Thinking of starting S and S ISA next April

Cellar_Door

Ok thanks everyone for taking the time and effort to reply...have bookmarked the sites mentioned above and will be reading and rereading them to see if I get the message.

Will let you know how I go.

Cheers

Cellar Door

Archi_Bald

Good plan, CD, keep at it, it will be worth your while ;-)

Cellar_Door

A lot of info to take in on these sites....but I'm digging in for the long haul.

Here's my thoughts so far...

Interactive Investor seems to be interesting site to use...if you open a trading account you can get a free isa account. May be worth considering .

Also the Vanguard Lifestrategy 20% s and s isa seems to appeal to me as there is lowish risk and seems popular for newbies.

Will keep reading up on this to let it sink in.

Cheers

Cellar Door

Cellar_Door

kidmugsy wrote: »

I suggest two possible routes.

(i) Use a "platform" (i.e. online stockbroker) and use them to pursue a "passive" investment strategy, using the funds offered by, for example, Vanguard. To mug up on this become a reader of the monevator blog: stick at it and all will become (reasonably) clear. If not, enquire there or here.

(ii) Use an Investment Trust manager's own ISA: scroll down to p47 of



To see lists of the investment trusts managed by each firm look at p53. You can learn a lot about Investment Trusts (aka Investment Companies) here

I had a look at that page and liked the sound of the Standard Life savings (£1000 min deposit and £100 a month minimum deposit and no charges) but looks like it has been discontinued to new investors...am I right?

I was thinking of putting a £3k to £5 investment in to start and drip feed £400 a month into it as a starter before getting a s and s ISA set up next April.

Any thoughts on this?

Cheers:)

CD

le_loup

Cellar_Door wrote: »

Interactive Investor seems to be interesting site to use...if you open a trading account you can get a free isa account. May be worth considering .

Do a search on here about Interactive Investor, II or III and see what others think.

kidmugsy

Cellar_Door wrote: »

liked the sound of the Standard Life savings (£1000 min deposit and £100 a month minimum deposit and no charges) but looks like it has been discontinued to new investors...am I right?

Sorry, I plead ignorance about SL.

If I weren't so gloomy about prospects, and if I were limited to non-tax-shelters, I might try Aberdeen Asset Management and invest in their Aberdeen UK Tracker investment trust: it seems not to be a member of the aic, so you'll need to visit http://www.aberdeenuktracker.co.uk

Last time I looked it sold at about a 5% discount, yielded about 3% p.a. and its charges were only 0.3% p.a. By the time you allow for the yield and discount, it means that you're tracking the UK all share for about 0.15% p.a. which sounds pretty good to me. Or it would do except that I'm gloomy anyway.

kidmugsy

Another thought. Another asset that you might want to hold to diversify from cash (and eventually from equities and bonds) is gold. If you buy sovereigns (which I would want to store in a safety deposit) you are exempt from VAT and CGT.

Cellar_Door

kidmugsy wrote: »

Sorry, I plead ignorance about SL.

If I weren't so gloomy about prospects, and if I were limited to non-tax-shelters, I might try Aberdeen Asset Management and invest in their Aberdeen UK Tracker investment trust: it seems not to be a member of the aic, so you'll need to visit

Last time I looked it sold at about a 5% discount, yielded about 3% p.a. and its charges were only 0.3% p.a. By the time you allow for the yield and discount, it means that you're tracking the UK all share for about 0.15% p.a. which sounds pretty good to me. Or it would do except that I'm gloomy anyway.

Thanks for that Kidmugsy.

Had a look at the charges:

'The Aberdeen Investment Trusts Share Plan offers:

• Minimum monthly investment - £100
• Minimum lump sum investment - £250
• No initial charges (Government stamp duty is payable at 0.5% and investors pay the buying price on the stock market)
• No annual plan charge
• £10 exit fee per sale'

So say I invested a lump sum of £5k and made monthly payments of £400 what would I currently make and what it cost me per year...as I'm a bit stumped with this bit: (Government stamp duty is payable at 0.5% and investors pay the buying price on the stock market):eek:


Cheers


CD

Cellar_Door

le_loup wrote: »

Do a search on here about Interactive Investor, II or III and see what others think.

Yes I see that there are rather mixed reviews for II/III:eek:

Cheers

CD

jimjames

Cellar_Door wrote: »

Thanks for that Kidmugsy.

Had a look at the charges:



'The Aberdeen Investment Trusts Share Plan offers:

• Minimum monthly investment - £100
• Minimum lump sum investment - £250
• No initial charges (Government stamp duty is payable at 0.5% and investors pay the buying price on the stock market)
• No annual plan charge
• £10 exit fee per sale'

So say I invested a lump sum of £5k and made monthly payments of £400 what would I currently make and what it cost me per year...as I'm a bit stumped with this bit: (Government stamp duty is payable at 0.5% and investors pay the buying price on the stock market):eek:


Cheers


CD

Cost would be 0.5% of the amounts so £25 on the lump sum and £2 on the monthly. The difference between buying and selling is called the spread and this will vary too but shouldn't be more than say 1% on commonly traded shares.

We can't say what you would make as that is totally dependent on the investment performance you have chosen - and you only know that in the future. You can see the yield though which is the income you get from the investment although this isn't guaranteed and could change - but investment trusts do try to smooth out fluctuations by holding some income back in good years.

This plan is probably one of the cheapest ways to invest over the long term - but is outside an ISA wrapper so CGT could be an issue in future as could income tax if you are a higher rate taxpayer.