New Investor Advice AJ Bell S&S ISA

Audaxer

Trundley27 wrote: »

Audaxer. Thanks for this information also. So I could stick with AJ Bell to invest in the L&G Fund. I do like the idea of the Vanguard Life Strategy '80' fund. I have been reading into this.

Could I ask your view on a risk level, I am 30, I want to invest long term circa 10 to 15 years. My thinking is you would start off high risk hence e.g. Vanguard Life Strategy '80' fund and as time goes on you would, start to reduce the risk. etc

If I was 30 again I would have no hesitation of investing in a VLS80, but I think 10 years is too short a timescale to guarantee good returns. I'd be looking to leaving it invested it for at least 15 years.

EasyAs123

Sorry to butt in but can anyone recommend a higher risk managed fund with a larger UK presence? I've looked at blackrock, HSBC and vanguard but the global percentages are very heavy USA (30-40%) and I'd like to have a few thousand in something more UK based.

thank you in advance

Alexland

EasyAs123 wrote: »

Sorry to butt in but can anyone recommend a higher risk managed fund with a larger UK presence? I've looked at blackrock, HSBC and vanguard but the global percentages are very heavy USA (30-40%) and I'd like to have a few thousand in something more UK based.

Globalisation is causing traditional geographic analysis of stock holdings to break as there are many internationally focused companies with US or UK listings where a lot of their revenue is from overseas (so their share price and earnings are affected by currency movements). Still if you really want a heavy dose of UK for whatever reason then you might need to hold a UK fund alongside your VLS to get the desired allocation.

Alex

Trundley27

Hi all.

Just to update, I have withdrawn my 1st small investment from AJ Bell, my wife is going open a S&S Isa (Rather than transfer), we have decided to go with L&G Multi Index, as over Vanguard this gives the option to save a minimum £50.00p/m (if we want to). Where as Vanguard is £100.00, but we intend to fluctuate for the next year between £50.00 & £100.00 P/m as we want to ease ourselves into S&S (along side our regular savings) rather than jump in at the deep end, start small and build up.

We have decided to go for the highest level of risk (7) to start at 80% Equities, 25% Bonds and 5% using Property L&G Multi Index, this is pretty much the same level as Vanguard Life Strategy 80.

Now after all your helpful advice, have I now made the correct decision?? I hope so!


Cheers Ash

Audaxer

I'm sure you have made the right decision on the L&G fund. Do you mean you sold the fund and actually took the money out your S&S ISA to open one in your wife's name? If so you could have just sold the high risk fund and bought the L&G Multi Index fund within your own S&S ISA.

Trundley27

Audaxer, I have sold the fund and withdrawn the money as cash into my bank account. I was looking to transfer to L&G myself but you can only transfer to them with a balance of £500 minimum and although I could add £500 into the ISA I don't want to invest to much cash straight away as its all new to me. So she is opening as a new customer and you only need minimum £50.00 initial investment, but we will be saving for the first year £50 to £100, maybe dropping lump sums in later after 8 months when we get a feel for it. Also it will be nice for her to have something in her name to keep our savings evenly split between us both.

Lungboy

It sounds like you're intending to use L&G as a platform in its own right rather than buying an L&G fund on a DIY platform, is that correct?

Audaxer

Trundley27 wrote: »

Audaxer, I have sold the fund and withdrawn the money as cash into my bank account. I was looking to transfer to L&G myself but you can only transfer to them with a balance of £500 minimum and although I could add £500 into the ISA I don't want to invest to much cash straight away as its all new to me. So she is opening as a new customer and you only need minimum £50.00 initial investment, but we will be saving for the first year £50 to £100, maybe dropping lump sums in later after 8 months when we get a feel for it. Also it will be nice for her to have something in her name to keep our savings evenly split between us both.

But you didn't need to transfer to the L&G platform. You could have stayed with AJ Bell and just bought the L&G fund there as it's cheaper and you can invest a minimum of £25 monthly.

Trundley27

Yes I was going to L&G direct, that's the impression I have kind of got throughout this post. I know I could do it through A&J Bell, but people didn't have the best of opinions about AJ Bell.
Are your thoughts different?

Lungboy

I think you misunderstood. People have been recommending the L&G and Vanguard funds, being held on either the Vanguard platform as it's comparitively cheap, or another DIY platform like AJ Bell or Cavendish. L&G direct is pretty pricey i think, which might explain why your numbers seemed off.

When you say you sold the funds in your ISA and put them as cash in your bank, did you completely close the ISA, or just empty it?