Good time to buy?

dbrookf

Is it a good time to invest in a stocks and shares ISA with the stock markets tumbling?

FrugaiMacDugal

Cash or stocks and shares?

If you want to get in this tax year, you've got until Saturday.

El_Torro

It’s a better time to invest in the stock market than it was a week ago, or 3 months ago. Nobody knows whether it is better to buy now or wait a month.

Over the long term time in the market is more important than timing the market in most cases.

dbrookf

FrugaiMacDugal said:

Cash or stocks and shares?

If you want to get in this tax year, you've got until Saturday.

Stocks and shares 

goodread

Perhaps a good idea to open an account then drip feed funds in over a few months, rather than putting in a lump sum all at once. Less nerve shredding for a newbie and no-one knows how long this rocky period will last. 

jimjames

dbrookf said:

Is it a good time to buy an ISA with the stock markets tumbling?

There's no such thing as buying a S&S ISA, it's just a tax free wrapper. You can add money to a S&S ISA and buy different investments inside it. If that's something you're considering then I'd recommend doing some more research about what investments you are thinking of buying as your post suggests you're not sure.

a1exh

It is a good time to invest in an S&S ISA. Perhaps Trading212 or II as the platform.

You need to be prepared to lock away this money for at least 5 years.

The big question is, will it drop any lower? Today will be a good punt on some top-name USA shares that should recover (and more) during that time.

Swipe

It's definitely a good time to deposit some cash and make use of this year's ISA allowance before the 6th April. 

Exodi

Yep, even if you're not 100% convinced on whether you want to invest yet - I'd open a S&S ISA and put as much as you can in, even if it is left as cash, as the threshold resets on the 6th (that said this might be a moot point if you're unlikely to hit the ISA allowance in either tax year or the sum is relatively small).

a1exh said:

It is a good time to invest in an S&S ISA. Perhaps Trading212 or II as the platform.

Do you perhaps mean IE (Invest Engine) instead of II (Interactive Investor)?

II charge flat fees, which makes it good for big account balances (hence people often transferring to them once they've amassed a big pot on a low cost percentage platform) but not so much for those starting with small balances. IE charge no fees.

II's Investor Essentials ISA plan charges £4.99 per month (up to a portfolio balance of £50k), meaning even if the OP had £20k to put in straight away, they'd be paying an annual charge of around 0.6% of their portfolio - 4x the fee of platforms like Vanguard, Dodl, etc. It would still be higher, even in the base case scenario that they had £20k to put in now, and £20k to put in Apr 6th.