Buying Shares

Interest

Hi all,
I hope you're keeping well.
I'm looking for some further guidance. I'm still contributing to my LS60, now £180pcm which with my pension contributions (incl from employer) makes 25% of my income.
My wife would also like to start building a portfolio but we are feeling somewhat overwhelmed with choice.
We could keep this simple and invest in LS as well, but I am wondering whether we should diversify via another platform (looking at interactive investor or AJ Bell). The goal by doing this would be to buy ETFs to go alongside my existing LS60. My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly. 
Any advice here would be appreciated. 

Thrugelmir

Interest said:

My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly. 

Interesting selection to create a portfolio for a novice investor. Any particular REIT?  

Username999

If the new normal after COVID-19 is more people continuing to work from home, then office REIT's should see a decreased rental income.

Interest

Thrugelmir said:

Interest said:

My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly. 

Interesting selection to create a portfolio for a novice investor. Any particular REIT?  

Hi,
The ETF, UK property UCITS if i've remembered correctly. it's a case of, lots of ideas/trial and error but knowing where to put them all together in terms of a platform to go alongside the LS60 I have.

Alexland

Interest said:

My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly.

If her account is going to be similar in size to yours then I would stick with multi asset funds. You each get your own FSCS protection up to £85k so no harm having matching accounts. Interactive Investor are expensive at £120 pa platform fee (inc. trade credits) and AJ Bell will offer you lots of choice at a higher price than Vanguard with trade fees but that might not be helpful if it overwhelms you both and you don't need the extra complexity. You are doing the right thing with your account so keep going.

Interest

Alexland said:

Interest said:

My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly.

If her account is going to be similar in size to yours then I would stick with multi asset funds. You each get your own FSCS protection up to £85k so no harm having matching accounts. Interactive Investor are expensive at £120 pa platform fee (inc. trade credits) and AJ Bell will offer you lots of choice at a higher price than Vanguard with trade fees but that might not be helpful if it overwhelms you both and you don't need the extra complexity. You are doing the right thing with your account so keep going.

Ok great - appreciate that

bowlhead99

Interest said:

The goal by doing this would be to buy ETFs to go alongside my existing LS60.

What ETFs would you buy and in what proportions that would make a more suitable portfolio than your existing Lifestrategy fund - which itself holds 15 or so specialist index funds investing in equities and various types of bonds from around the world?

My wife is interested in the FTSE100

FTSE100 index funds are specialist funds that allocate money to shares in 100 companies that happen to be listed on the UK stockmarket, heavily weighted to the 5-10 biggest ones. As an investment it would be significantly less diversified than something like a LifeStrategy fund or other mixed asset fund which invests in a variety of markets - including a better (broader) version of the UK equity index, along with various other funds which spread your money across equity and debt markets across the world.

we are feeling somewhat overwhelmed with choice.

as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held

There are 10-20,000 individual companies listed on global stockmarkets which are valued in the tens or hundreds of millions or billions, and might each make relatively good or bad investments. If you are 'overwhelmed' by the choices out there, it seems somewhat insane to try to conduct the research necessary to decide which handful of the 10-20,000 your wife should add to her portfolio and which 10,000+ she should reject.

Your wife works for the NHS, and not on a massive wage, and doesn't have an investment portfolio at the moment. What experience has she picked up that she thinks uniquely qualifies her to evaluate the business model and financial position of this particular handful of companies (and the 10,000+ she rejects as less worthy, after considering them) to ensure she pays an appropriate price for their shares?

While it might be 'interesting' to pick your own handful of investments, you are likely to do better by sticking to collective investments (funds or reits). And if not sure how to research the reits (or other individual specialist funds), stick to mixed asset funds rather than deciding how to build the allocation yourself.

Username999

Interest said:

My wife is interested in the FTSE100, REITs & a small % of Gold, as well as a handful of individual companies which would be bought and held as opposed to traded regularly. 

What's the Exit Strategy for the "handful of individual companies which would be bought".