Investment ideas please

Greymug

Hello beautiful people
Complete investment newbie here looking for advice.

I'm planning to buy a house and therefore I plan to sell my current flat and would like some advice on what to do with the equity.

I've already discarded the idea of keeping the flat and rent it out; too many costs involved, rental market is looking grim, and ultimately I don't want to have to deal with this annoyance called "tenants".

Done some research, ran some numbers and, including all costs related to selling the property, I should get a profit in the £60k region.
What would be a smart way of investing this sum?

I'm just learning a bit about Stock&Shares ISA, but from what I understand I can only open one account every financial year and there are limitations on the money I can put it. What to do then? Put into pension pot? Other alternatives I might not be aware of? Also links to useful resources to increase my knowledge would be great. As I said, I'm a total newbie.

Thanks

Voyager2002

Will you be using the money from selling your flat to buy your house? If so, stocks and shares are not suitable.

Will you need this money before you are 55? If not, the most tax-efficient thing to do is invest in a pension (probably a SIPP) and within that choose something based on stocks and shares.

Probably you have plans for different bits of the money that fall between these extremes, so it would make sense to think of (say) three different pots for different purposes and make plans to invest each of these separately.

Albermarle

If you are planning to use this £60K towards buying a house within the next five years then better to put it into a safe savings account. Investments in Stocks and shares go up and down in the short/medium term  but normally the long term trend is up , so the longer you keep the investment the better.

Greymug

Thanks for the replies.

I probably won't be buying any additional properties in the short-medium term. I'm very much a one house kinda guy; being a landlord seems to be more hassle than it's worth.

Good suggestion about splitting savings into 3. So like, 20k into pension, 20k into a medium term investment, and 20k into something more short term that I can possibly get access to quickly in case of emergency.

Any suggestion for stock and shares isa? I've googled "best stock and share isa" and the names that keep coming up are:

• hargreaves lansdown
• fidelity
• interactive investor

To me they all sound the same

grumiofoundation

Greymug said:

Thanks for the replies.

I probably won't be buying any additional properties in the short-medium term. I'm very much a one house kinda guy; being a landlord seems to be more hassle than it's worth.

Good suggestion about splitting savings into 3. So like, 20k into pension, 20k into a medium term investment, and 20k into something more short term that I can possibly get access to quickly in case of emergency.

Any suggestion for stock and shares isa? I've googled "best stock and share isa" and the names that keep coming up are:

• hargreaves lansdown
• fidelity
• interactive investor

To me they all sound the same

It is what you invest in, not the platform you invest through, that matters. 

Greymug

Most of them come with pre-packaged funds portfolios, perfect for people like me who know almost nothing.
So probably the question is about stuff like which ones are good/easy to use platforms...how much do they charge you to invest your money....stuff like that

Eco_Miser

Greymug said:

Most of them come with pre-packaged funds portfolios, perfect for people like me who know almost nothing.
So probably the question is about stuff like which ones are good/easy to use platforms...how much do they charge you to invest your money....stuff like that

Avoid the pre-packaged funds portfolios, they're designed to make money for the provider.

Use Monevator to find the best platform for you (I use Iweb), and to research how to  invest (link to Archives and Best of...  at top right of page).

But why aren't you spending this £60k on the house you're buying?

DireEmblem

If you don't need the funds to pay for your existing home, then yes, considering topping up your pension(and claiming tax relief), or investing if you are taking a long term view are very good options.

In terms of investing, it can be down to the individual, but most advise would be to pick a cheap global equity fund as no-one can predict the future - will Brexit actually benefit UK companies long term? or what will be the final outcome of the US/China trade war?  Diversification is generally considered key to returning a good average.

If you are looking for choice, then certainly the brokers you have mentioned have a lot of choice.  If you are looking for simplicity and low cost, then you could add the Vanguard platform.  They would charge you a 0.15% platform fee, plus fund charges.  I believe their Lifestrategy series of funds generally carries a 0.22% fee, so you're paying 0.37% overall for a global equity fund.

Greymug

Eco_Miser said:

But why aren't you spending this £60k on the house you're buying?

Because my partner and I already have a big enough deposit for the house.

Also for a matter of timing not being perfect, we might end up buying a house before I sell the flat.

Albermarle

The S& S Isa is only there really to protect the investments you make from any tax liability and to offer a framework for holding investments within it .
A pension is exactly the same , except the tax and withdrawals regime is different . Your money is actually in investments within the pension.
So as said , picking the right investments is the more important part for the ISA and for your pension.
Regarding charges you are asking which ISA provider is cheapest and then saying you will use their prepackaged funds, which are expensive . Probably you need to take a step back and do some basic research .

Greymug

Albermarle said:

The S& S Isa is only there really to protect the investments you make from any tax liability and to offer a framework for holding investments within it .
A pension is exactly the same , except the tax and withdrawals regime is different . Your money is actually in investments within the pension.
So as said , picking the right investments is the more important part for the ISA and for your pension.
Regarding charges you are asking which ISA provider is cheapest and then saying you will use their prepackaged funds, which are expensive . Probably you need to take a step back and do some basic research .

Can you suggest any online resource/link I can consult?