds as well as buying stocks on their own (as long I begin each new investment with £500). So why wouldn't I do it within an ISA?
  • BillJones
    BillJones Posts: 2,187 Forumite
    edited 28 April 2014 at 2:52PM
    Hmm but food selling is the one business that won't go completely bankrupt as we all have to eat!

    Your first point does not follow from your second.

    Yes, we all ave to eat, but we do not all have to shop at Tesco, and if they find themselves squeezed from above and below by Waitrose (or Sainsbury) and Aldi then there is no guarantee that they will remain solvent.
    To be fair it wasn't the retail part of banking that went bust but I accept your point

    Yes it was. Exactly what part of Northern Rock do you feel was not "retail"?
  • ColdIron
    ColdIron Posts: 10,021 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Hung up my suit! Name Dropper
    Something that I can't seem to work out is if I should be buying indvidual stocks simply via a broker or within a S&S ISA?
    An ISA and a broker are 2 different things. You need to buy something (funds etc) so you could use a broker or a platform like HL. Quite separately you may decide to put them in a tax wrapper (an ISA) or not
  • BillJones
    BillJones Posts: 2,187 Forumite
    A diverse profile reduces risk.However would S&S ISA be a wise move?

    The ISA is the wrapping, not the investment. It carries precisely zero protection against capital loss.

    Before you jump in, please educate yourself properly (i.e. not on here...) Look up modern portfolio theory, understand risk-adjusted returns, correlations, volatilities, dividends and yields.

    Read the FT. Daily, and so on.
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