Another Novice Invester

Crag30

Having been watching these forums and trying to do a bit of research on platforms, etc, I got to the point of investing some money in a S+S ISA.

I planned to put £2000 in a VSL60 or 80, or a 20 AND an 80, just to see if it could do better than my Cash ISA. I didn't want to commit to adding '£X' per month but would maybe like the option to put more in over the year, depending on circumstances.

It's not money that I will need to withdraw within at least 5 years, and I'll be adding to my cash ISA at the same time.

Now I may have mis-read things with everything else I've taken in bouncing round my brain, but it looked as though if I used iWeb I couldn't add to the fund if I wished, and if I used CSD I'd have higher charges if I didn't make 6 transactions over the year.

Then an article in the Financial section of Wednesday's Mail sort of added more confusion. It didn't actually claim it was a bad time to buy, but suggested S+S are falling.

I accept there's always going to be falls in prices during my investment but I'm thinking maybe now is a bad time to start off, but instead to do some more research and keep reading the forums

InvestInPoker

Your initial plans of putting the £2000 into one of the VLS funds for a minimum of 5 years are a pretty good way to start. If you don't do monthly payments you can add lump sums whenever do not worry.


More research is good, it will make you more empowered to do things yourself and enlighten you. Do not listen to articles in newspapers claiming stocks are about to crash or xxx is the next big thing to invest in. They can't time the market and nor can you. If you invest in VLS over a long time frame (20years+) you will beat inflation and beat a cash ISA. If you invest in it for 5 years you will probably beat the cash ISA but if stocks do crash you could see 30% or more of the value wiped off them at any one point and they might not have time to recover before you withdraw. Be aware of these risks before you invest and try and give yourself as long a timeframe as possible.


There is not really a bad time to start, the more time in the market for your money the better. Just make sure you are diversified (which VLS is good at) and you have a decent timeframe. Do not do it until you are comfortable with it though, so reading more is ideal (try monevator.com and here)

jimjames

The article in the Mail was sensational journalism to sell papers with no basis in reality. The FTSE 100 being at the level it was 15 years ago has no bearing on its direction in future and LS funds are only small amount in the FTSE anyway.

Whichever you choose there doesn't seem much point having more than one LS fund if that was your intention.

bowlhead99

jimjames wrote: »

The article in the Mail was sensational journalism to sell papers

It's a mark of their reputation that this response to be given to any question in relation to any subject without us first being made aware of the headline of the article, the author, where to find a link to it, or anything other than scant detail of its contents...

Now I may have mis-read things with everything else I've taken in bouncing round my brain, but it looked as though if I used iWeb I couldn't add to the fund if I wished, and if I used CSD I'd have higher charges if I didn't make 6 transactions over the year.

You have mis-read things
If you use IWeb you can add if you wish, you just pay £5 a time to make an additional purchase or sale of the VLS fund or anything else.

If you use CSD they have two sets of charges, one for individual stocks and shares (e.g. a share in Tesco PLC or in an Investment Trust) and one for Funds (Unit Trusts & OEICs like VLS). The stocks and shares charge of a minimum £20 a year can be waived if you trade a lot. But as you are not buying any individual stocks and shares that's irrelevant. You just need to pay the "0.25% per annum on first £500,000 of Funds held across all accounts" which on your level of investment is £5 a year (increasing if the fund gets bigger and decreasing if the fund gets smaller). You won't really beat that price and it's not worth worrying about (your gain or loss in a year could be 30% which rather dwarfs the 0.25%).

Gadfium

bowlhead99 wrote: »

It's a mark of their reputation that this response to be given to any question in relation to any subject without us first being made aware of the headline of the article, the author, where to find a link to it, or anything other than scant detail of its contents...

Absolutely. I think that someone on here described the Mail's business model as selling comics to adults who really should know better.

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2012/10/14/met-office-in-the-media-14-october-2012/
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/dec/08/david-rose-climate-science

Crag30

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I've been trying to take too much in too quickly, but your replies have inspired a bit more confidence.


if its of any interest, I've just searched online for the article I read in paper format, and found it here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/investing/article-2978170/Top-fund-bosses-selling-shares-you.html

Gadfium

Crag30 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I've been trying to take too much in too quickly, but your replies have inspired a bit more confidence.


if its of any interest, I've just searched online for the article I read in paper format, and found it here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/investing/article-2978170/Top-fund-bosses-selling-shares-you.html

Save yourself 60p every day and just use this web-page for the headlines:
http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

And this one for the content.
http://charlieharvey.org.uk/daily_mail/

InvestInPoker

Crag30 wrote: »

if its of any interest, I've just searched online for the article I read in paper format, and found it here

That article is complete tripe and like jimjames said just designed to increase sales and hits.


Next week they will be back to headlines on house prices/something random CAN CAUSE CANCER/Princess Di/Islam

InvestInPoker

Gadfium wrote: »

Save yourself 60p every day and just use this web-page for the headlines:
http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

And this one for the content.
http://charlieharvey.org.uk/daily_mail/

Haha awesome. TDM is just a tabloid for those with closed minds who have some money imo. There is no denying its power and influence however and you have to respect them for that.

Borrowedtune

TBF they have a very good football journo in the form of Martin Samuel. That's about the only good thing I can think of though.

eskbanker

Gadfium wrote: »

Save yourself 60p every day and just use this web-page for the headlines:
http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

And this one for the content.
http://charlieharvey.org.uk/daily_mail/

The understated simplicity of http://www.shouldireadthedailymail.com/ is one that appeals to me....