Standard Life vs National Grid Shares

aj23_2

bowlhead99 wrote: »

NG a bit boring. SL Aberdeen difficult to call. They're not particularly comparable as NG is a completely different kettle of fish from SL.

The idea that "they are both companies and they both pay dividends so I'll just toss a coin or ask someone on the internet which one is better for me to spend four hundred quid on" does not really mark you out as the type of savvy investor for whom investment appraisal comes naturally. You might be better off just throwing it into a fund that covers everything from energy supplies and pipelines through to banks.

https://www.fondulproprietatea.ro/investor-relations

People buy shares all the time. Considering Standard Life is about to return a few billion to shareholders, I wouldn't say I'm not being savvy. I'm not asking if it's boring, I'm saying they've been paying out between 45p and £1.30 yearly per share recently.

I don't know about funds, although I do know that HL will charge me to hold money in funds. I don't know loads about shares but how else do you learn unless you get involved with it?

aj23_2

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

in theory, 2 halves might hold more liquidity, due to surface tension ...

but back on topic, it appears you're proposing to pay a £11.95 dealing commission to invest £430. and will eventually have to pay the same again to sell.

that's a ridiculously high percentage in costs. (i tried to work it out, but it broke my calculator ) ... so buy a fund instead, for which there is no dealing charge with HL. e.g. they have blackrock consensus 85 at a cut-price on-going charge.

That's just what they charge, I went with them for Lloyds because they were cheaper than the others. I'm not planning on selling my shares.

I don't know about funds.

george4064

@aj123, you can't just say 'I don't know about funds' and ignore them!

Read up on them, educate yourself to allow you to make better investment decisions.

Few useful links you should consider reading:

http://www.hl.co.uk/beginners-guides/guide-to-funds/what-is-a-fund
http://monevator.com/ (also check out the Compare Brokers section)

eskbanker

aj23 wrote: »

I don't know about funds, although I do know that HL will charge me to hold money in funds. I don't know loads about shares but how else do you learn unless you get involved with it?

Learning by doing is undoubtedly one way, but do you learn to drive by jumping into a Ferrari and heading straight for the M25, rather than reading up on the Highway Code and then going through a carefully-planned sequence of supervised instruction?

The point being made is that the generally accepted method of minimising risk when (starting) investing is to diversify, which effectively means buying collective investments such as funds, which in turn have holdings in hundreds or thousands of individual equities and are therefore less susceptible to corporate failure.

So, even though Standard Life and National Grid (and Lloyds) may seem like large companies that are here to stay and you can't envisage their share price plummeting, they used to say that about Carillion, Enron, etc, etc....

There are plenty of threads on here about approaches for novice investors, and stacks of info to research, such as:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/investments/
https://www.monevator.com
http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/

aj23_2

george4064 wrote: »

@aj123, you can't just say 'I don't know about funds' and ignore them!

Read up on them, educate yourself to allow you to make better investment decisions.

Few useful links you should consider reading:

http://www.hl.co.uk/beginners-guides/guide-to-funds/what-is-a-fund
http://monevator.com/ (also check out the Compare Brokers section)

Well it's better than saying I do know about about them!

Thanks for the links. Someone said about that HL doesn't charge for trading funds, but that link says you do.

Do i have to have a Stocks and Shares ISA for dealing and trading funds?

aj23_2

eskbanker wrote: »

Learning by doing is undoubtedly one way, but do you learn to drive by jumping into a Ferrari and heading straight for the M25, rather than reading up on the Highway Code and then going through a carefully-planned sequence of supervised instruction?

The point being made is that the generally accepted method of minimising risk when (starting) investing is to diversify, which effectively means buying collective investments such as funds, which in turn have holdings in hundreds or thousands of individual equities and are therefore less susceptible to corporate failure.

So, even though Standard Life and National Grid (and Lloyds) may seem like large companies that are here to stay and you can't envisage their share price plummeting, they used to say that about Carillion, Enron, etc, etc....

There are plenty of threads on here about approaches for novice investors, and stacks of info to research, such as:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/investments/
https://www.monevator.com
http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/

I guess my private pension is a fund right? It's invested in four four different funds and yielding 9%.

ColdIron

aj23 wrote: »

People buy shares all the time

I don't and nor does anybody I know. Apart from £4,000 of British American Tobacco years ago when I gave up fags I haven't bought any and don't intend to. Small amounts in a few individual company shares is risky, expensive and more likely than not will lose you money

I don't know loads about shares but how else do you learn unless you get involved with it?

You'll learn why most serious investors don't get involved in it and that will be a useful lesson. The problem is that once you've been burned you might give up on investing as a waste of money because you didn't take the advice of people here about the sensible thing to do with small sums which could eventually become large sums

aj23_2

ColdIron wrote: »

I don't and nor does anybody I know. Apart from £4,000 of British American Tobacco years ago when I gave up fags I haven't bought any and don't intend to. Small amounts in a few individual company shares is risky, expensive and more likely than not will lose you money

You'll learn why most serious investors don't get involved in it and that will be a useful lesson. The problem is that once you've been burned you might give up on investing as a waste of money because you didn't take the advice of people here about the sensible thing to do with small sums which could eventually become large sums

I already have 500 shares in Lloyds because I do think that will become beneficial now that they aren't indebted to the government.

But you say about not taking advice, I've withdrawn the cash on my HL account and I'm not going ahead with buying more shares and instead looking into researching funds.

ColdIron

aj23 wrote: »

I'm not going ahead with buying more shares and instead looking into researching funds.

Well done, the best decision you will make today

eskbanker

aj23 wrote: »

I guess my private pension is a fund right? It's invested in four four different funds and yielding 9%.

Your pension provider will undoubtedly be using funds, yes, although ironically many such providers do invest in individual shares, which is why the largest shareholders in most listed companies are institutional investors.

However, this is viable for them because the scale of their funding and their access to professional expertise means they can diversify in ways not generally available to the individual investor, so for those of us investing below six figures it's best to stick to collective investments....