Another stocks and shares isa questions -

Jupiter55

Hello All

I have looked through various information around ss isa and I would really appreciate some support from this great site and folks on it

Firstly some background
55 year old
no mortage or debit
just into higher tax for earings
have a easy acess savings from rainy day
have a fixed savings which will give me enough interest without breaching into higher tax 
have a cash isa from last year
have money to move from easy access to an isa in april - full amount- still leaving some rainy day 
I would like to diversify my isa into cash and stocks and shares

I have thought about going to financial adviser - not sure

anyway down to specifics

I would be looking to invest the SS for minimum 5 years , not looking to make millions  but want to make more than the max 1.3% just now on easy access ( aware no guarantees ) 

I would like a passive ISA, I don't want to do anything but put the money regularly and forget about it . My risk factor would be low/medium

There appear to be many platforms out there and options, which seem to be set up to confuse - Martins analogy of supermarkets and bread is great however it seems to be if you want multigrain and sourdough and options of aldi or marks and spencers

any support would be greatly appreciated. My partner seems set on top 100 funds

From MSE forum I was lead to this site 
compare platforms

however these questions stumped me 
number of funds
number of trades a year

I keep going back to cavendish online 

again thanks for reading this far

eskbanker

Jupiter55 said:

just into higher tax for earings

That's a lot of money to be spending on jewellery!

In terms of your main point, it's not an unusual view of investing that the first thing is to find a platform and to focus on its costs, but this is misguided really, as the priority is to identify what to invest in rather than where.  Most in your shoes would be well served by starting with identifying investment objectives, timescales and attitude to risk, and then choosing the relevant single global multi-asset fund from the ranges available from the likes of HSBC Global Strategy, Vanguard LifeStrategy, L&G Multi-index or Blackrock Consensus.

If you're stumped by questions about number of funds and number of trades a year then to be honest you're probably not ready yet and need to spend more time researching and familiarising with the relevant terminology - I usually recommend starting such research at sites suited to inexperienced investors, such as:

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/investing-beginners-guide

https://www.hl.co.uk/beginners-guides/investing

http://www.monevator.com

http://kroijer.com/

http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/

https://www.ifa.com/indexfundsthemovie/

as well as bearing in mind a number of key points of principle:

1. Only consider investing once you have adequate accessible cash reserves.
   
2. Only invest if you're happy to commit for at least 5-7 years and preferably 10-15 or more.
   
3. Diversify - ignore individual shares, etc, and concentrate on collective investments that spread your eggs over many baskets. Global multi-asset funds are a good place to start, available from the likes of HSBC Global Strategy, Vanguard LifeStrategy, Blackrock Consensus and L&G Multi-Index.
   
4. Choose what you want to invest in before considering which platform to hold it/them on.
   
5. Keep an eye on ongoing costs for funds and platforms - they shouldn't be the primary consideration but can make a noticeable difference over the long term.
   
6. Use a Stocks & Shares ISA as a tax-efficient wrapper to avoid liability for income and capital gains tax.

Jupiter55

HI Eskbanker

Earings lol that is so funny , thats what not proof reading does   ( feeling sheepish)

thanks for your time in answering with the great links.
I will work my way through them with a coffee

Albermarle

You don't mention your pension situation ( or your partners) which is for most people the most important part of investment planning for the future ?

Jupiter55

pension through work and its a good one. public sector

barmeysmb1

 @eskbanker
  when choosing funds such as 

HSBC Global Strategy, Vanguard LifeStrategy, Blackrock Consensus and L&G Multi-Index.

Filtering on those above via the Fidelity platform - i see lots of variations, many of which look lifestyle based, some a bit harder to tell - how best do we decipher which to select ?

barmeysmb1

For example - just the top few results for Blackrock Consensus

eskbanker

barmeysmb1 said:

 @eskbanker
  when choosing funds such as 

HSBC Global Strategy, Vanguard LifeStrategy, Blackrock Consensus and L&G Multi-Index.

Filtering on those above via the Fidelity platform - i see lots of variations, many of which look lifestyle based, some a bit harder to tell - how best do we decipher which to select ?

barmeysmb1 said:

For example - just the top few results for Blackrock Consensus

The convention for these providers is typically the higher the number, the higher the risk (and the higher the reward) - for both Blackrock and Vanguard the figure quoted is the approximate proportion of equities versus other asset types such as bonds.  L&G's multi-index range runs from 3 (lowest risk/reward) to 7 (highest), while HSBC name theirs from cautious to adventurous.

Ultimately there are no shortcuts to reading up on the products individually to ascertain exactly what the funds are, what their objectives are and how they're managed - the definitive information on this is on each provider's own website, but there are summaries of key facts about risk/volatility, performance, etc, at independent sites such as Trustnet or Morningstar, plus most platforms, such as HL.

Having said that, there are numerous threads on here in which multi-asset funds are discussed, which should help you get a flavour of relative pros and cons, such as https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6108054/choice-of-complementary-multi-asset-fund

barmeysmb1

Thanks @eskbanker !