Advice Needed for Newbie Wanting to Invest in a Managed portfolio

Craig660

Good Evening All,

First of all I would like to thank you for reading my post.

So I have a small sum saved up 21k but want to invest this somehow.

I will bullet point to make this an easier read.

Summary:

- My money is currently in Premium bonds

- I can't risk going below 20k on my savings so want to invest 1.5k to start off with

Questions

- I want to open a stocks and shares ISA and have looked at Hargreaves - Can people from there experience recommend me one, or would this be ok for me ?

or can you recommend me another and give me a brief summary why (sorry I am a newbie to this)

- I am thinking of going into a fairly high risk portfolio, would this be wise from people experiences with Hargreaves?

I will also be putting in £50 each month via Direct debit, but may consider putting more of my savings but just testing the waters .

Any advice, guidance or helpful tips would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

jaydeeuk1

Have you maxed out all the best buy bank accounts and savers?

Imo thats the best place to start before isa's or p2p

jimjames

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Have you maxed out all the best buy bank accounts and savers?

Imo thats the best place to start before isa's or p2p

I completely disagree. If you have sufficient cash for an emergency fund it's pointless just saving more and more cash until you fill all current accounts.

Far better to do as the OP plans and to look at investments for the surplus cash once you already have that cash fund set. Obviously get the best rates on cash that you can for that emergency fund but no need to go beyond. HL are very easy to use for a new investor but aren't the cheapest. You'll probably only start to notice once you have over £20k or so as the difference between the 0.45% they charge and the 0.25% someone like Fidelity/Charles Stanley charge is £90 vs £50 on that sort of amount.

Once you get to £100k then it's £450 vs £250 and more significant.

OP - have a read on https://www.monevator.com to get some ideas about investing and which funds might be suitable. Certainly starting out funds are the way forward not individual shares. You've not mentioned your age but going all guns blazing for the highest risk isn't necessarily the best option. A more balanced approach may be better to start with.

bigadaj

I'd ditch the premium bonds and put the money into high interest current accounts, for the £20k this would include tsb, nationwide, lloyds and bank of Scotland or tesco.

Teh additional sums could then go into funds with Hargreaves lansdown, good funds to start with could be vanguard lifestrategy, black rock consensus or legal and general multi index, follow Jim James comments on that.

A copy of Tim hales smarter investing is a good start for investing principles.

Craig660

jimjames wrote: »

I completely disagree. If you have sufficient cash for an emergency fund it's pointless just saving more and more cash until you fill all current accounts.

Far better to do as the OP plans and to look at investments for the surplus cash once you already have that cash fund set. HL are very easy to use for a new investor but aren't the cheapest. You'll probably only start to notice once you have over £20k or so as the difference between the 0.45% they charge and the 0.25% someone like Fidelity/Charles Stanley charge is £90 vs £50 on that sort of amount.

Once you get to £100k then it's £450 vs £250 and more significant.

OP - have a read on https://www.monevator.com to get some ideas about investing and which funds might be suitable. Certainly starting out funds are the way forward not individual shares. You've not mentioned your age but going all guns blazing for the highest risk isn't necessarily the best option. A more balanced approach may be better to start with.

JJ thank you very much for the detailed response, really kind of you.

I will have a look into that link now and do some research, no doubt I will have some more questions.

Would you recommend any portfolios to invest in?

Thanks

Craig660

bigadaj wrote: »

I'd ditch the premium bonds and put the money into high interest current accounts, for the £20k this would include tsb, nationwide, lloyds and bank of Scotland or tesco.

Teh additional sums could then go into funds with Hargreaves lansdown, good funds to start with could be vanguard lifestrategy, black rock consensus or legal and general multi index, follow Jim James comments on that.

A copy of Tim hales smarter investing is a good start for investing principles.

Again, Thanks you very much for the helpful tips and taking your time to recommend some portfolios to me.

If I am honest I am not to sure on what each one does, but I will have a look into them tomorrow on my lunch break.

I am 32 by the way.

I have started to read the Naked Trader at the moment.

Terry98

bigadaj wrote: »

I'd ditch the premium bonds and put the money into high interest current accounts, for the £20k this would include tsb, nationwide, lloyds and bank of Scotland or tesco.

I know some or all of the above offer 5% but only to a maximum of £500 or £250 per month.

Wouldn't the Santander 123 account at 3% on the whole £20k be a better option for the OP who is just starting out on serious money saving?

I have got three bank accounts and it's hard work!

AnotherJoe

Terry98 wrote: »

I know some or all of the above offer 5% but only to a maximum of £500 or £250 per month.

Wouldn't the Santander 123 account at 3% on the whole £20k be a better option for the OP who is just starting out on serious money saving?

I have got three bank accounts and it's hard work!

You have confused regular savers which do have those limits with high interest current accounts which have limits on the overall account, anywhere between £2k-£5k or so. and that pay 4-5%. You can remove much of the hard work with standing orders. But it is a bit of a faff. If the faff is too much yes a S123 is still better than PB's.

Craig660

Guys,

So would you recommend putting the 20k into savings account and then going into HL with about 1k and choosing a portfolio ?

I have been suggested a few above, but any more suggestions would be great.

Thanks

Craig660

Anyone else, can offer some advice.

Thanks

bigadaj

Craig660 wrote: »

Anyone else, can offer some advice.

Thanks

At your level of investment then hl would be fine, I think they charge a fee for transferring out so that needs to be factored in for the future.

Charles Stanley direct might be another option, have a look at birth websites. Hl fees are nearly double those of csd but that's only a few tens of pounds a year at your level, I wouldn't choose one of their suggested portfolios as their charges can often be high, vanguard lifestrategy is often quoted as a reasonable default fund, as it covers most of the developed world, rebalances automatically and has low charges but the black rock consensus and legal and general multi index funds are good alternatives, the latter is a bit more expensive but holds property and has some management input for good or bad.