Complete beginner looking for "ABC's" of investing

steampowered

Monevator is a good place to start (https://monevator.com/). 

The investment options you suggested (Property Investment Trusts, rare metals, bullion, and crypto) are actually quite niche options. They would only form a small part of a conventional portfolio.

The conventional option is the stock market. You could select a basket of individual stocks if you have the risk appetite for it, or you could choose an investment fund diversified across many funds.

The boomers on here will always recommend passive investment funds, but as you are young and able to take a bit more risk it can be fun to choose a basket of individual stocks.

I don't think there is much to be gained by "watching market cycles". Nobody can predict market cycles. The best option is to invest regularly and consistently, in the most tax efficient way possible (i.e. ISA or pension).

Albermarle

Often simply increasing contributions to your workplace pension is the best/simplest option , as long as you do not need the money before your late Fifties . You get free money in the form of tax relief on all your contributions and sometimes employers will increase their contribution if you increase yours .
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/investments/

OldScientist

Another vote for monevator as a good starting point (alternatively a fairly recent, albeit US focussed, free book can be found at https://paulmerriman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Were-Talking-Millions.pdf)

Another vote for fund of funds (although target date funds, available from various investment houses, could be an alternative).

As for the young and being able to take risks, I note that for a 40 year accumulation period with fixed real contribution each year and with real rates of return of 5% or more, roughly half or more of the final pot arises from contributions made in the first ten years, which means mistakes early on can be costly (of course, what constitutes a mistake can only be seen with hindsight!).

El_Torro

Just to elaborate on the point about investing in gold:

I implied in my last post that gold is a risky investment. This isn’t exactly true. Though volatile, over the long term it should more or less keep up with inflation. The reason some people use gold is because it behaves differently to shares. When shares go down gold tends to go up, and vice versa. This can help manage volatility, but if you’re investing for the long term does this really matter?

Some people put most of their investments in gold, though since it doesn’t rise as fast as shares this isn’t a good idea. If you want to have 10% or less of your investments in gold it does add diversity to your portfolio, definitely not necessary or a very optimum way to do things though.

eskbanker

steampowered said:

The boomers on here will always recommend passive investment funds, but as you are young and able to take a bit more risk it can be fun to choose a basket of individual stocks.

It can, but isn't a particularly sensible avenue to promote to a self-confessed 'absolute beginner' - it's perhaps a bit of a generalisation (much like your gratuitous 'boomer' reference) but those who have the ability and willingness to conduct sufficient due diligence on constructing an equity portfolio from the ground up are unlikely to be posting in the way OP did....

EasyToAssemble01

bostonerimus said:

Don't worry about picking the right sectors, there is no "right" answer, but there are wrong, or at least ill advised, answers. As a beginner you should use a low cost (ie charges about 0.25% or less) multi-asset fund. All the big fund companies have them. They will give you a diverse portfolio of stocks, bonds etc in one neat package. Read up so you know what you are buying. Vanguard LifeStartegy range is an example as is BlackRock Consensus, HSBC Global Strategy, Fidelity Multi-asset.

That's good to know. Simplifies things in the beginning for me. I'll have a look at the ones mentioned, keeping an eye out for low charges.

EasyToAssemble01

Albermarle said:

Often simply increasing contributions to your workplace pension is the best/simplest option , as long as you do not need the money before your late Fifties . You get free money in the form of tax relief on all your contributions and sometimes employers will increase their contribution if you increase yours .
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/investments/

This is something I hadn't considered. I opted for the highest pension band offered by my employer (via Scottish Widows), but am always happy to drop in some extra if I can do this.