Total novice help please

Alexland

happymum37 said:

...who knows my 200 quid may be 250 by then lol

You want £50? No problem. For your £200 then I would invest in a passive developed world tracker ETF such as Vanguard VEVE or HSBC HMWO in a S&S ISA via InvestEngine who would give you a £50 welcome bonus into the account so an upfront 25% return on your £200. Will go up and down over time and might sometimes drop circa 50% if you can cope with seeing that happen. You would own a diversified mix of companies including Microsoft, Unilever, Coca Cola, etc.

https://investengine.com/terms-incentives/

If you are under 40 then I would consider a S&S Lifetime ISA for more 25% bonuses if happy not to access the money until age 60+. Nutmeg fixed allocation portfolio might suit and you can open the account with as little as £100. You can pick various risk levels as you might not want to see 50% drops on this money especially if contributing regularly as the pot becomes larger. Beware there is a penalty slightly greater than the bonus received if this money is needed before 60.

https://www.gov.uk/lifetime-isa

https://www.nutmeg.com/fixed-allocation-portfolios

Maybe £100 into a InvestEngine S&S ISA and £100 into a Nutmeg LISA and you get £50+£25=£75

But first ensure you are maximising the benefit of any pension options you might have.

jimjames

steampowered said:

I very much disagree with most of the other posters. I doubt the uncle's gift is about the money. It might be an attempt to get you into the habit of investing.

Problem is that having a punt on a random share that could lose all its value is far more likely to have the opposite effect and put someone off investing. If your first experience is losing money then you could well believe that's a likely outcome for investing.

tebbins

happymum37 said:

Ps I have genuinely spent a year on andboff trying to learn about crypto. 

It still hurts my head and I just don't get it.  I'm an absolute novice!!!

Crypto is not investing, it's just a way of dressing up gambling to make it look like really complicated finance. Best left ignored, the saying goes only invest in what you understand.

Thrugelmir

jimjames said:

steampowered said:

I very much disagree with most of the other posters. I doubt the uncle's gift is about the money. It might be an attempt to get you into the habit of investing.

Problem is that having a punt on a random share that could lose all its value is far more likely to have the opposite effect and put someone off investing. If your first experience is losing money then you could well believe that's a likely outcome for investing.

Likewise the reverse. Strike gold and believe that you've talents no one else possesses. Future investments then go spectacularly wrong. 

bostonerimus

It's good that you are interested in investing, but before you do that there might ne some better ways to use your money,

1) pay off any high interest debt you have ie credit card balances.
2) Put the money in the bank...you should keep at least 6 months spending in the bank for emergencies.

If you have done those two things then you could consider opening an S&S ISA with someone like Vanguard, H&L, Fidelity etc and investing in a low cost index tracker fund. You should not buy individual company stocks because you are putting all your eggs in one basket. An index tracker fund invests in hundreds or even thousands of companies so do some research in that area...an example is Vanguard's VLS100 fund.

tebbins

The average stock underperforms the market, classic pareto principle that 80% of the return (or rather the net return, as some stocks lose value over any given period) comes from 20% of the stocks. I think Vanguard did some research showing the average stocks lifetime return is 7% (total, not annualised).

george4064

Why not try make this investing business a bit more of a habit and invest a monthly amount (whatever you can afford to squirrel away) to top up your invest fund?

Many good suggested ideas above about which fund(s) to invest in.

Also, if you really want maximum gain: stop overpaying your mortgage and invest that money instead in your Stocks & Shares ISA. There are other factors to take into account, but generally speaking this is the best way to maximise financial gain rather than overpaying the mortgage.

You’ll thank yourself in 21 years time for doing that,

Brie

I did some share trading for a number of years via a site called Motley Fool.  The great thing about it was that no only did it have a buy/sell tool it also had links to the stock exchange so you could get updates on prices, dividends etc.  They also had a forum like MSE with lots of intelligent and helpful individuals who could explain about various investment strategies.  Unfortunately the site closed in the UK a few years ago but I'm sure there must be other similar ones.  

When investing I made a few rules for myself - no weapons and no tobacco - both of which can be quite profitable.  And if I didn't understand a company I wouldn't buy shares.  I did rather well over the 4 - 5 years I trickled money in (£100 a month - so like you not a lot) and really enjoyed reading up and making decisions about what to buy.  I had some great success - one company got taken over and there was a share buyout that gave me nearly £200 for the £30 worth of shares I had purchased.  Marstons Brewery did quite nicely too.  Unfortunately I also bought shares in a company that ran care homes - aging population so I thought it was a real winner.  Ho hum - it went under and I didn't listen to one of the boffins who saw the signs and warned me to sell.  £100 lost but then a couple of years later I did get a letter to say the residual value of my shares was worth .000001p!

These days I stick to buying shares through a work scheme so I'm investing in my employer - lots of guarantees that I can't lose my money plus incentives as the employer matches my purchases thus meaning I'm buying at half price.  So far I'm up 100% on what I've put in so that makes me happy.

happymum37

jimjames said:

If you're really looking to learn as well as make some money and add to it long term then I'd suggest buying either an index tracking fund (which might not meet the stipulation of your donor even though it is invested in shares) or an investment trust which is a share in a company but itself invests in many other companies so is a lot more diversified than buying a single company share. You're still likely to be paying a high trading commission to buy & sell compared to a fund for the small amounts you're talking about but it will be a far less risky venture than just buying one company's shares.

Some investment trusts that would be standalone investments are ones like F&C Investment trust (ticker FCIT) or Witan (WTAN). If you want a bit more of a rollercoaster ride then one like Scottish Mortgage (SMT) would be an option but is higher risk although still not as risky as an individual share.

I don't know about other platforms but if you setup a regular plan with HL then it's only £1.50 per deal rather than the normal £11.95. You can start, stop and change at any point so you could do the first month at £200 and then £50 after that if you wanted.

https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/investment-trusts

happymum37 said:

Ps I have genuinely spent a year on andboff trying to learn about crypto. 

It still hurts my head and I just don't get it.  I'm an absolute novice!!!

By the way many investors on this forum wouldn't consider crypto to be an investment so don't worry about that!

Thank you.  Great advice.  I do actually want to learn as we have a decent savings pot 

Thank you

happymum37

steampowered said:

I very much disagree with most of the other posters. I doubt the uncle's gift is about the money. It might be an attempt to get you into the habit of investing.

Understanding the basics of investing is a really really, important life skill. It's right up there with numeracy and literacy skills. A basic understanding of investing can make hundreds of thousands of pounds of difference to your lifetime wealth, compared with someone who just puts their money into a savings account.

The act of opening a stocks & shares ISA and putting some money in is really really important. You then know where to put your spare cash beyond your emergency fund. Go and do that. 

What is all of this nonsense about "having a punt"? While choosing a diversified investment fund such as a Vanguard fund is the lowest risk approach, even if you do choose an individual share rather than an investment fund, that is hardly comparable to choosing a horse down the bookies. Choosing a sensible blue chip company is highly likely to generate a good return over the long term.

Thank you

Like I said my uncle is quirky. His exact words were " have a punt and see if you can make it big'"

He knows our plans until now have been to pay off the mortgage early.  He's eccentric enough to genuinely expect me to burn it on shares but It has genuinely now made me think - think about investing 
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