Great Hunt: Are you interested in investing your money?

chockydavid1983

Novice201 wrote: »

I am still in the research stage of investing, but I am not brave when it comes to money but feel I am being forced into it because the interest rates are so rubbish and the banks don't want to know about us savers.

So from reading the forum a Stocks and Shares ISA seems the best starting point, but I don't if I should just invest a lump sum or not? Any advice for a complete novice?

If you have a lump sum now and are investing for the long term, you'd normally be better off investing all now (assuming the amount you're talking about is below the S&S ISA yearly limit) as you'd then benefit from dividends payments from the moment it was in.
You may choose to drip feed over a short time to guard against there being a crash immediately after you put it all in. Once you start down that road though, you're heading towards 'timing the market' territory, which is nigh on impossible.

eskbanker

XChrisJD wrote: »

the fund manager was so good he left & set up on his own. As an example, our investment is spread between 63% Equity, 33% Bonds & 13% Other.

He's not very good with percentages then....

dk2401

I've been investing in equities for over 30 years (:eek:!)
Here are my 7 rules for simple investing...

1) There are no guarantees in the stock market. Although it's unlikely. you could lose part or all of your investment so never invest with borrowed cash or with money you can't afford to lose.

2) Always keep at least 6 months salary in an easy to access current/savings account in case of emergencies.

3) Only buy equity (stock market) investments if you're able to leave your money invested for at least 5 years, preferably 10.

4) Find a low cost investment provider e.g. http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

5) Don't go chasing the latest investment fashion. Choose diversified funds with low management costs. You can even just buy one global equity fund if you want to keep it simple.

6) Choose an amount of money you can afford to invest each month and drip-feed it into your fund(s). You can increase this as you (hopefully) earn more over time.

7) Keep going.... Remember, if the market falls it actually benefits you in the long term as you're buying more 'units' of your funds for the same money (as the prices are cheaper!):T

That's it - The best time to start investing is NOW!

elephantrosie

ive always wanted to be a full time investor, but i like my day job and have invested too much time and money on it. been holding off investment for a looong looong loong time.

Pincher

Just remember, there are a billion other greedy gold fever sufferers, just like you: or are you suffering from the delusion that only British people invest their money?

There is a whole industry of people that portray themselves as Sir Walter Raleigh, who will venture the High Seas to bring you gold and rubies.

The pressure to perform turn elves into orcs.

Hedge fund managers create fake news and short companies.

Multinational companies will relocate somewhere the government will take bribes to let you pollute their environment so the people suffer lingering deaths.

Child labour that breathe in glue fumes, sub-standard factories that collapse on the workers. Zero hour contracts are mild in comparison.

A woman once asked me to help her fill out an investor fact find form, so she can invest her divorce settlement. What does "Ethical Consideration" mean, she asked. :rotfl:

XChrisJD

Thank you eskbanker - my eyesight obviously wants checking! The correct figure is obviously Equities at 53%.
Although we have only been with this fund for 3 years, we were with 2 different funds for the previous 10 years & started with considerably less than the figure I mentioned.
This forum is about opinions & experiences of investing - which is all I have done. I think dk2401 has given probably the best advice I have seen for people thinking of investing.

JohnRo

XChrisJD wrote: »

I think dk2401 has given probably the best advice I have seen for people thinking of investing.

Points 6 & 7 are debatable, if you have a lump sum and a long term investment horizon, which you should always have, then investing as much as you can, as early as you can, for as long as you can, has been shown to be the better option in most cases.

Drip feeding an investment, when a lump sum is available, has far more to do with the psychology of fearing 'losses' than anything related to investment science or best practice.

colsten

I am a bit worried about the thread title. Investing isn't like hunt, and it's not akin to anything MSE typically covers (best interest rates, best deals in shops, who pays the best referral fee etc). MSE previously dipped their toes into the investment pond with an article on S&S ISAs. The recommended approach was First you need to pick which provider to buy your ISA from, then you need to decide what investments to put in it. As those with investment experience know, this is totally the wrong way to go about investing. You need to start with creating your investment strategy and your portfolio, that's the hard bit. Finding a suitable platform is the next step.

It's been mentioned by others already and I'd like to also recommend monevator.com as a great resource for the novice investor.

BananaRepublic

I've been investing in the stock markets for 20 years. The biggest change I have seen is the availability of useful fund data. When I started, it was much harder to do research. Nowadays there are numerous web sites which provide huge amounts of data on funds, making it much easier to invest wisely.

I've met quite a few people who 'dabbled' in the stock market, and lost money, never to return. Doubtless this is due to investing unwisely and not learning the basics.

batrachophagus

I have an interest-only mortgage and was using cash ISAs to accrue funds to pay it off starting about 7 years ago. When my first child was born 5 years ago I opened an investment ISA with the intention of gifting him the funds when he is older. The return on the ISA was incredible, and I was struggling to find a savings account with an interest rate higher than the mortgage rate of 2.5%.


Long story short, I now invest in a diverse portfolio of funds (6 managed funds with different geography and sectors, plus an index tracker, plus a wealthify app) within an ISA wrapper.


I know timing has been kind to me, but my compound annual rate averages 15.5% when I used to think 3% was good.


I do keep 2.5 time salary as cash still though.


I can hopefully pay mortgage off in less than 5 years, so perhaps should think about switching to cash, but the date isn't fixed, and I'm reluctant to get no return (i.e. saving rate = mortgage rate).