New investor advice needed

economic

ok then i would only buy a btl if its a really good deal (god rentlal yield and prospect for capital growth).

otherwise just save and invest in isa. contribute to pension if employer matches but i wouldnt do more then that in a pension. you wont see the money for a long time, you will probably have significant inheritance by that time anyway and you may need to fund yourself whilst you are young/middle aged if say you are out of a job etc. plus better to enjoy life when young rather then 65. i think pensions are overrated. even though putting in is tax free, when you do withdraw you pay tax.

bigadaj

economic wrote: »

ok then i would only buy a btl if its a really good deal (god rentlal yield and prospect for capital growth).

otherwise just save and invest in isa. contribute to pension if employer matches but i wouldnt do more then that in a pension. you wont see the money for a long time, you will probably have significant inheritance by that time anyway and you may need to fund yourself whilst you are young/middle aged if say you are out of a job etc. plus better to enjoy life when young rather then 65. i think pensions are overrated. even though putting in is tax free, when you do withdraw you pay tax.

With the recent and ongoing tax changes, and teh fact we may well be reaching the zenith of a housing bubble in the uk then buy to let isn't attractive to me.

It's a business after all, with all the hassles, costs and risk involved in that, the model has always been to cover your costs with the rent,many rely on capital growth. However even under that benign period there is still the issue with paying significant capital gains tax once the property is disposed of.

Property has its place, and owner occupiers have the advantage of cgt exemption and the saving on rent.

Otherwise diversification is key for most, contribute to a pension to maximise employer contribution and for sums abive the higher rate tax threshold.

Maximise isa contributions.

Once these have been completed, and assuming an emergency cash fund held in high interest savings accounts and regular savers, then there are options such as p2p lending, or look at vcts potentially.

Muhren

With regards to platforms, I have been on the compare platforms link that I have seen posted on the fourm a few times and the cheapest (although not necessarily the best) is Halifax sharedealing. Does anyone have any experience as to what they are like as a platform?

george4064

Muhren wrote: »

With regards to platforms, I have been on the compare platforms link that I have seen posted on the fourm a few times and the cheapest (although not necessarily the best) is Halifax sharedealing. Does anyone have any experience as to what they are like as a platform?

As with most products, there is a trade-off between cost and quality (to a certain extent), this is definitely applicable to platforms. Halifax may be low cost, but their service is very poor.

You shouldn't pick a platform provider on cost alone without considering quality/service.

I'm with one of the more expensive platforms, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL). Who I do believe they offer a much better service, and range of securities/funds than many other platforms. Another major factor for me is that I'm purely invested in shares/ITs/ETFs within an HL ISA whose fees are capped at a reasonable annual rate.

bigadaj

george4064 wrote: »

As with most products, there is a trade-off between cost and quality (to a certain extent), this is definitely applicable to platforms. Halifax may be low cost, but their service is very poor.

You shouldn't pick a platform provider on cost alone without considering quality/service.

I'm with one of the more expensive platforms, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL). Who I do believe they offer a much better service, and range of securities/funds than many other platforms. Another major factor for me is that I'm purely invested in shares/ITs/ETFs within an HL ISA whose fees are capped at a reasonable annual rate.

I think you're correct to highlight quality as an issue as well as cost, however I've just transferred an isa and unwrapped account to Halifax and their service has been good so far.

The website doesn't have any bells and whistles but I track my holdings in a combination of trustnet and spreadsheet so if it's saving me some money I'm not too bothered if it isn't very pretty.

I'm currently looking to transfer a medium sized pension pot that is languishing a little with Scottish widows, considered Halifax but iWeb seem a little better value.

Interestingly Halifax now seem to gets their sipp run by a j bell, which I hadn't realised.

Anyway the point at which the fixed fee providers generally become better value is around £30-40k which is worth considering, as well as transfer out fees if you go with a percentage based platform, as your finds might grow to benefit from fixed fee in the next few years.