1st ISA attempt, what have I signed up to.

droopsnoot

Dandytf said: 

Thanks I don't understand ISA's enough as when I had browsed and considered Isa's before tonight I'm sure there was a percent or more return.

That's only on cash ISAs. With an investment ISA (or general investment not in an ISA) your return will vary depending on how the fund(s) perform - you may get substantially greater percentage one year, or a loss the next, and any combination of those things over a period of time. Most funds will provide documentation to show how they've performed in the past, along with a note to highlight that past performance is not an indication of the future.

No idea about the fund - mine are old L&G funds that I have too much inertia to do anything about.

Dandytf

droopsnoot said:

Dandytf said: 

Thanks I don't understand ISA's enough as when I had browsed and considered Isa's before tonight I'm sure there was a percent or more return.

That's only on cash ISAs. With an investment ISA (or general investment not in an ISA) your return will vary depending on how the fund(s) perform - you may get substantially greater percentage one year, or a loss the next, and any combination of those things over a period of time.

No idea about the fund - mine are old L&G funds that I have too much inertia to do anything about.

Thanks coincidence that I had considered L&G last night. 
I have understood my chosen fund in that any positive return is wholly dependent on how this HL Managed fund performs, which I'm not going to guess over 2020/2021 though previous three years has shown to be growing.
I have also chosen to hold any positive returns, meaning I'll get to re decide next year what my next fund or investments are suitable.
Your chosen L&G Fund- how does that work as any alternative ISA examples I could use for future reference and learn as I attempt to Invest.

thanks

eskbanker

Dandytf said:

eskbanker said:

Unless I'm mixing you up with another poster, isn't it you that keeps posting on the credit card board about how you're desperately trying to juggle card repayments to avoid persistent debt enforcement actions?  If so, then it really doesn't make any sense to be starting investing (or even saving) while you're currently struggling to manage debts....

Making inroads on unsecured debts, though that as you say isn't for this board.
I'm attempting to save continuously with various types of funds including the mentioned 1st ISA attempt fund.
You are correct, maybe not the most cost effective choice, though I expect a much improved scenario over next 2-3 years.

Thanks anyway, any thoughts on my chosen ISA Fund.

You mention that you've specifically chosen a UK-only fund, which goes against usual guidance to diversify broadly (globally), so I agree with masonic's earlier point about that, but fundamentally I think you'd be better concentrating on first paying off debts, then building up some readily-accessible savings, and only after that considering investment.  As usual, it isn't practical to comment on investment suitability without knowing more about objectives, risk tolerance, etc....

Ceme3000

As a beginner with investing, If you invest in just one geographic area and it underperforms or you lose money it will most likely put you off investing again, which is not a good thing.  If you diversify and invest for the long term then history demonstrates that you will get a return that beats inflation.
As others have said, with debts then investing is probably not the right move for you, but if you must, then at least pick a fund that is globally diversified and has low charges.  Vanguard, HSBC, L&G all have funds that would achieve this.

Dandytf

Thanks mser's for positive almost detailed responses.
One point I did take from HL video specific to my chosen FTSE350 UK Growth Fund is that HL also see this as a Long term fund -though I accept maybe going Global sooner rather than later to diversify would take way a lot of Risk.
I honestly haven't yet found time to read Global or EU type stocks and didn't  want to guess initially.
I haven't went into HL charges in great detail, though as one example I thought  0.6 etc are maybe similar to LG and some others, unless MSE'rs know otherwise.

droopsnoot

Dandytf said:

Your chosen L&G Fund- how does that work as any alternative ISA examples I could use for future reference and learn as I attempt to Invest.

I'm not sure what you mean by "how does it work". I put some money into it years ago, and any returns are reinvested automatically, and some are sold off periodically to pay the various fees.

I should add - I didn't really choose the funds. I "sort of" did, but it was decades ago, back when the Nationwide (and others) were giving advice. It was their pick of funds, which I agreed with (or to), but I couldn't have explained why a couple of hours later, never mind 20-odd years - I'm sure their door was fitted with a memory-scrubbing device. The first thing the investment as a whole did was to drop by about 40%, but I left it in place and now it's worth quite a bit more than I put in. I haven't compared it to how it would have done had I left it in cash savings accounts. While the investment is still there, if / when I eventually get around to changing some more from cash to S&S ISAs, I probably won't go through Nationwide (their platform is now run by Aegeon) because, last time I looked, the choice of funds wasn't very comprehensive.

colsten

Dandytf said:

eskbanker said:

Unless I'm mixing you up with another poster, isn't it you that keeps posting on the credit card board about how you're desperately trying to juggle card repayments to avoid persistent debt enforcement actions?  If so, then it really doesn't make any sense to be starting investing (or even saving) while you're currently struggling to manage debts....

Making inroads on unsecured debts, though that as you say isn't for this board.
I'm attempting to save continuously with various types of funds including the mentioned 1st ISA attempt fund.
You are correct, maybe not the most cost effective choice, though I expect a much improved scenario over next 2-3 years.

Thanks anyway, any thoughts on my chosen ISA Fund.

It seems quite foolish to ignore the suggestion to focus on getting rid of your debts before you start saving or investing. The likelihood that any investment will provide you with an annual yield of even remotely near the rate of interest you pay on credit card debts is next to zero. You'll definitely not achieve it with the FTSE 350.

colsten

Dandytf said:

.......One point I did take from HL video specific to my chosen FTSE350 UK Growth Fund is that HL also see this as a Long term fund ........

You appear to have fallen hook, line and sinker for HL Marketing. Remember, they were promoting Neil Woodford for years. Look what happened to that.

Dandytf

colsten said:

Dandytf said:

.......One point I did take from HL video specific to my chosen FTSE350 UK Growth Fund is that HL also see this as a Long term fund ........

You appear to have fallen hook, line and sinker for HL Marketing. Remember, they were promoting Neil Woodford for years. Look what happened to that.

Agreed as their online Advertising is very professional.
Neil.W has certainly made Sky news including Ian.K Live, though I'm not one to let this sway me from my Initial isa Investment.
thanks

dont_look_now

You might hope for average returns from investing of 5% to 10% per year. And that is, if anything, a bit over-optimistic.

(That doesn't imply there won't be years when investments make more than 10%. There certainly will. But there will also be years when they lose more than 20%. And the problem is that one never knows which kind of year is coming next. Be careful when looking at the recent performance of funds, because most recent years have been good for investing, and this won't go on forever.)

So if you have debts at interest rates > 10%, forget investing: pay off the debts first. Even at rates over 5%, it's a much better bet to pay off the debts first. With debts costing under 5%, it may be better to start investing while still in debt; this most commonly applies to mortgages and student loans, but rarely to any other kinds of debt.