Moneyfarm

Zoea

Are we not a little bit close to the next correction for this? We've had (at least in the USA) a large number of good years in equities. I don't think a correction will happen in 2018, though I would not be much surprise with a 2019 one?

:eek:

thebullsback

moneyfarm is now on my nooo list .
like the sound of tracker investments ..........any thoughts on who and what??
All thoughts are that just thoughts.

ValiantSon

Oldbiggles wrote: »

If you are willing to invest for 5 years, then why not buy into Company shares.

Perhaps because this is a very risk strategy with poor diversification. How does one make the decision on which shares to buy? Mostly it comes down to taking a punt and hoping you come out of it better off. This is otherwise known as gambling.

Oldbiggles wrote: »

You would need to buy the shares through a stockbroker and ask for the certificates to be sent to you. This way you only pay a one off fee and sit back and watch the dividends coming in, whereas if you buy into a fund you continue to pay fees and annual charges to financial advisers which can be quite severe.

There is no need to pay any money to financial advisers, unless you wish to do so because you believe that their advice will result in better performing investments that outweigh the additional cost. Buying funds in the manner described above does not involve the use of a financial adviser, so there are no transactional or ongoing fees for them.

You also seem to be suggesting that just buying the shares and keeping them in perpetuity is an ideal choice. I doubt that is likely to be the case, which of course then invloves more trading and therefore further stockbroker costs.

Yes, buying funds does incur ongoing fees, but these are relatively low and allow you to have a much more diversified portfolio which reduces risk.

Oh and paper share certificates are disappearing. They also aren't a particularly good way of holding the title to your shares as they are easily lost and destroyed.

Oldbiggles wrote: »

You don’t need to be too speculative, buy shares listed in the FTSE 100, say £2000 per share. As long as you hold the certificates you will continue to receive the dividends. Put the received dividends into a savings account until it grows into a sum that you can reinvest into another share.

Meanwhile all those share dividends are being held as cash which is eroding their value due to inflation. Reinvesting them would most likely give a better return over the long run.

Oldbiggles wrote: »

You never know, you might get a taste for investing this way. It happened to me and I made a healthy profit.

You might get a taste for it and it might well come crashing down around your ears because your portfolio is poorly constructed being lacking in geographical and asset class diversification.

I'm pleased to hear that you made a healthy profit. There are many gamblers who have made a living out of it, but there many many more who have lost lots of money.

Oldbiggles wrote: »

Remember, financial advisers are in it to make money, your interests are secondary.

Financial advisers are obviously in it to make money, just as we all are in whatever job we do! I don't do my job out of the goodness of my heart, I do it because I get paid for doing so, but that doesn't mean that I don't wish to deliver a good service to customers.

And, just to repeat the point, you don't have to use a financial adviser to invest in funds.

ValiantSon

Zoea wrote: »

Are we not a little bit close to the next correction for this? We've had (at least in the USA) a large number of good years in equities. I don't think a correction will happen in 2018, though I would not be much surprise with a 2019 one?

:eek:

There could be a market correction soon, or there might not be. Nobody knows. It is impossible to time the market.

Investing over the long term and sticking to a considered strategy is likely to result in investment growth. It is many times less risky than other things you have opened threads about, like spread betting, for example. That is speculation, rather than investment.

ValiantSon

thebullsback wrote: »

moneyfarm is now on my nooo list .
like the sound of tracker investments ..........any thoughts on who and what??
All thoughts are that just thoughts.

I'll go with my suggestion above about looking into Vanguard LifeStrategy. There are five different versions depending upon the mix of equities and bonds (100; 80; 60; 40; 20). The greater the proportion of equities the riskier it is, but also the greater potential for higher returns. You need to think about how risk averse you are as to which you might be interested in, but as a rule of thumb starting point (and it is only that) subtract your age from 100 and this will give you a ballpark of how much to put into equities, e.g. if you were 40 then you might consider a 60% equity share (Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 would be an obvious match, therefore). However, you might be more prepared to take the risk of bigger falls in your portfolio over a time period and therefore say that you wanted to put 70% into equities and only 30% into bonds. If you wanted to do that with Vanguard funds then you could split your investments between the VLS80 and VLS60.

There are other passive trackers available, but I think Vanguard offer a good price model for the diversity of investments.

jimjames

DennisTenus wrote: »

Yeah, so the big question is who do people with 100K+ use? IWeb?

I want to because they are so cheap but worry about the 50K protection.

Yes. iWeb are a very good option for £100k plus. I' ve consolidated all my ISAs with them

BananaRepublic

Oldbiggles wrote: »

If you are willing to invest for 5 years, then why not buy into Company shares. You would need to buy the shares through a stockbroker and ask for the certificates to be sent to you. This way you only pay a one off fee and sit back and watch the dividends coming in, whereas if you buy into a fund you continue to pay fees and annual charges to financial advisers which can be quite severe. You don’t need to be too speculative, buy shares listed in the FTSE 100, say £2000 per share. As long as you hold the certificates you will continue to receive the dividends. Put the received dividends into a savings account until it grows into a sum that you can reinvest into another share. You never know, you might get a taste for investing this way. It happened to me and I made a healthy profit. Remember, financial advisers are in it to make money, your interests are secondary.

There are many downsides to shares. Firstly you have to create a portfolio in order to reduce risk. Secondly you need to do a lot of research before you create a short list of companies to invest in. Thirdly you need to pay commission to buy and sell shares. Fourthly you need to keep track of the shares, and company outlook, and sell when appropriate. Fifthly you have the hassle of reinvesting dividends on which you pay tax. And so on. Phew. It’s a lot of hard work.

Alternatively just buy shares in a collective investment such as an OEIC. Then sit back and relax and enjoy the rewards.

Alexland

We had Moneyfarm dealing accounts via TopCashBack when they still had the £10k fee free structure. Frankly we did it because they were offering £200 cashback per account if we deposited £900 per month for 3 months and it didn't look like a bad investment. The performance was pretty similar to most other balanced portfolios but the weighted ETF fees were 0.3% which slightly erroded the value of not paying a platform fee. Once the cashback paid we closed the accounts as it was nothing special and I would rather be with a more established player.

Alex.

DennisTenus

jimjames wrote: »

Yes. iWeb are a very good option for £100k plus. I' ve consolidated all my ISAs with them

And you aren't worried that only 50K of it is protected?!

DennisTenus

BananaRepublic wrote: »

There are many downsides to shares. Firstly you have to create a portfolio in order to reduce risk. Secondly you need to do a lot of research before you create a short list of companies to invest in. Thirdly you need to pay commission to buy and sell shares. Fourthly you need to keep track of the shares, and company outlook, and sell when appropriate. Fifthly you have the hassle of reinvesting dividends on which you pay tax. And so on. Phew. It’s a lot of hard work.

Alternatively just buy shares in a collective investment such as an OEIC. Then sit back and relax and enjoy the rewards.

Is an OEIC similar to a Fund?