Help Please Newbie wanting to invest into Stocks and Shares with a £5K investment

Tenchmaster

Hi all, I have built up a sum of £5K that I am willing to invest for around 5 to 10 years on the stock market, I currently have no ISA of any type and wondering how best to invest my lump sum. I currently have a company based share scheme that I put into £400 every four weeks through my pay at work. I am looking mainly at investing in same company (Walmart). I am unable to place this £5K into my current company based scheme. What are my best option please?

eskbanker

First point to make is that investing in individual shares is generally considered a high risk activity unsuited to inexperienced investors, and if it's your employer too then that puts far too many eggs into the same basket for most to be happy with.

Best bet would be to research on other newbie investor threads on here and also sites such as:

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/investing-beginners-guide

https://www.hl.co.uk/beginners-guides/investing

http://www.monevator.com

http://kroijer.com/

http://diyinvestoruk.blogspot.com/

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 MyMap 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.

Tenchmaster

Thank you I shall look into them treads that you have placed on here.