Stock market investment help appreciated

Heedtheadvice

.....and the posters who beat me to it sum it up perfectly, even where our figures and time scales differ a bit!

lpgm

If you don't want the full ups and downs of an all-share fund, which you would balance with your own cash or something similar in any case, then you want some sort of multi-asset fund, which would balance different assets in the one fund for you. But whatever you go with, none of these things goes up in a nice smooth line. People here are wary of brokers' 'ready made portfolios' as the funds in them aren't always the cheapest.

kidmugsy

Charlton_King wrote: »

Neither my wife nor myself have any ISA investments at the moment. Might this be a way to go or at least start?

ISAs are a very useful "wrapper" that spare you the need to report dividends and capital gains to HMRC, and also spare you any tax on them.

SIPPs or other sorts of personal pensions are a similarly good idea, with the extra advantage that if you don't draw them they can eventually pass free of IHT to your nominated beneficiaries.

You can learn useful amounts from monevator, though it won't tell you what I will - I suspect that this is not a good time to begin equity investment. Wall St is very high and when it drops many other stock markets might drop too. Be that as it may:-

http://monevator.com/investing-for-beginners-why-do-we-invest/

http://monevator.com/the-simplest-most-effective-investment-decision-you-will-ever-make/

http://monevator.com/index-investing/

http://realinvestmentadvice.com/its-not-to-early-to-be-late/

ValiantSon

kidmugsy wrote: »

You can learn useful amounts from monevator, though it won't tell you what I will - I suspect that this is not a good time to begin equity investment. Wall St is very high and when it drops many other stock markets might drop too.

Timing the market?

dividendhero

Economic wrote: »

Shares do not grow steadily!

But dividends often do, eg CTY has 50 years of consecutive dividend growth and yields around 4% right now

BLB53

I've seen a poster on different thread talk about stocks and shares ISAs through e.g. Hargreaves Lansdown... and I notice the blurb on their website mention 'ready made portfolios' managed by them.

This would be an expensive option.

In your situation, I would be looking at Vanguard Lifestrategy 40 (40% equities/60% bonds). You could do this with Vanguard Investor platform which has charges of 0.15% (0.45% with HL).

Maybe spend a little time reading some of the articles on the likes of Monevator
http://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/

and DIY Investor
http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/p/basics.html

You will then have much more information to make a better decision.

AnotherJoe

Charlton_King wrote: »

We're not looking to make spectacular gains and would hope to avoid anything too risky. We would need this to be managed for us as we have neither the time nor the expertise.

I'm sure, being as you are retired, that you can find 30 minutes a year ? Indeed if you use an adviser, as well you might if you have no expertise or wish to gain any*, that seeing an adviser would take more time than DIY.

Ask around for friends who have an IFA they get on with. Make sure they are an IFA, Independent. Not just an FA.

* though that does leave you exposed in the same way that if you had no car knowledge at all and went to a garage and they told you you needed a new engine when a oil change was sufficient. So some reading is always a good idea even if just to better understand what your adviser says

enthusiasticsaver

I branched out into investing a few years ago and while it does take some time and a lot of reading to inform yourself I have found it paid dividends when OH and I were newly retired. Suggestions of where to start researching I would look at monevator articles which are quite simple to understand and give you the basics. I also read Moneywise, trustnet and Morningstar websites. Many of the investment platforms (Hargreaves and Lansdowne for example) also have good resources when it comes to choosing funds. They are fairly expensive for small portfolios though but they have great research on their website.

You need to beware of expensive ready made portfolios though until you know what you are investing in and why. Kidmugsy has sent you some good links above. We have invested some savings and part of our pension lump sums over the last few years. Around 65% of our liquid assets are invested. 50% is invested in Vanguard LS60 either through SIPPs or stocks and shares ISAs. The other 50% is invested in an income portfolio which supplements our DB pensions. This comprises of 2 multi asset income funds which pay out monthly.


If you will need the money in the next 3 to 4 years though then maybe investing is not for you. You need to be looking for a savings account or maybe fixed term investment. Or you could do as we did and split it. We put the remaining 35% of our assets across high interest current accounts and fixed term cash bonds or National Savings.

Audaxer

If you need access to a significant part of your money in 3-4 years, then investing is too risky. However as you are retired and if maybe you want to take income in the form of dividends from an actively managed multi asset fund, or a diverse portfolio of funds, it is perfectly possible to get around 4% in dividends annually and still get some capital growth in the long term. You will just have to be prepared for some volatility and not panic and sell the capital if/when there is an equity crash, as they happen from time to time.

As mentioned above you can learn a lot of the basics on this site and other sites mentioned above like Monevator, and save a fortune in IFA fees.

Alexland

ValiantSon wrote: »

Timing the market?

Kidmugsy has genuine concerns, which I share, that this might not be a good point in the market cycle to invest. Sure none of us can time the markets well enough to buy low and sell high but it does seem reasonable that the OP is warned that current asset valuations for both shares and bonds are looking optimistic. This is compounded by our weak currency making overseas assets unusually expensive.

Now over the long term with regular investing the cost will average out but for lump sums it could mean a long period of high volatility and negligible returns. The risk for potential reward ratio is looking less attractive so investors need to approach the market with their eyes open and fully consider their tollerence to seeing losses.

Alex