Want a very, very simple S & S Isa

yougguy7

Hi All,

Little bit of background about me for context:
Fairly good income, in early 30's, fairly cautious view to risk taking.

I currently use my full pension allowance each year and have around £30k in a cash ISA, £10k in instant savings and £5k in an old Barclays managed S&S ISA that I want to move.

I have almost zero interest in stocks and shares and don't really want to learn. I've read monevator and like the idea of trackers and passive investing. Vanguard or UK FTSE plus some foreign market trackers (US, Japan, Hong Kong maybe) feels like a good way for me, but I'm now confused by dealing fees, platform fees and the like.

I literally want something simple and cheap that I can put my £5k into, and then drip around £100pcm (direct debit if possible). Over time I expect I'll have 3-5 tracker funds. I literally want to put money away and occasionally glance to see whether it is up or down, but I plan to leave this money for 15 or more years until retirement.

I've looked at iweb, Charles Stanley, Cavendish and even Virgin! At present the costs in Yr 1 seem fairly similar. Just wondered if anyone could offer advice on which models look the cheapest based on my plan (drip feed money every month, plus the occasional lump sum each yr) and also which platform is idiot proof in terms of easy to use.

Thanks in advance.

LXdaddy

I started my S&S ISA about 18 months ago. I use Fidelity. For me they seem quite straight forward. You can make lump sum deposits and you can set up a monthly savings plan (which works by a direct debit).

There is a very wide range of funds to choose from so you can spend time making your mind up. There are various guides to help you - but they do not offer advice.

I am like you, using passive investment in tracker funds.

PeacefulWaters

I currently use my full pension allowance each year

Are you putting £40k a year into a pension?

AlwaysLearnin

Monevator already have a model for a simple diversified portfolio, and mention how to make it even easier.

Although you "don't really want to learn", you should build a good basic understanding for yourself at least, as it's pretty easy to make classic mistakes, which will cost you money to learn otherwise.

yougguy7

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Are you putting £40k a year into a pension?

I am. I work for myself so it is company contributions which are very tax efficient. Given the business etc, it is one of the reasons why I don't wan to to get too involved in the S&S ISA.

yougguy7

LXdaddy wrote: »

I started my S&S ISA about 18 months ago. I use Fidelity. For me they seem quite straight forward. You can make lump sum deposits and you can set up a monthly savings plan (which works by a direct debit).

There is a very wide range of funds to choose from so you can spend time making your mind up. There are various guides to help you - but they do not offer advice.

I am like you, using passive investment in tracker funds.

Thanks, are you able to give a rough outline of the costs? I see something like iweb is £5 a deal, but I don't know whether that means everytime you put more money into a fund, or just the initial buy / sale.

Archi_Bald

Try this: http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

BLB53

Sounds like a good plan. I would suggest Charles Stanley Direct is probably the best/cheapest option for starting out - no charges for buying low cost tracker funds and lowish platform charges @ 0.25%.

Of course, as the portfolio grows you will need to watch the charges if they remain uncapped but should be competitive for the earlier years.

The customer services are very good and I find the website quite user friendly so plenty of plus points.

dunstonh

I currently use my full pension allowance each year

Well done on investing £40k a year into a pension.

I have almost zero interest in stocks and shares and don't really want to learn.

What do you do with your pension seeing as you are paying much more into that?

ISAs and pensions share the same investment options. You can hold both on the same platform (which could reduce costs). How is your pension invested if you dont like following investments?

I've read monevator and like the idea of trackers and passive investing. Vanguard or UK FTSE plus some foreign market trackers (US, Japan, Hong Kong maybe) feels like a good way for me, but I'm now confused by dealing fees, platform fees and the like.

They are not investments that should be used by a "lazy" investor. You should be looking at multi-asset funds.

delmar39

LXdaddy wrote: »

I started my S&S ISA about 18 months ago. I use Fidelity. For me they seem quite straight forward. You can make lump sum deposits and you can set up a monthly savings plan (which works by a direct debit).

There is a very wide range of funds to choose from so you can spend time making your mind up. There are various guides to help you - but they do not offer advice.

I am like you, using passive investment in tracker funds.

Ditto - I wanted a simple low cost way of investing in S&S and have been with Fidelity for a number of years. I use their Index Trackers. Currently have their UK and US trackers next up I will add Europe. It works for me in my circumstances.

brendon

My recommendation is a Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 at Charles Stanley Direct. It's a great fund if you want something simple, without a huge learning curve. It basically consists of various tracker indicies in various weightings to give you global, UK, emerging market exposure and global and UK bonds. 60% is allocated to equities, 40% to bonds. In terms of risk, it is middle of the road.

You can read more about the LifeStrategy fund here: https://www.vanguard.co.uk/documents/adv/literature/lifestrategy-brochure.pdf