Simple share trading - best app?

collinsca

Hi

I am looking to invest a small amount, regularly, into shares of my choice.

I appreciate there are many apps out there (Plum, e-Toro, MoneyBox, Trading 212 to name a few).

I'd be keen to hear views on best for my needs.

I'd look to invest £50-£100 a month, in a small number of companies, probably blue-chip.


I have maxed my employers matching pension contributions, so am looking to use this as a long term way of saving, so that when i'm closing on pension age I can look to use savings without touching the pension early.


Thanks!

NoMore

Unless you specifically want this money before Pension Access age, just increasing your Pension contributions is more tax efficient.

Mark_d

I was using Hargreaves Lansdown until a couple of months ago.  The app was a bit clunky and I'd get frustrated with a few things.  I'm now using Interactive Investor and everything seems so polished and professional.  Yes it's costing me considerably more than HL or AJ Bell, but in think it's worth it in the long run.

eskbanker

collinsca said:

Hi

I am looking to invest a small amount, regularly, into shares of my choice.

I appreciate there are many apps out there (Plum, e-Toro, MoneyBox, Trading 212 to name a few).

I'd be keen to hear views on best for my needs.

I'd look to invest £50-£100 a month, in a small number of companies, probably blue-chip.


I have maxed my employers matching pension contributions, so am looking to use this as a long term way of saving, so that when i'm closing on pension age I can look to use savings without touching the pension early.


Thanks!

It's unlikely to be optimal to be making multiple tiny purchases of individual shares each month, given the costs involved - it's less of an issue if you're wanting to enjoy the 'thrill' of researching and buying into specific companies, but to be honest if that's what you want to do then choosing an app/platform should be far easier to accomplish.

Those genuinely seeking long term investment growth, especially inexperienced investors, will generally be better served by buying into collective products such as funds, with plenty of global diversification.

collinsca

Thanks for the responses so far - appreciated.


What i am trying to do here is:
have a bit of fun, but hopefully grow a savings nest egg whereby I can use the money before Pension Access age without tapping into the invested pension i.e. perhaps retire a few years earlier and live off the savings until pension has reached more potential.
(i'm 46 & 20 yrs off retirement)

Take the point re pension being more tax efficient and comment re better served in collective products - so given that i appreciate common sense says pay even more in to pension!
Currently i'm paying in about 1k (mine and employers conts) into a Defined Contribution pension into various funds (i have diversified from the 'safer' (but low cost) default fund to ones which are riskier (higher charges) but, at present, well outperforming the default).
NB: This is on top of a DB pension that will give about £18k per year.
The DC is on target for £27k a year at 'mid rate' of 2.9%. 

wmb194

Use Trading212. No costs and because it offers fractional shares you’ll invest every penny. If you Google for it you might be able to find a referral offer (not allowed here).

eskbanker

collinsca said:

What i am trying to do here is:
have a bit of fun, but hopefully grow a savings nest egg whereby I can use the money before Pension Access age without tapping into the invested pension i.e. perhaps retire a few years earlier and live off the savings until pension has reached more potential.
(i'm 46 & 20 yrs off retirement)

Just a sanity check but if you're only anticipating investing something in the region of £1K annually then realistically it would seem unlikely that this would generate enough to live off in less than 20 years, even with spectacular growth?

MarkFromCornwall

collinsca said:

What i am trying to do here is:
have a bit of fun, but hopefully grow a savings nest egg

Take plenty of time to decide which of these you are trying to do.  They are inconsistent so unfortunately you do need to choose between them.

collinsca

Thanks for both points!

Where I have said:
"i.e. perhaps retire a few years earlier and live off the savings..... * ..... until pension has reached more potential."

I should have added:
"including other savings i have (and will have)".

So yes, appreciate x20 yrs of £100 a month = £24k (without growth) would not be, on it's own, enough for living for a few years pre-retirement.

My mortgage will be paid off in 5 years, so i will have 15 years to enhance normal financial institution "safe" savings, fixed bonds, ISAs etc.
(I'm paying £500 a month to mortgage -  so 15yrs of £500 a month would give £90,000 (pre any interest).

Petriix

What you want is a stocks and shares isa from Trading212. You can mess around buying small amounts (fractional shares) of various funds without too much risk. In the long run you probably want to mostly own a global equities tracker (personally I picked some vaguely ethical ETFs which exclude arms, tobacco and fossil fuels).

You can dabble in things like physical gold and Microstrategy (who hold huge amounts of bitcoin). I've put some money into renewable energy companies, more "trying to do the right thing" than expecting great returns and around 10% into bonds for a bit of diversity. The cool thing is there are no fees so you really can dip your toes in a few things while you're figuring it out. Just stay away from the CFD stuff... 

collinsca

Petriix said:

What you want is a stocks and shares isa from Trading212. You can mess around buying small amounts (fractional shares) of various funds without too much risk. In the long run you probably want to mostly own a global equities tracker (personally I picked some vaguely ethical ETFs which exclude arms, tobacco and fossil fuels).

You can dabble in things like physical gold and Microstrategy (who hold huge amounts of bitcoin). I've put some money into renewable energy companies, more "trying to do the right thing" than expecting great returns and around 10% into bonds for a bit of diversity. The cool thing is there are no fees so you really can dip your toes in a few things while you're figuring it out. Just stay away from the CFD stuff... 

Thanks - Just to confirm, there are no fees to buy shares? are there fees to take your money out? (wondering what the catch is).. thanks