Advice for an investing beginner with inheritance

peppercorn25

Owing to a recent inheritance I have a lump sum to invest, but I have no idea where to start. I have an S&S ISA which was set up for me by my parents many years ago, but this is managed by an IFA so I'm still very much an investing newbie in terms of how stock markets/shares/dividends work.

I have some meetings with financial advisers set up but I'd like to learn more and be more pro-active in my investments. I don't necessarily want to stick with just S&S investments, I'm open to spreading the risk around in property rentals or renovations, business investing etc, but I don't think I'm aware of all the options yet.

What websites/books/resources would people suggest for money-managing beginners?

And if anyone feels like giving advice for a starting research point, here's the situation:
- Annual ISA allowance used up in the S&S ISA,
- Santander 123 current account using full 20k 3% interest allowance,
- S&S ISA has shown disappointing growth in the last two years,
- I have no mortgage or debt and am a late 30s widow with no dependants,
- I have wages from my full time job to live on, so I can invest long-term, hopefully with the aim of early retirement,
- I have one rental property already and would not be averse to others, although having had a nightmare tenant in the past that needed to be evicted I have a bad case of once bitten, twice shy.

dunstonh

I don't necessarily want to stick with just S&S investments, I'm open to spreading the risk around in property rentals or renovations, business investing etc, but I don't think I'm aware of all the options yet.

What knowledge and experience do you have in those other areas? You won't learn that from any book.

- S&S ISA has shown disappointing growth in the last two years,

Disappointing relative to benchmark or just the fact that 2015 is a negative year (which has broadly taken us back to a level of 3 years ago)?

This maybe your first lesson. A negative year does not make the investment disappointing. You have to have negatives. They are always going to come. You average out the good years, nothing years and negative years. Its the long term average over an economic cycle that you need to look at.

Sam_J12

Here are a few nice resources you can use to learn about various investing strategies:

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php . This is a good forum who are fans of a very simple passive investing style that has very good rationale behind it.

The Intelligent Investor, by Ben Graham and The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Investors and Managers. Two excellent books about investing and business in general. The authors are two of the best investors of all time and the writing is lucid and often entertaining.

More controversially - Dual Momentum Investing: An Innovative Strategy for Higher Returns with Lower Risk by Gary Antonacci. An interesting book that has a really good discussions of the concept and history of momentum in stock markets.

I have learned a massive amount from the above four resources, and recommend all of them. Overall, I would not recommend straying from the stock market when considering what to invest in.

peppercorn25

Thanks for the reply. I've had a rental property for 8 years so am fairly comfortable in that field. However, I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket as it only takes one problem tenant to wipe out any profit. Recent changes to regulations and taxes will also increase costs. I haven't yet renovated property, but have a good basic practical ability and knowledge and have good friends in renovation and construction areas willing to advise.

Business investing would be new to me, but I have previously owned a successful business (sold when I got married) so have a head for the figures.

I'm relatively happy with the overall performance of the ISA, which has shown an increase over the last 11 years of around 5.3% a year, even taking the losses around 2008 and this year into account. I'm not sure if it wouldn't be better invested elsewhere though, as I suspect my financal advisor takes a somewhat laissez faire approach to management. He acts surprised each April when I remind him there's a new ISA allowance!