New to ISA Stocks and Shares

starkiwi26

Hello all,

My background
I am 34 years old now, single male, have stable job and middle income at basic rate 20%.
I own a small house (£130k, 80% mortgage, recently remortgaged with good low interest rate), £20k cash in Santander 123 as emergency fund (enjoy 1.5% interest)
I paid 8% of my salary, whereas my employer paid 10% of my salary for pension. I believe this is sufficient at my age now.

My availability
After deducting all expenses, I have disposable money monthly of about £1100
I save £100 monthly for my annual holiday travel/entertainment
so, left about £1000, which I plan
a) £500 for short term investment (3-5 years)
b) £500 for medium term (5-10 years)
My salary is not high, this is my hard earn money with pain and sweat, I minimize all my expenses to keep this saving, therefore I really want the best out of them

My 2017 resolution:
I committed to myself that I should make use of the £20k ISA budget this year, this mean a saving of £1,667/month.:A :A
Source: £1k from my monthly disposable income and £667 from Santander :T (because I feel my emergency fund is too high, and also Santander had reduced its interest down to 1.5%.)

My plan
I am relatively young and have no family commitment. My parents are doing fine also, need no support from me.
Therefore, I target ISA Stocks and Shares which I believe can bring maximum profit at reasonable risk short term (3-5 years) and long term (5-10 years). Following MSE advice, I plan to split my money for monthly investment (direct debit) with £1,667/month (total £20k investment ISA Budget).

My questions:
I read MSE guide on ISA Stocks and Shares, the more I read, the more I confuse with platform fees, trading fees and fund manager fees. :mad::eek:
For example, I plan to do investment monthly, on 3 different funds (MSE: diversify to derisk), do this mean I will make 3x trading per month?
Appreciate the master and guru here could share your experience and give guidance to newbie like me how to start the ISA investment?
A recommendation of ISA Stocks and Shares platform and how to start the first investment will be very helpful.
If you have other better investment tips (not limited to ISA stocks and shares) are very welcome also.

Many thanks in a advance. :beer::beer:

jimjames

Don't read the MSE guides, start with https://www.monevator.com

Well done for making the first steps though, read up and ask more questions if you need clarification

economic

I am 34 as well and it is sad to see not many people like the OP here. most people our age tend to just spend it all. well done OP.

Eco_Miser

Well done on taking the first steps to investment.

starkiwi26 wrote: »

My 2017 resolution:
I committed to myself that I should make use of the £20k ISA budget this year, this mean a saving of £1,667/month.:A :A
Source: £1k from my monthly disposable income and £667 from Santander :T (because I feel my emergency fund is too high, and also Santander had reduced its interest down to 1.5%.)

Rather than take £667 out of Santander every month, why not invest £8000 or £9000 as soon as you have decided what you want to invest in, and then add the £1000 you have spare each month thereafter?

You can reduce transaction fees by only buying one fund each month, cycling round the funds you (intend to) have.
You can eliminate transaction fees altogether, at the cost of paying a percentage of all your holdings on the platform. This can be cheaper, but probably not for long if you plan on filling your ISA every year.

SnowMan's spreadsheet, obtainable from here allows you to compare platforms for your circumstances.

Monevator also has a list of platforms and charges, and as stated, a lot of useful information.

You could be getting 5% rather than 1.5% on some of your cash.

Fatbritabroad

economic wrote: »

I am 34 as well and it is sad to see not many people like the OP here. most people our age tend to just spend it all. well done OP.

Not all of us I'm 36 and have bee boringly frugal since being about 20. I had the spend gene knocked out of me after running a 2500 bill upon my first credit card. My dad fortunately cleared it so I didn't have any interest to pay but I had to pay him back 100 a month. Seeing how long it took me to pay back just the capital not the interest was enough for me!