Is now a good time to invest in stocks and shares ISA’s

Shackman13

As a complete newbie to these forums & to starting out in the S&S’s minefield, can you folks out there offer any advice on where to invest both mine & my wife’s money in these uncertain times. We both have 20k to invest & have been trawling through various  threads. At the moment, Vanguard seems to pop up a lot. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 😅

steampowered

If you are looking to invest for a few years, putting the money into a S&S ISA with a Vanguard Lifestrategy Fund is an excellent idea.

There may be other options which are preferable (e.g. pension, Lifetime ISA) - especially if you are higher rate taxpayers or your pensions are inadequate - but people need more information about you and your wife's ages, tax status and adequacy of your pension to advise.

BananaRepublic

"Is now a good time to invest in stocks and shares ISA’s"

Well, it's a better time than it was 5 months ago, or even two years ago. But don't be surprised if the markets tank, again. Be prepared to keep the money invested for at least 5 years.

blue_max_3

I did some reading on this and found a number of complaints about vanguard being reluctant to pay out. You'll have to do your own research and it may or not be fair or typical. The advice on whether and how to invest never really changes - make regular contributions over the long term in tracker funds. Given long enough, you should be fine. 

Shackman13

Thanks Steampowered. We’re both retired & in our early 60’s. I have a small company pension and a SIPP drawdown pension with Amber ( looking to move soon as their & FA’s fees are expensive) We were both standard tax payers. My wife has no pension. We have massively downsized house recently & after giving all our kids some early inheritance money, we need to invest our leftovers wisely. We have a Post office online saver account but will probably move to someone else such as Marcus For a better interest rate & easier access. Any more thoughts on this please? 

Albermarle

. Be prepared to keep the money invested for at least 5 years.

and preferably 10 years +

otherwise more info is needed as 'steampowered' suggested .

In meantime you could have a look at these:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/investment-beginners/

Also the providers have some good guidance pages, here are just two

https://www.fidelity.co.uk/planning-guidance/how-to-invest/?p=0&c=10

https://www.standardlife.co.uk/c1/funds.page

Shackman13

Yes, we’re looking at 10 years or so (assuming we live that long! 🤔) More digging required me thinks. Thanks for all your help so far. 

Alexland

Personally I don't think it's a particularly good time to invest in S&S with global stock markets having recovered within around 15% of their previous peak and so many companies facing very real difficulties. Having said that provided it's a suitable asset allocation then over the long term it should be a reasonably good thing to do with the money. I don't understand the comment about "vanguard being reluctant to pay out" in my experience they work to process like any other S&S manager,

Albermarle

We have a Post office online saver account but will probably move to someone else such as Marcus For a better interest rate & easier access. Any more thoughts on this please? 

Only that on this forum , there are a lot of complaints about the service from Post office savings .

Here is a comparison site for savings account . In general they are all paying less than a few weeks ago and probably this trend will continue for a while.

https://moneyfacts.co.uk/

and a SIPP drawdown pension with Amber ( looking to move soon as their & FA’s fees are expensive) 

Low cost SIPPS are either % charge ( 0.45% to 0.25%) or a fixed charge ( eg £240 pa ) . The larger the pot the fixed charge becomes more attractive. However some of the cheaper ones also have extra charges for drawdown for example. Here is another comparison chart

https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Albermarle

make regular contributions over the long term in tracker funds

Nor sure this is the right direction for people in their 60's , new to investing . Tracker funds can be volatile as they are directly linked to the markets.

A multi asset fund is usually more suitable ( although of course it contains tracker funds but in a diverse mixture )

blue_max_3

Alexland said:

I don't understand the comment about "vanguard being reluctant to pay out" in my experience they work to process like any other S&S manager,

Just what I read when I was looking through reviews. It was not just one or two either. But they may have been historical. I went with Fidelity instead. No idea what I'm doing, but needed to get some cash into a pension that day!