Stocks and Shares ISAs, good returns?

RoyaleMale

A few years ago I set up a Stocks and Shares ISA. My money was in there for about 2 years and I ended up withdrawing it at a loss.

Are they worth investing in nowadays? What kind of returns could I expect in terms of percentage?

PeacefulWaters

Has anybody borrowed my crystal ball?

There are thousands of different funds that can be sheltered in an ISA wrapper. A two year timeline is generally seen as too short for investing. Who knows what future returns will be?

Just usually better than a savings account over a longer period of time.

ValiantSon

Given that you cashed in your previous investments at a loss after only two years, this would suggest that you don't really understand investing. Investing is a long term commitment, and a minimum timeframe of less than ten years is inadvisable. There will be ups and downs along the way, but over time a well-diversified portfolio of investments could reasonably be expected to grown in value, and to outstrip the returns that could be made in savings accounts. Nothing is guaranteed with investments, but given a sensible timeframe and good diversification you could reasonably expect a positive return.

S&S ISAs are just a tax wrapper. They are not a type of investment. You put your money into the ISA and then choose investments to make with that money. The performance of those investments (of which there are thousands of options) will determine your return. Nobody can give you a realistic expected percentage return because we don't know what you will be investing in and for how long. Even if we did know this information, we wouldn't know how the markets would perform over that timeframe. The best we can offer is that, as I have already said, over a suitably long enough timeframe, and with a well-diversified portfolio, you could expect to see returns that will beat savings accounts interest rates.

I'd suggest that you need to do some more research into investing. A starting point might be this website: http://monevator.com/ or perhaps this one: http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.co.uk/. There are also plenty of books available on the subject, perhaps this one would be a useful starting point: Investing Demystified by Lars Kroijer.

What you definitely should not do is sell your investments at a loss! If your investments are down then you only make a real loss if you sell them and take the cash. The best thing to do is wait it out until they have recovered.

dunstonh

My money was in there for about 2 years and I ended up withdrawing it at a loss.

So you invested for 2 years of the 10 year economic cycle and got a negative period. If you invest for 2 years you dont know if you are going to get a positive period, negative period or nothing period. This is why investing is said to be for the long term as you need to average out the ups, the downs and the nothing years.

Are they worth investing in nowadays?

They are worth investing in for anyone that has the right objective.

What kind of returns could I expect in terms of percentage?

You can hold around 30,0000 different investments in an ISA and a
near infinite combination. Retuns have nothing to do with the ISA. The assets you place in the ISA are what you are investing in.

How long would you plan to invest in an ISA this time?

economic

Expected returns? anything from -100% to +infinity%. That would be my best guess.

bowlhead99

economic wrote: »

... to +infinity%. That would be my best guess.

I think you could make a better guess if you moderated down the upper estimate. OP is unlikely to reach infinity percent returns in their lifetime.

steampowered

RoyaleMale wrote: »

A few years ago I set up a Stocks and Shares ISA. My money was in there for about 2 years and I ended up withdrawing it at a loss.

A shame. It sounds like you invested at the top of the market and withdrew it at the bottom. If you left it in there for longer, you would have made a pretty large gain.

economic

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I think you could make a better guess if you moderated down the upper estimate. OP is unlikely to reach infinity percent returns in their lifetime.

If GBP cash falls to precisely zero value, OP could very well make infinite returns in GBP terms

greenglide

So you end up dividing by zero?

But division by zero gives and undefined result, not infinity (or at least it did when I was at university).

capital0ne

greenglide wrote: »

So you end up dividing by zero?

But division by zero gives and undefined result, not infinity (or at least it did when I was at university).

You're all wrong it's the square root of -1 heheheheheh - think about it :T:T:T:T:T:T

bostonerimus

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I think you could make a better guess if you moderated down the upper estimate. OP is unlikely to reach infinity percent returns in their lifetime.

Sometimes what looks like infinity actually isn't....case in point the divergent infinite sum of all positive integers

1+2+3+4+5+6.............= -1/12

so an infinite series of positive returns gives you a loss at the end......it must be due to the fees;)