I don't understand why people can't be bothered!

marleyboy

Face it.

Some of us cannot afford to invest.
Some of us cannot be bothered.
Some of us are just not interested.

If its all about choice, then allow those the choice NOT to. I have no financial difficulties, get myself a new phone\laptop\car\ if and when I need to, have lived a comfortable life financially and secure enough to have confidence that I will continue to do so, yet have absolutely NO INTEREST in investments,stocks or shares.

I would not class that as being lazy or negative, surely if it were laziness, its just as lazy investing money into something that will take care of itself why you get on with life.

Children on the whole should be taught about economics, living costs, the ability to understand spending\expenditures before considering investments.

Malthusian

coastline wrote:

In 15 years the World Index is showing a touch above 80% and the FTSE 100 around 60% or more.

From the year 2000 a cash lump sum would be around 88% higher in a cash ISA by 2014.

From the Swanlow Park figures I make the compound return on cash since 2000 to be about 75%. (You can't just gross up that figure for cash ISAs because banks offer lower gross rates on ISAs. The amount you can save in them has also been pretty restrictive.)

But let's not split hairs. We're being told that investing in the stockmarket is a gamble, and yet if you try to make equities look as bad as you possibly can - by starting with the dot com boom - worldwide equities are either just above cash or just below it?

If investing in the stockmarket is a gamble then people who invested at the worst possible time since World War 2 should be wishing they'd kept it under the mattress. Instead they've done as well or nearly as well as cash (depending on which figures you use). If you invested a year before the worst year for equities ever, or a year after it, then you would have comfortably beat cash.

It would still suck a bit if you invested a lump sum in 2000 and never invested anything ever again, but that's pretty unlikely. Most people invest continually throughout their lives, whether that's regular savings or ad-hoc when they have spare cash.

moneyfoolish

I've dabbled with investments over many years but have almost all my money saved in high interest bank accounts and cash isas even though I'm very interested in the subject. This post got me thinking about why I don't invest because it's certainly not laziness and I do have a sizeable amount that I could invest although I am now retired and don't need to produce income as I have a decent pension. I've concluded that there are 2 things that make me avoid the stock market. One is that I'm more scared of losing my money than making it increase a lot (even though I know historically that over a long period of time that won't happen). The second (and probably most important) is that my job was based on logic (I was an IT programmer for over 40 years) and with savings accounts I can put my money into what I KNOW are the best performing accounts whereas with funds there are far too many choices and there is no history or certainty.

monitorsit

moneyfoolish wrote: »

I've dabbled with investments over many years but have almost all my money saved in high interest bank accounts and cash isas even though I'm very interested in the subject. This post got me thinking about why I don't invest because it's certainly not laziness and I do have a sizeable amount that I could invest although I am now retired and don't need to produce income as I have a decent pension. I've concluded that there are 2 things that make me avoid the stock market. One is that I'm more scared of losing my money than making it increase a lot (even though I know historically that over a long period of time that won't happen). The second (and probably most important) is that my job was based on logic (I was an IT programmer for over 40 years) and with savings accounts I can put my money into what I KNOW are the best performing accounts whereas with funds there are far too many choices and there is no history or certainty.

If you have enough income and investing in a stock market would cause you worry, stick with what you've got.

On the other hand, if you live to be 95 and independent (as quite a few are these days), will your pension still be enough? If you were, for example, 65 now, there's still potentially a long time for your cash savings to erode with inflation or S&S investment income to rise (which they usually do but are not guaranteed to do) over many years.

Don't focus only on the capital appreciation side of S&S investments - think about the dividends.

PasturesNew

My dad was proud of his Northern Rock shares.
They were part of my inheritance.
He died thinking they were still worth something.

jimjames

PasturesNew wrote: »

My dad was proud of his Northern Rock shares.
They were part of my inheritance.
He died thinking they were still worth something.

That's a shame but it's the downside of holding shares in a single company. I sold mine shortly after they were floated and invested the money into a tracker fund that's now about 60% up. It's really only worth holding single shares as part of a much wider portfolio so the risk is diluted.

missbiggles1

monitorsit wrote: »

If you have enough income and investing in a stock market would cause you worry, stick with what you've got.

On the other hand, if you live to be 95 and independent (as quite a few are these days), will your pension still be enough? If you were, for example, 65 now, there's still potentially a long time for your cash savings to erode with inflation or S&S investment income to rise (which they usually do but are not guaranteed to do) over many years.

Don't focus only on the capital appreciation side of S&S investments - think about the dividends.

Doesn't that rather depend on the terms of your pension?

As someone else who's already retired, I'm happy to plan for being independent into my mid 80s but beyond that the future can look after itself, as far as I'm concerned that's what equity release loans are for.

bigfreddiel

missbiggles1 wrote: »

And many people have little choice at all.

You always have a choice, we are all different and make different choices

Cheers fj

JohnRo

PasturesNew wrote: »

My dad was proud of his Northern Rock shares.
They were part of my inheritance.
He died thinking they were still worth something.

All companies eventually falter, some don't recover, some disappear. Knowing when to hold and when to fold individual shares successfully requires an extra level of research, understanding, ongoing effort and luck, the risks are much higher than collectives, as are the rewards, when it goes the right way.

With a managed collective investment, funds, trusts, etc you're paying someone much better equipped to do that research and make those calls for you with several companies at the same time. Some are better at it than others.

With an index tracker there are no research and timing decisions to make beyond tracking the index. That's why they're cheap to run.

Eco_Miser

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Perhaps the answer to the original question could be "The state will provide"

Consider person A. Always spends all their earnings cars,holidays, latest high tech, never worries about share prices. Retires on minimum state pension which will be topped up by Pension Credit, housing benefit, help with winter fuel costs , et all.
Fast forward they require residential care, no capital all paid by the state.

Person B steady saver, investor, worries about poor interest rates, share prices etc.
On retirement no additional state benefits paid. Again fast forward they require residential care, savings and capital needs to be used.

Yes I appreciate B will perhaps have availability to chose where they live and which residential home they go to, but is it worth all the effort.

Just my thoughts.

Many years before State Pension Age, person B stops working, and lives off the dividends/interest of their accumulated wealth. Once they're old enough they still get the winter fuel allowance, the bus pass and concessionary admissions, and of course the state pension - and they've never worried about overdrafts, payday loans, late fees or not being able to pay for what they need.