S&S isa help

jellybean24

Hi I’m new here and wondering if anyone can offer guidance on picking a good s&s ISA. I’ve got emergency savings and a cash isa but not near the isa limit for the year. I’d like invest a small amount to start and add to it monthly but the vanguard one I was looking at had a minimum of £100 per month and I’d prefer to invest £25-50 max as nursery fees don’t leave lots left over! For info I would be looking at investing long term (15years plus) and would say I’m happy with medium level risk. 

There are so many options and I’m always second guessing my decisions so just hoping that someone might be able to help narrow down my search.

eskbanker

'Picking a good S&S ISA' misses the point really - the ISA is just the wrapper and it's far more important to put the effort into choosing the contents, i.e. the actual investments.

My go-to copypasta for newbie investor threads is the 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.

(looks like 1, 2 and 6 are redundant here for you, given your comments!)

Beddie

£25 a month at Hargreaves Lansdown. Slightly higher charges than elsewhere, but no fee for monthly investing and irrelevant until you have a decent amount in there:

https://www.hl.co.uk/investment-services/isa#:~:text=If you're looking for,or £25 per month.

jellybean24

Thanks, I hadn’t thought about point 4 or given enough thought about 5. Appreciate the advice both, it will definitely help. 

jimjames

jellybean24 said:

. I’d like invest a small amount to start and add to it monthly but the vanguard one I was looking at had a minimum of £100 per month and I’d prefer to invest £25-50 max as nursery fees don’t leave lots left over! 

Not sure what Vanguard is showing you but the minimum isn't £100, at least not after the first payment. My ISA and SIPP both have monthly DD amounts lower than that. You can also pay in via debit card with no minimum.