ISA worth £30k - Shares vs funds

da4

Hello,
I have about £30k in my HL S&S ISA which is currently invested in a mix of Vanguard and L&G funds. Although this has done me well, should I be investing in shares? I know some of the orgs I would like to invest in but I am wondering if the cost of the transaction (£12 or whatever it is) would make it not very worth while? I would imagine I will buy in a few hundred £s at a time.
Thanks
D

eskbanker

Diversification is typically best, so if you already hold decent global funds then it's unlikely that you need to consider investing in shares, unless you feel able and willing to conduct the relevant due diligence on specific companies that you believe will outperform the markets (and accept the risks of that approach)?

wmb194

da4 said:

Hello,
I have about £30k in my HL S&S ISA which is currently invested in a mix of Vanguard and L&G funds. Although this has done me well, should I be investing in shares? I know some of the orgs I would like to invest in but I am wondering if the cost of the transaction (£12 or whatever it is) would make it not very worth while? I would imagine I will buy in a few hundred £s at a time.
Thanks
D

Generally speaking investing in individual shares is far, far riskier than using funds so no, why do you think you need to? On the other hand you can do both: open an Isa/Gia with a cheaper broker like Trading212, Freetrade and/or CMC Invest and use that account for shares in individual companies.

Linton

To be successful you would need to spend much more time and have much higher level of knowledge investigating individual shares than choosing a fund.  Unless you have specialist knowledge of some niche industry or would really enjoy the thrills and spills I suggest you keep to funds.

Mark_d

da4 said:

Hello,
I have about £30k in my HL S&S ISA which is currently invested in a mix of Vanguard and L&G funds. Although this has done me well, should I be investing in shares? I know some of the orgs I would like to invest in but I am wondering if the cost of the transaction (£12 or whatever it is) would make it not very worth while? I would imagine I will buy in a few hundred £s at a time.
Thanks
D

For investing in fund, AJ Bell is better and cheaper than HL in my opinion.

Currently I only invest in shares (i.e. no funds) and have a HL S&S ISA.  The transaction cost is fairly high but if your transactions are 10k and above then it's not an issue - especially if you're a serious long term investor

kempiejon

da4 said:

Hello,
I have about £30k in my HL S&S ISA which is currently invested in a mix of Vanguard and L&G funds. Although this has done me well, should I be investing in shares? I know some of the orgs I would like to invest in but I am wondering if the cost of the transaction (£12 or whatever it is) would make it not very worth while? I would imagine I will buy in a few hundred £s at a time.
Thanks
D

If buying funds has given you the inspiration to take on investigating shares start doing some research now. If you're looking at a few hundred pounds at a time and want to learn about direct investing in shares crack on. It might be a cheap learning process. I'd look for a platform that has really cheap/free dealing costs otherwise the spread, stamp duty and dealing costs will make it very difficult to even break even. 
If your funds have done well why would you want to change, good enough is good. Some shares I bought fell to zero value with no hope of any recovery. I have lost more than a few hundred quid learning.

InvesterJones

da4 said:

Hello,
I have about £30k in my HL S&S ISA which is currently invested in a mix of Vanguard and L&G funds. Although this has done me well, should I be investing in shares? I know some of the orgs I would like to invest in but I am wondering if the cost of the transaction (£12 or whatever it is) would make it not very worth while? I would imagine I will buy in a few hundred £s at a time.
Thanks
D

What assets are your current funds invested in? You may already have quite a lot of equities already. Going for individual shares is far riskier than a well diversified basket as can be found in funds.

Albermarle

As a generalisation, if you invest in a global diversified equity tracker ( 100% shares) then after 10 years you have a very good chance ( 95%?) of being ahead, and a pretty good chance of being ahead of inflation and a good chance ( >50%?) to be well ahead of inflation.
If instead you hold a handful of individual shares, your chances of making a big gain or a big loss is more likely.

Eyeful

1. I suggest you watch this first, before you invest in individual shares: https://www.kroijer.com/
2. Do you have the knowledge, experience & time to select shares, if not you are speculating not investing.
3. Individual share investing, is a higher risk approach than using funds.
4. Warren Buffet & other well known investors say the same thing:
"The average investor should stick to investing in a Global Index Fund or ETF tracking a MAJOR WORLD INDEX".
5. Are you a better than average investor?
6. If you do feel the need to buy individual shares, make sure it is only a small part of your portfolio (10% at most).

Cus

I feel that investing in individual company shares is not too different to betting on sports for me.  Something or things makes me think that a particular result is more likely, so I bet on it. Some research etc makes me think that it's good to invest in individual shares so I invest. Reality is that I know less than professionals, and that the system means on average I will lose. At least with the stock market the average goes up..