Advice - Stocks and Shares ISA

Pipz

Thanks for the info - my initial venture (a while ago) was with Virgin money which was a much simpler affair. I'm trying to get a feel for what's available before investing.

xylophone

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/funds/the-cheapest-index-tracker-funds---and-the-trick-to-cutting-cost/

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5583030

might be worth a look.

enthusiasticsaver

economic wrote: »

isnt it a good idea to spread investments across a couple of platforms in case one goes bust? at least when the size becomes large enough to move to another platform.

The money is invested in funds not the platform. If the platform goes bust you still have the investment.

george4064

Check https://www.monevator.com for lots of information on portfolio construction and comparison table for ISA platforms.

Pipz

Thank you

Pipz

Greetings all,

Having done limited research I aim to subscribe to the VLS suite of funds this weekend (specifically VLS20/60/100) paying £100 a month into each fund (if disposable permits).

I had considered contributing to a Lifetime ISA through H&L fr retirement purposes (my current status - basic rate taxpayer, current member of LGPS, homeowner) but was somewhat unsure if it was advisable versus putting the same money into a private pension.

If I have any residual after that I had thought of contributing to an innovative ISA through Zopa (I have invested with them in the past) as aside from the minimum £1K initial investment, I believe you can drip random amounts into it.

Does anyone spot anything alarming in this idea?

TIA

AnotherJoe

Yes, why would you invest in three different VLS variants ? In the proportions you mention it's the same as just buyinging vls60

bowlhead99

Pipz wrote: »

Having done limited research I aim to subscribe to the VLS suite of funds this weekend (specifically VLS20/60/100) paying £100 a month into each fund (if disposable permits).

As Joe said it makes no real sense to invest separately in those three funds in equal proportions as you would get broadly the same exposure to underlying assets as just investing in the middle one. On a technical point that makes very little practical difference I could understand someone using a mix of 20 and 100 instead of 60, if they could be bothered with the hassle of manually rebalancing it frequently, but not using 20 and 60 and 100 all at once in the same ISA.

I had considered contributing to a Lifetime ISA through H&L fr retirement purposes (my current status - basic rate taxpayer, current member of LGPS, homeowner) but was somewhat unsure if it was advisable versus putting the same money into a private pension.

The underlying investment choices with LISA and pension will be basically the same.

As a basic rate taxpayer you won't get a better 'bonus' from tax relief with a personal pension than you could get from the LISA, and you have more flexibility on when to draw chunks of cash out of a LISA (because no tax ever payable) whereas when you draw a private pension a large proportion of it will be taxable, so you have to consider your available personal tax allowances in the years before your workplace and state pensions kick in, and manage the timing carefully to avoid paying tax on it. There are pros and cons you can read up on, on lots of other threads.

If I have any residual after that I had thought of contributing to an innovative ISA through Zopa (I have invested with them in the past) as aside from the minimum £1K initial investment, I believe you can drip random amounts into it.

Zopa doesn't seem particularly attractive for the risk involved when you can get 5% zero risk on regular saving accounts on up to £500pm at Nationwide, M&S, First Direct etc. In terms of 'dripping random amounts' Nationwide don't care if you put £500 or £1 or £0 into their 'Flexclusive Regular Saver' account each month (obviously the more the merrier, given the nice interest rate) and it is instant access.

Pipz

Thank you - I wasn't overly sure if the different VLS variants contained different asset mixes or if they were simply the same assets but in varying proportions of bonds and equity.

On reflection I'll look at some of the other funds to spread things a little further.

I believe that if I open an S&S ISA with Vanguard then all my subscriptions this year are limited to them but I can open a new S&S ISA with another provider in the new tax year.

Am I correct that if I do open a LISA this year then that can be with a different provider (has to be as Vanguard don't offer one) as it's a different ISA type?