Best way to save?

richyg

Mike,

Personally I wouldn't save £2000 and then invest. You might get too much of an emotional involvement/excitement at that point which isn't good. Mr Putin and the Greeks may be black clouds on the horizon soon/ tomorrow ? - but again in 15 years long forgotten with other stories in the headlines.

Just put £50 or £100 whatever on auto invest per month split how you wish and leave it on autopilot like a saving account.

With funds - I don't think 20 or 30 are necessary. With your two you could have most of the world covered.

If you have more than 5 or 8 you need to give your head a wobble. Ask yourself this question Why so many - do you have overlap ?

If you wanted to tilt - eg more emerging markets or more small companies - you could add these - all available as Vanguard acc funds.

In my opinion (and its just that) if you have looked at the numbers 20 times in a day with a lot of funds you are in danger of overreacting when the numbers turn red and negative and frantically rebalancing from the worst performers to the best. This wont end well.

Take a look a https://www.bogleheads.org - an american website but seem to be calm characters with good advice especially when all around may lose their heads.

Best of Luck.

Eco_Miser

Mike12421 wrote: »

Richyg,

Thank you for the advice, I think I'll do just that. I was going to let my savings get to £2000 then invest in something new, and your suggestion sounds like just the ticket. Do you think it's a good idea, every £2000 investing in something else / fund / tracker etc. I've read that most people aim for around 15/20 funds in their portfolio. I know it'll take me a while to get there, but that's my aim.

15/20 shares is usually considered the minimum for a portfolio of individual shares, but 4/5 funds or even just one multi-everything fund can be sufficient.

Mike12421 wrote: »

As for checking the shares, I must have looked 30 times today. :-) It's certainly exciting, even if my investment ended £1.27 down for the day. As you said, I'm in it for the long haul.....10.....20 years.

So don't look at the prices more than once a month, less if possible. You're going to hold these funds through peaks and crashes, so you don't need to know exactly what they're worth.

Mike12421

Thank you for everyone's advice.

I currently have £157 in the Legal & General International Index Trust Class C - Accumulation Tracker, and
£1570 in the Legal & General UK Index Trust Class C - Accumulation Tracker.
These are both with Hargreaves Lansdown.

My question is when are returns paid back into my account? Is it biannually or monthly? Also, as there is daily fluctuation, how is the return calculated? Is it whatever it just so happens to be on the day it's paid?

Apologies if I'm missing the point completely, this is still all very new to me.

Thanks again.

badger09

Mike12421 wrote: »

Thank you for everyone's advice.

I currently have £157 in the Legal & General International Index Trust Class C - Accumulation Tracker, and
£1570 in the Legal & General UK Index Trust Class C - Accumulation Tracker.
These are both with Hargreaves Lansdown.

My question is when are returns paid back into my account? Is it biannually or monthly? Also, as there is daily fluctuation, how is the return calculated? Is it whatever it just so happens to be on the day it's paid?

Apologies if I'm missing the point completely, this is still all very new to me.

Thanks again.

As you have bought the Acc versions, any return will be reflected in the unit price, rather than paid seperately into your account.

Mike12421

badger09 wrote: »

As you have bought the Acc versions, any return will be reflected in the unit price, rather than paid seperately into your account.

Thanks for the reply. When is it reflected in the unit price and how is it calculated?

If it helps, here is a screenshot.



Thanks again.

HSVX

Mike12421 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. When is it reflected in the unit price and how is it calculated?

If it helps, here is a screenshot.



Thanks again.

When you have Acc (accumulation) funds it basically means that any dividends that are distributed by the companies within that fund are automatically re-invested into the fund, which pushes the price of the fund up.

The other option would be Inc (income) funds, where the dividends given out by companies within the funds are paid directly to you as cash instead of being re-invested into the fund. Naturally, when one company has both an Acc and Inc version of the same fund, the price of the Acc fund will gradually get higher than the Inc version over time, as more of the dividends are paid out by companies and reinvested in the fund.

Eco_Miser

Mike12421 wrote: »

When is it reflected in the unit price and how is it calculated?

It's always reflected in the unit price (gradually increasing as the underlying assets pay their dividends).

INC units show a step change downwards when they go ex-dividend, as from that point on they no longer include the value of the dividend.

With ACC units the dividend remains in the fund, and becomes available to the manager for further investment.