Buying Shares

Alexland

inflationbuster wrote: »

Few hundred pounds? Don't bother instead read up on investing (Naked Trader), practice trading virtually and save up.

This is exactly the type of book the OP would be best avoiding. Sure a few hundred pounds is a small start but everyone has to start somewhere and if the OP is keeping to percentage fees they should be able to make good long term returns on their original capital.

John-K_3

inflationbuster wrote: »

Few hundred pounds? Don't bother instead read up on investing (Naked Trader), practice trading virtually and save up.

Practice trading is worthless. It is worse than that, actually, it is actually damaging if you later intend to trade with real money.

Thrugelmir

John-K wrote: »

Practice trading is worthless. It is worse than that, actually, it is actually damaging if you later intend to trade with real money.

Particularly if you are rash in making decisions.

Interest

Hi all,

I wanted to return to this thread to update and ask some further questions.

My goals has changed somewhat after doing further research about investing in funds, rather than attempting to make money over the short term. I would like to start investing in funds via a S&S ISA so have been reading about this. I don’t currently have an ISA.

I like the HL platform but I see Vanguard is a popular choice and I would have chosen the LifeStrategy 40 fund via the Vanguard website. That being said, I want to invest £25-£50pcm into the ISA and Vanguard have a minimum of £100 directly it seems. Can I invest the £50pcm in the Vanguard fund via HL?

The alternative fund I’m looking at is HSBC global asset management (uk) fund which I can invest in via HL, however, I’m not sure of the difference between that fund and the Vanguard fund. Essentially I want nothing more than medium risk as I am now wanting to continue to invest the money for 15 - 20 years with any profits/dividends being reinvested.

I haven’t bitten the bullet just yet due to my concerns about which fund to choose although I may be overthinking this. I’m hoping someone here can help me by pointing out the aspects of the funds mentioned, or I’d welcome alternative options.

I am still investing in my pension, this has a current fund value of £23,500 after around 4 years of paying in. I also have the £300 I spoke about in the OP ready to start off further investment.

My other question is would it be sensible for my wife to also open a S&S ISA and invest in a totally different fund for diversity? She has a similar pension to me (NHS), although she has a smaller salary.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

somethingcorporate

IMHO you're overthinking it at the very small amounts your are considering investing and have already missed almost a year in the market (granted not a good year but it could have been).

Alexland

Yes for a monthly plan with Vanguard Investor they would want at least £100 PM (0.15%, no fund trade fees).

For £50 PM consider a Cavendish ISA (0.25%, no fund trade fees) or for less HL will take £25 PM (0.45%, no fund trade fees).

If you do go with HL one of the ways to mitigate the higher platform fee is by using discounted funds such as BlackRock Consensus 85 at 0.09% although this is above your stated risk preference.

If investing in something low risk such as VLS40 the long term return after fees might not be spectacular. You might even be able to get a better result sticking to cash saving products. My view is you need to go at least VLS60 to make investing worthwhile.

The funds are already very diversified so there is no need to invest in a similar fund.

Alex

Interest

Hi,

Just another small update for anyone interested.

I now have £1800 in Vanguard LS60 which seems to be doing well so far. Very happy with the simplicity of this, appreciate the previous guidance.

We've had a child too & we've put £500 in LS80 for her.

My pension is now at £32k although our pension provider is changing so will see how that goes.

I have £7500 in Nationwide flex direct accounts earning 5%.

Our mortgage rate ended and we got a new rate, reduced from 3.99% to 1.99%. have overpaid 2.5k this year.

My wife managed to get a new job with approx 10k payrise, although now on mat leave.

Cheers

Thrugelmir

Thanks for the update.

Just keep chipping away. While progess may seem slow at times. Over the years the effets of compounding will kick in.

Flobberchops

Fantastic. It's heartwarming to see a poster who both comes back to give updates, and seems to be following good advice.


Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. Her funds are held within a JISA, I hope?

Interest

Flobberchops wrote: »

Fantastic. It's heartwarming to see a poster who both comes back to give updates, and seems to be following good advice.


Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. Her funds are held within a JISA, I hope?

Hi,

Thank you for the kind words. I found the advice on here to be invaluable.

Yes, you'd be correct, I opened a JISA for her within 10 days of birth .

Will continue to add to my ISA at £125pcm from here.