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Stocks & Shares Newbie

With the economy as it is currently I'm thinking it's a good time to start investing in stocks and shares. I'm not looking to get rich over night don't worry! If you were to start all over again what would you advise yourself?

Comments

  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 35,318 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Don't convince yourself that you can time the market by buying when you believe that conditions are ideal!

    Spend plenty of time researching on here and other sites suited to inexperienced investors, such as:
    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.
  • 83705628
    83705628 Posts: 482 Forumite
    100 Posts Name Dropper First Anniversary
    What eskbanker said
  • 83705628
    83705628 Posts: 482 Forumite
    100 Posts Name Dropper First Anniversary
    edited 23 July 2020 pm31 12:26PM
    Also, never, ever make an investing decision because of "the way the economy's going" or "with everything that's going on right now" or the news.
    And I highly recommend you read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle.
  • csgohan4
    csgohan4 Posts: 10,600 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 31 July 2020 pm31 1:53PM
    Marco_L said:
    dcb2019 said:
    With the economy as it is currently I'm thinking it's a good time to start investing in stocks and shares. I'm not looking to get rich over night don't worry! If you were to start all over again what would you advise yourself?
    You are right you cannot get rich overnight and the best thing you can do is to pay as little fees as possible and redacted is the cheapest platform you can invest on - below a step by step guide and full review 
    redacted link
    OP before you follow a spam poster's suggestions, I suggest you do your own research to ensure you are getting the best deal your self.

    the monevator website is a good shout as I used that but is a lot of reading
    "It is prudent when shopping for something important, not to limit yourself to Pound land/Estate Agents"

    G_M/ Bowlhead99 RIP
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    Also, never, ever make an investing decision because of "the way the economy's going" or "with everything that's going on right now" or the news.
    And I highly recommend you read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle.

    I sort of agree re immediate events, but i think bigger picture, disagree. I'll give one area, no, two.
    One.
    Whats going on right now is that fossil fuels are being undercut by renewables. Not just for immediate price this year but because, for example, solar and wind has reached the tipping point where its cheaper to build new wind and solar than to operate existing coal. This is why coal in teh US is declining faster under Trump ("beautiful clean coal" LOL) than under Obama. Simple economics.
    So, you need to try to avoid fossil fuels (inc gas because gas is heading the way of coal to) and invest in renewables.
    Add to this, Electric Vehicles are quite clearly the future. Forget Tesla if you have a beef with that, irrespective of them its simply clear that electric will completely displace oil based cars in the next 20 years and likely faster. And as that happens then the amount of oil used will decline. Only by a few % but thats all thats been needed in the past to drop the price of oil drastically.
    I believe we are at a point now where its plain this will happen, but there's a lot of denial around and if you take advantage of that denial but avoiding fossil and investing in renewables i think thats clearly a slam dunk. Now its quite difficult to avoid fossil fuels completely as an investment if you have index trackers but you cant start by, for example, not investing in VLS and its extra emphasis on Shell and BP due to its artificial "UK" weighting. Or you can invest in a sustainable active fund which wont invest in FF.
    Two.
    The world is, in general getting richer and people are living longer and for obvious reasons that creates an emphasis on health. So, invest in healthcare. Nothing fancy needed, dont need to go full on biotech, maybe an active health fund (or IT or whatever) maybe an index.

    I see it a bit like a surfer, to ride the wave best you need to get slightly ahead of it but when you can see it even if others are being too slow, get in.

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