Beginner to investing

Chr1s85

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice with regards to investing. I currently have a reasonable amount of money saved up as an emergency fund (around 6 months expenses) and I'm now looking to try and put money into maybe a stocks and shares ISA or a private pension etc  but do not know where to start. I would not need immediate access to the money and would be looking at it as very much a long term strategy. Does anyone have any UK related websites they could maybe point me to or have any advice in general for a complete newbie?

Regards,
Chris.

eskbanker

Newbie investor threads on here typically highlight reading material at sites such as:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/investment-beginners/
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/savings/investing/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 (or perhaps a SIPP) as a tax-efficient wrapper to avoid liability for income and capital gains tax.

DrSyn

1. https://www.kroijer.com/

2. https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/isas/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios/#balanced
https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-lifestrategy-funds?intcmpgn=lifestrategyfunds_learnmore_link

Albermarle

Chr1s85 said:

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice with regards to investing. I currently have a reasonable amount of money saved up as an emergency fund (around 6 months expenses) and I'm now looking to try and put money into maybe a stocks and shares ISA or a private pension etc  but do not know where to start. I would not need immediate access to the money and would be looking at it as very much a long term strategy. Does anyone have any UK related websites they could maybe point me to or have any advice in general for a complete newbie?

Regards,
Chris.

You could spend some useful time scrolling through a few pages of this forum, as very similar questions are asked very regularly.

msallen

DelayMozrt said:

Crypto trading has many positive aspects that make it one of the most attractive types of earnings. The rate of digital currencies can fluctuate by tens of percent per day, and therefore your capital can increase daily due to successful transactions.

OP, you should ignore this "advice". Crypto trading is just plain gambling - not investing.

Exodi

DelayMozrt said:

Crypto trading has many positive aspects that make it one of the most attractive types of earnings. The rate of digital currencies can fluctuate by tens of percent per day, and therefore your capital can increase daily due to successful transactions.

Or decrease daily... plus I'm not sure why you think it is a good thing that digital currencies can fluctuate by tens of percents per day?

I'll be sure to share your optimism to the people nursing 50-60+% losses on bitcoin and ethereum this year.

adindas

Exodi said:

DelayMozrt said:

Crypto trading has many positive aspects that make it one of the most attractive types of earnings. The rate of digital currencies can fluctuate by tens of percent per day, and therefore your capital can increase daily due to successful transactions.

Or decrease daily... plus I'm not sure why you think it is a good thing that digital currencies can fluctuate by tens of percents per day?

I'll be sure to share your optimism to the people nursing 50-60+% losses on bitcoin and ethereum this year.

Well, it is not just Bitcoin or Ethereum. Netflix for instance once was one of the well known FAANG stocks has now lost more than 70% of its value from its ATH in October 2021. The only people who lost that much are those who were buying it following the crowd, where they should be doing the opposite. They were buying it in lumpsum in one go instead of doing DCA. Also, sometimes it is important to set up the stop loss for volatile assets.

Even billionaires investors such as Paul Tudor-Jones, Steve Cohen, Dan Loeb, and Stan Druckenmiller, Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, etc also invest in Cryptos.

But as hearsay, do not invest the things that you do not understand. So  it is definitely not suitable for beginners. Crypto is currently in the season the so called Crypto Winter.

cloud_dog

Chr1s85 said:

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice with regards to investing. I currently have a reasonable amount of money saved up as an emergency fund (around 6 months expenses) and I'm now looking to try and put money into maybe a stocks and shares ISA or a private pension etc  but do not know where to start. I would not need immediate access to the money and would be looking at it as very much a long term strategy. Does anyone have any UK related websites they could maybe point me to or have any advice in general for a complete newbie?

Regards,
Chris.

@Chr1s85 are you a HRT payer or a BRT payer?  If a BRT payer, might you become a HRT payer in the near term?

Are you self employed (sole trader or director of your own limited company)?

If under PAYE, are you paid under a Salary Sacrifice arrangement?

Exodi

adindas said:

Even billionaires investors such as Paul Tudor-Jones, Steve Cohen, Dan Loeb, and Stan Druckenmiller, Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, etc also invest in Cryptos.

But as hearsay, do not invest the things that you do not understand. So  it is definitely not suitable for beginners. Crypto is currently in the season the so called Crypto Winter.

As adindas says, only big brain investors meet the exceptionaly high IQ threshold to understand and invest in Crypto. Including Mark Cuban, who famously got rugged by Titan, or Elon Musk, whose company sold 75% of it's cryptocurrency holdings at the end of 2021.

And now a list of billionaires who do not invest in crypto:

- Most of them.

Also, citing one particular stock as a way to imply that equities are equally as risky as crypto is lazy at best. If I sat here cherry-picking cryptocurrencies that had dropped to zero, I'd be here all day.

So frustrating when 'magic internet coins' always get bulldozed into innocent discussions about investments.