First investment advice

kasworld

Thank you all, some very helpful advice received.

I have decided to increase my AVC for my pension and will be going ahead with the Vanguard Life Strategy for the flexibility it offers.

Also, good shout on the Smarter Investing book by Tim Hale, I have just purchased it and looking forward to giving that a read.

Thanks again!

chiang_mai

I think it's important you use your annual ISA allowance and take advantage of the tax break, regardless of however you do that, even if it's just a cash ISA at the outset. Also, getting into the habit of savings every month into a specific account is very important so I strongly recommend you get into that habit asap and stick with it, again, no matter where or how that money is saved, developing the habit is the impiortant part.

As for where to put those funds: most of the investment world is looking for equity markets to crash soon simply because that's what happens in cycles and we're long overdue. Putting your first 8k into an equity fund right now might not be such a great idea if you don't have other reserves to see you through any potential crash. Drip feeding might be a better approach and spread any remaining cash into other more liquid and secure assets, assets you can easily access so that when the markets do crash, you can jump in and buy at the bottom.

As for what to buy: I'm a big fan of equities now but I'm not an experienced investor, for those reasons I like mixed asset funds such as VLS which are great for people who don't have an abundance of experience and/or time to look after their investments - whatever you don't know how to do well yourself, leave it to the professionals, is my motto.