Beginner investing

M4C

Hello there,

I have a small amount of savings that I want to invest and grow. However, as a young adult and investing novice, I have little knowledge in how to do this personally, therefore I am interested in discovering services that can do this on my behalf but have higher returns than the bank that current holds my money.

I have read about services like Nutmeg within the UK that do so, but according to the reviews I have read, Nutmeg particularly doesn't provide any real growth and their fees are therefore rather high for the results they provide.

At the moment I am only looking to invest between £1000 - £5000 (granted, not a substantial amount). Can anyone suggest a brokerage or provider that can act as an intermediary on my behalf that meets my aforementioned needs?

I would greatly appreciate the assistance of anyone more learned on this subject

Many thanks!

RobCR_2

Hey M4C,

I would take this opportunity to learn a bit about investing for yourself, your at the perfect age to do this.

There are a bunch of good websites and youtube videos to help you, just make sure you keep a long term outlook and ignore anyone who is trying to sell a way to make a quick buck.

If it were me, I would sign up to a super cheap online broker (X-O.co.uk) and put in £500-£1000 per month, so don't try and invest it all at once.

You can expect to make some mistakes - but that is part of the learning process.

The Motley Fool used to be a great website on getting started, not sure if it still is, they had a 13 step guide to getting into it, which doesn't take long to read.

Good luck

InvestInPoker

First of all read the book Tim Hale : Smarter Investing.

You are young with plenty of time on your hands. If I am interpreting your post correctly you would like a better return on your money than a normal bank account could provide and don't mind leaving it invested to grow over a long period. Sounds like you are ready to dip your toe into equity (stocks and shares) investing.

I don't want to advertise specific platforms but just type "compare fund platforms" into google or something. You want low fees but also big and reputable. Good customer service and websites that are easy to use are important as well obviously. Not the easiest match but its possible. Pick out one or two you like and search it here to make the final decision

If I wanted to start with £5000 and I didn't mind leaving it for the big long haul I guess I would open an ISA with one of the big investment platforms and put it into some index funds.

M4C

Thank you RobCR and InvestInPoker for your responses.

In the interim, do you have any suggestions for resources like Nutmeg et al. that will invest on my behalf (without outrageous fees) whilst I learn more about investing myself?

Thanks again!

Gram_Parsons

What other baskets do you have your eggs in? Do you also have a few thousand squirrelled away for whatever? One or more of the interest paying current accounts are best for this at the moment. What about pensions?

The generally accepted way seems to be a mix of short-, medium-, and long-term places to put your money.

Gram_Parsons

The UK-centric Monevator site is mentioned on here all the time. Plenty of good info on there for you!

InvestInPoker

If it's someone to invest on your behalf that you want then you need a financial advisor to do it for you. Just make sure that you pay them via upfront disclosed fees (and not on commissions for the products they sell you). I think this has to be the case legally now but not 100%

Eco_Miser

For £5000, a financial advisor will be too expensive, and anyway should be independent, not tied. Have a good read of the Monevator site, and the sites it links to, and the Tim Hale book, as already mentioned; and keep reading this board.

chile_paul

I'm in a similar position as you and am learning as I go. The first lesson I learnt is not to pay an IFA or to invest in an expensive managed fund - the fee's from either will erode your return.

A lot of the comments above about reading Motley Fool, Monevator and reading these forums will all guide you down the road that I'm currently following i.e. drip in a regular investment each month into index trackers (i.e. a fund that tracks the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 or any other index that you'd care to mention)

It's working well for me and giving me an opportunity to learn more as I go.

Kendall80

chile_paul wrote: »

I'm in a similar position as you and am learning as I go. The first lesson I learnt is not to pay an IFA or to invest in an expensive managed fund - the fee's from either will erode your return.

A lot of the comments above about reading Motley Fool, Monevator and reading these forums will all guide you down the road that I'm currently following i.e. drip in a regular investment each month into index trackers (i.e. a fund that tracks the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 or any other index that you'd care to mention)

It's working well for me and giving me an opportunity to learn more as I go.

I definitely agree with this. I'd say for most people, the resources here and on sites such as monevator, UTMT etc are certainly sufficient. In my opinion, IFAs are best utilised by those who either have a large amount to invest and/or are not comfortable with managing their own personal finances.

Theres a wealth of information out there floating around, waiting to be consumed, digested and put to good use

Smithy101

I would consider investment trusts M4C because they tend to perform better than other funds.
To be brief there are two different types of funds in existence - Unit Trusts/OEICs and Investment Trusts. The latter have an independent board that represent shareholder and there are other differences too but the main point is the tend to perform better the Unit Trusts/OEICs.

There are a couple of websites that will help like https://www.whichinvestmenttrust.com - they help new investors and they tend to explain things in plain English and have a helpful community.
Also https://www.fool.co.uk - Lots of information but it is a bit more anoraky.

Be good to know how long you intend to invest for?