Should I get into investing now? (Complete newbie)

Alistair31

kiwi_fruit said:

I guess from what I read it fits with my perception of "safe" based on the average dividend yield and the type of companies in it. Should I be doing more reading?

Have you bothered to look at the make up of VLS80 ? It’s almost like you are saying you aren’t happy with it’s make up and are using S&P500 to up your equities holding (higher risk) as well as altering the geographical split, which makes me question why you would pick VLS80 in the first place ? 

steampowered

Honestly, for a 10+ year investment period, simply invest in equities and don't check your account. A Vanguard equity fund will do just fine.

The chance of losing money over a 10 year period is vanishingly low. Over a 30 year period it is nil.

Fidelity found that their most successful investors are those with inactive accounts or who are dead (https://www.businessinsider.com/forgetful-investors-performed-best-2014-9?r=US&IR=T).

People saying  "what if you check your account and see a loss" are talking nonsense frankly. While that is true, hopefully you are a smart enough person to control your emotions and know you are invested for the long term - so don't check your account and start panicking every time there is a bit of market volaility.

Username999

steampowered said:

Over a 30 year period it is nil.

Not 100% true.
Buying the Nikkei anytime between 1988 and and 1990 and you would still be down.

NoMore

kiwi_fruit said:

I guess from what I read it fits with my perception of "safe" based on the average dividend yield and the type of companies in it. Should I be doing more reading?

Yes stop reading american based blogs that recommend things to ameicans which may not be the most suitable investments for the UK 

kiwi_fruit

Alistair31 said:

kiwi_fruit said:

I guess from what I read it fits with my perception of "safe" based on the average dividend yield and the type of companies in it. Should I be doing more reading?

Have you bothered to look at the make up of VLS80 ? It’s almost like you are saying you aren’t happy with it’s make up and are using S&P500 to up your equities holding (higher risk) as well as altering the geographical split, which makes me question why you would pick VLS80 in the first place ? 

You mean S&P is already heavily featured in VLS 80. Ok, I understand. I suppose S&P is where I'm intuitively drawn to, it's certainly the one I've heard most about (other than FTSE, but definitely not drawn to that one)

kiwi_fruit

NoMore said:

kiwi_fruit said:

I guess from what I read it fits with my perception of "safe" based on the average dividend yield and the type of companies in it. Should I be doing more reading?

Yes stop reading american based blogs that recommend things to ameicans which may not be the most suitable investments for the UK 

That's interesting. Didn't think there'd a difference. Is that because of the currency conversion rates?

VXman

kiwi_fruit said

So I'm reading about the market situation at the moment and thinking- I really should be getting into investing right now, right? I'm thinking about something like Vanguard LS 80 20, lump sum of 4k on a Hargreaves Lansdown platform.

Surely if you just invest in Vanguard it makes more sense to bypass HL and go to Vanguard direct to buy?

Vanguard LS are down at the moment so buying now is sensible, although there is a possibility they could go lower. 

The way I look at it if you are intending to buy and leave it for 10, 20, 30 years then it is pretty risk adverse, as long as you try and forget it and don’t check how it’s doing every day.  

kiwi_fruit

VXman, I wish Vanguard offered LISA, but they don't.
Went with AJ Bell in the end due to the fees, loaded the money ready to go and no idea when to take the plunge. Looking at Fidelity Index World, for example- it's showing 5.36% UP as of yesterday- like why is it up when things in the news are lot worse than they were on Friday..

Audaxer

kiwi_fruit said:

VXman, I wish Vanguard offered LISA, but they don't.
Went with AJ Bell in the end due to the fees, loaded the money ready to go and no idea when to take the plunge. Looking at Fidelity Index World, for example- it's showing 5.36% UP as of yesterday- like why is it up when things in the news are lot worse than they were on Friday..

The markets have regained a bit after last week's losses. If you are going to start investing now is probably still a good time as markets may continue to rise and you may regret not getting started. Markets could of course fall again in the next few days/weeks - no one knows.  If concerned you could invest half now and then drip feed the rest over the next few months. You just need to decide your risk tolerance - you previously said you were risk averse, but you were going to invest in VLS80. Now you are looking at Fidelity Index World which is 100% equities, so will be even more volatile.

bowlhead99

kiwi_fruit said:

Looking at Fidelity Index World, for example- it's showing 5.36% UP as of yesterday- like why is it up when things in the news are lot worse than they were on Friday..

Like, because yesterday at the valuation point of 12 noon UK time, the price reflected the positive movements in the US and other markets since Monday lunchtime which were not in Monday's published price because Monday's price had been published before the US market opened.

For the US in particular this included some sentiment that there would be Central Bank action to reduce rates and help out the markets in the face of the negative outlook for growth, and also probably the fact that the democrat candidate Biden was gaining traction against the more liberal Sanders - the market thinks Sanders would be bad for US listed corporates compared to a republican like Trump or more moderate democrat like Biden.

These were a couple of reasons why the US market went up on Monday as a bounce back from the fall last week which some thought/hoped was overdone. The Dow and S&P did fall again during US trading  hours on Tuesday, once the rate cut announcement was properly digested, but that fall isn't shown in Tuesday's price for Fidelity Index World due to the price being struck before the US even gets to work.