£1k a month - but where?

eskbanker

jimjames wrote: »

If you already have £20k cash sufficient as emergency fund and don't need the new money then you can easily fit it into a S&S ISA where the limit is £15k pa

Herbalus wrote: »

It makes me chuckle when you wise lot throw in the "stick it in a S&S ISA" line as if it's the easiest thing in the world. I aim to get to the same level one day (I'm working through Hale's book at the moment), but it might take some time!

To be fair, I think "easily fit it into a S&S ISA" really meant "this amount is comfortably within the maximum allowed in an S&S ISA" rather than trivialising the amount of research effort involved!

Archi_Bald

Herbalus wrote: »

It makes me chuckle when you wise lot throw in the "stick it in a S&S ISA" line as if it's the easiest thing in the world. I aim to get to the same level one day (I'm working through Hale's book at the moment), but it might take some time!

I share your sentiment - S&S ISAs can certainly be daunting for anyone who has never done any investing before, and hasn't read up about it. Like you, I did start reading the Tim Hale book end to end. I can't say I enjoyed it much, it was in fact rather painful, and I was only a tiny bit wiser after I finished the book. It gave me literally no practical pointers at all. Everything did, however, fall into place once I started working through Monevator - which basically tells you the same as Hale does, just a lot more easy to understand IMO, and with tons of really practical and up-to-date information. Mind you, I obviously did have the Hale-foundation, so can't say how Monevator would have worked for me if I had come to it as a virgin wanabe investor.

Monevator even has a "327 seconds to a perfect £15,000 NISA investment portfolio" write-up - - - which sounds perhaps a tad (!) too ambitious, but I would agree, you don't need to spend weeks reading Tim Hale before you can put a decent portfolio together for yourself.

I would suggest that novices could do a lot worse than starting with the Passive Investing guide on Monevator. Then may be give yourself a couple of weeks reading some of the links, asking some questions here on MSE, reading some of the personal finance pages in the broadsheets, and you have a better grounding than you have after trawling through Tim Hale.

jimjames

eskbanker wrote: »

To be fair, I think "easily fit it into a S&S ISA" really meant "this amount is comfortably within the maximum allowed in an S&S ISA" rather than trivialising the amount of research effort involved!

Yes, that's the downside of the internet. I know what I meant.

Much the same as the "home for £22k thread"

Good advice from ArchiBald giving ways to get info on investments for a S&S ISA.

Herbalus

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Like you, I did start reading the Tim Hale book end to end. I can't say I enjoyed it much, it was in fact rather painful, and I was only a tiny bit wiser after I finished the book. It gave me literally no practical pointers at all.

I'm full of optimism for the next four chapters then!!

I understand what you mean - so far there is a lot of talk about having a good investing philosophy for example, but little of what a good investing philosophy actually means when it comes to looking at index trackers on 'tinternet. I am finding it useful though - I came to it after Monnevator, so it's adding to my understanding. Hopefully I'll be able to start investing when I've finished and am back with Monnevator.

Thanks for your post! Very good.