What would you do as 21 year old investor?

Gabby97

Hi guys, I am a new investor and I have started to take interest in this field. I have been using Wombat app as it is super nice for a newbie. However I am not so sure yet where to invest my spare £800. I have invested small amounts in couple funds, however I am holding back a little for now as I am trying to make a smart move for my future. Any suggestions?

DiggerUK

At 21 it would have been very prudent for me to squirrel small amounts away in to gold as and when the price was low. It's high at the moment, but keep small amounts going in when prices go lower..._

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

1997 = 22/23 yrs old  

Diplodicus

Forget about it. 

Act your age.
Counting money is an old person’s consolation.

grumiofoundation

Diplodicus said:

Forget about it. 

Act your age.
Counting money is an old person’s consolation.

Absolute rubbish. 

Not having to worry about money as you get older because you were sensible when you were younger is invaluable. 

grumiofoundation

Gabby97 said:

Hi guys, I am a new investor and I have started to take interest in this field. I have been using Wombat app as it is super nice for a newbie. However I am not so sure yet where to invest my spare £800. I have invested small amounts in couple funds, however I am holding back a little for now as I am trying to make a smart move for my future. Any suggestions?

For investing smallish amounts cashback can be a good way to boost returns. Companies such as nutmeg, Wealthify, legal and general often offer cashback though sites such as Quidco or TopCashback or refer a fiend bonuses that can offer 5-10% boost to returns for your first 12 months or so.

The fees charged by these companies is generally a bit higher than elsewhere so it is often prudent to move to a cheaper provider once the into a term is up. 

Swipe

I wish I'd started when I was 21 with £100 a month in an index tracker rather than saving it in a bank account.

Gabby97

Thanks for the nice advises guys! I will keep on track with that as I think it is important to secure your future with passive income! Thank you for pointing out the age even tho I think it is irrelevant, however I started to invest really small amounts with wombat when I was 21 and just now I decided to step-up my game. 

Oh, and as well does anyone know more about diversifying? How useful is that?

As I was saying really appreciate anyone who is actually helping out! Will look into all of that. If you think of anything else, please keep me updated.

grumiofoundation

Gabby97 said:

Thanks for the nice advises guys! I will keep on track with that as I think it is important to secure your future with passive income! Thank you for pointing out the age even tho I think it is irrelevant, however I started to invest really small amounts with wombat when I was 21 and just now I decided to step-up my game. 

Oh, and as well does anyone know more about diversifying? How useful is that?

As I was saying really appreciate anyone who is actually helping out! Will look into all of that. If you think of anything else, please keep me updated.

Diversification can mean different things. Diversification globally, different sectors, different assets (stocks, bonds, cash, property). 

Multi-assets funds/portfolios offered by providers such as vanguard, L and G, HSBC, blackrock, robo-investors like nutmeg and Wealthify contain various proportions of these.  

Likely the 2 major assets classes you will have are equities and bonds. As a general rule of thumb the higher percent of equities the higher the returns will be but also the higher the risk will be (and therefore the longer you need to invest for). 

At 21 you may be willing to invest over a timescale of 20+ years in which case you may be happy with 100% equities - in which a single global tracker fund may be suitably diversified for you. 

https://monevator.com/portfolio-diversification/

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/investing-success/why-it-is-so-important-to-diversify

nick1234

Gold funds and precious metals in general should be high on your radar, as inflation sets in from all the QE these asset classes will boom. 

Sailtheworld

Stick it in a world tracker acc fund or etf and forget about it for a few decades. You’ll thank me.