Recommendation’s for young people getting into investing.

LHW99

And looking further ahead, when you have done all the sensible things above, and you maybe start to feel bored and think "that global tracker's good, but I'm sure I could do better by investing in xxxxxx" - build yourself a "fun fund" of a few hundred (thousand?) which you could happily lose completely without it affecting any of your plans / lifestyle. Use that to step away from the tracker into other funds, even individual shares and just watch how they work and how they fail.

It will be good education, and as long as the amount you use is well defined won't hurt. Obviously those that bought Apple 40 years ago are smiling now, but also have a look at what happened to those that bought Bradford & Bingley or RBS!

Linton

TheParAndEagle said:

Linton said:

It would be useful to know a bit about your circumstances.  The most important factor is whether you own a house, or rent. If your own your house is it in on a significant mortgage?  If you rent do you intend to buy, if so when.

I would agree with @Swipe that the first thing is to ensure you have sufficient cash emergency cover for unexpected one-off expenses. Also you will need to be able to support yourself for a while (perhaps 6 months) if unable to work.

It will be easier to make more specific suggestions when your housing situation is clear.

Hi,

I currently live with parents still, no aspiration’s to own a house as of yet due to paying bill’s etc just seem’s an unnecessary expense and more than happy at home currently until I eventually need to move out with a serious partner etc. 

Currently now working my way up the engineering ladder and doing a degree in that and have left site work so I’m employed full time and pay the minimum I have to into a pension to get the maximum off them so I’m covered in that sense, purely just advice on what to do with excess income instead of leaving it in the bank doing nothing basically, getting into property etc has always interested me especially with my skill set’s in term’s of cost on a renovation I’d save etc, but lot’s i people I work with have numerous rental properties and say it isn’t what it used to be and thing’s are tightening up, hence wondering if this is the best path to go down potentially.

thanks

Being a member of the employers pension scheme is a good start.  Paying the minimum required to get the mximum employers contribution makes sense at this stage in your life as you should have more urgent things to consider.

Do you have specific objectives to save for?  A house/flat is the big one and the best vehicle for saving for it is a LISA as it has generous benefits.  I understand that the downside is that it is inflexible if you dont want it to help buy a house.  LISAs aren't my field so any more detail is best left to others.

If you have no specific objectives and want to remain flexible I suggest that put as much as you can reasonably afford into a high interest cash account for the time being.  At some stage you presumably will will have to leave your parents.  This will involve a major disruption to your life with a large increase in costs.  So it could be sensible to wait for a few years or until your future housing situation is clearer. before making commitments for the longer term.

Investments or a rental house ( I would not recommend that anyway) are not for the short term and you dont want to have to take money out to cover some  unplanned event.So I suggest you accumulate several £10Ks in cash before going down either of those routes.