Investment Advice

damowain

Hi, im looking to invest in the VTI but being from the UK im not sure if that is possible. If it isnt I would like to invest in something as close that as possible. I will most likely be looking to put something away monthly for an extended period of time. I also need a broker according to vanguard which is who I contacted for help (wasnt very helpful), where do I find these and who? How much should I be paying for fees ? As you can probably tell, im very new to this and have a lot of questions. Anything else that would help with this aswell would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

masonic

VTI is the Vanguard US total market index. You could invest in this ETF through a platform that allows you to trade on the US market, but it would probably be better to use an equivalent UK listed ETF. Vanguard offers VUSA, which covers S&P 500 and iShares has an S&P smallcap 600 tracker (ISP6) that you could add to it to get some exposure to the smaller US companies. However, why not go global and opt for something like VWRL?
Vanguard UK listed ETFs: https://www.vanguard.co.uk/uk/portal/investments/all-products?productType=etf
iShares ETFs: https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/products/etf-product-list

There are some quite cheap platforms that will allow you to trade ETFs. For example, http://www.x-o.co.uk/ and https://svsxo.com/. These have no custody charges and trading charges of around £5-6. Both offer ISAs.

Edit: You also mention wanting to invest monthly, so it may be more cost effective to invest in funds - here you would pay (typically) no trading charges, but an annual platform fee, which is either a percentage of your total holdings (e.g. 0.25%) or a flat fee (if you have >£20,000 invested this begins to be more cost effective). Charles Stanley Direct is popular with those who have a small sum to invest and opt for funds.