Best Platform For Vanguard Life Strategy 60/80

mickeywaffle

Thanks bananarepublic! House is already sorted and even at 25 I'm definitely at the age where house sharing does not sound like fun haha.

Thought about investing in property but a lot of advice was leaning more towards passive investment. Also since we technically already have money invested in our own bricks and mortar it would be nice to spread our wings a little.

mickeywaffle

Suppose my questions with financial advisers is.. How do you know their advice is good until years afterwards? For a situation like mine should I be paying them fixed fees for certain advice or will they want percentages of investments?
Free to answer as arsily as you want.

BananaRepublic

colsten wrote: »

As a personal investor, I think you will always do better with firms that are geared towards personal investors. If you want to deal with the funds directly, you need to be fluent in big investor and fund manager speak. I think it would be silly to think you can save a few quid by trying to play above your station.

The Fund Managers won't, for example, be equipped to "Bed and ISA" your £150K over the next few years. They would probably not even know what you are talking about. Whilst a platform/broker that deals with individual small time investors (sorry, at £150K, you are a small time investor) knows exactly what to do.

It is quite possible to pick the best platform for a £150Kish investment yourself if you are so inclined to do your own research. It might sound harsh, but asking on MSE doesn't comprise doing your own research. I would recommend you find an independent financial advisor, who you can hold accountable for the advice they give to you - as opposed to what random strangers on MSE tell you and who you can hold accountable for nothing.

You certainly have a point, then again asking on a forum potentially throws up a range of ideas, and provokes thought. Even if the OP eventually pays for advice, it pays to do some thinking first, if only to help choose who to get advice from.

Just because someone has a diploma in advanced tie wearing does not necessarily make them superior. (That's intended partly tongue in cheek, partly true.)

mickeywaffle

Agreed Bananarepublic.. Sometimes I might act more stupid than I am because it means new ideas and better answers can come about. Sometimes I really am that stupid. But I don't see anything wrong with discussion on a forum.

BananaRepublic

mickeywaffle wrote: »

Thanks bananarepublic! House is already sorted and even at 25 I'm definitely at the age where house sharing does not sound like fun haha.

Thought about investing in property but a lot of advice was leaning more towards passive investment. Also since we technically already have money invested in our own bricks and mortar it would be nice to spread our wings a little.

Moving to a bigger or nicer house is an option to consider, given the tax breaks on ones own home.

BananaRepublic

mickeywaffle wrote: »

Suppose my questions with financial advisers is.. How do you know their advice is good until years afterwards? For a situation like mine should I be paying them fixed fees for certain advice or will they want percentages of investments?
Free to answer as arsily as you want.

One would hope that an IFA should at least give okay advice, whereas a stranger might talk spheroids. You do have some reassurances in law concerning how an IFA can act too. Financial advisors will argue that spending a few thousand now could save far more over time. There is some truth in that, although some of us feel we can do better on our own. Then again, I have paid accountants to do company accounts as I hate accountancy, and HM Customs and Revenue frighten me. So I am not averse to paid help.

Someone else will answer your question on fees.

Eco_Miser

This link gives the cheapest platforms for various scenarios. Other parts of the Monevator site are a good place to read about investing, particularly passive investing. It would means at least, that you would have some idea of the jargon when you speak to an IFA.

Glen_Clark

mickeywaffle wrote: »

Thanks Glen! I thought that was the case but the email I got back from them was next to useless. So I could invest the full £150k directly with them as long as it was all in Vanguard Life Strategy 80 for instance?

Certainly Yes. As has been pointed out Vanguard don't do ISA's. So you might end up having to pay a small amount of tax although that seems unlikely from what you have told us so far. You have to balance that against the middleman's fees, and the (extremely low) risk of the middlemen doing a Bernard Madoff and trousering your money.

BananaRepublic

The dividends and hence the tax on such a (by many standards) large sum could be not insignificant. As I understand it the £1,000 per year savings interest allowance does NOT cover dividends. However, if your income is modest, then you would not be taxed.

But when you come to sell, you will have to pay capital gains tax, which could be very significant in 10 years time. Yes you can sell a lump each year to keep the gains below the threshold but that limits access to the money. So an ISA route would probably be the preferred one.

I have experience with You Invest and Fidelity and believe that they are sound institutions. And in any case they merely act as an intermediary.

Glen_Clark

I considered investing directly with Vanguard, but already have my cash allocation in retail funds whch seem to be better value than bonds, now their price is so inflated by QE.
So I chose to invest in (Vanguard and Black Rock) ETFs through x-o for my Equity allocation. There are ongoing fees, only £5.95 per trade, and with the very low spreads and no stamp duty on large CAP ETFs you can trade very cheaply. I sold some VUSA last week, and reinvested in in CSP1 to use up my annual CGT allowance. Both these S&P 500 ETFs have annual charges of 0.07% and very low spreads - AFAIK no one can beat that.