Learn by about investments

Gobigorgohome

Where would I be able to learn more about investments and pensions?
not necessarily to become an IFA but enough to understand where to invest, save and pensions. 

Other than chat gpt, I’m thinking maybe some courses?

RacingDriver

For saving look at the flowchart https://flowchart.ukpersonal.finance

And for investing read Monevator https://monevator.com

masonic

Don't use ChatGPT. Loads of rubbish has been written about investing on the internet, and it has been trained on that data. Also, most content focuses on the USA, which has different taxation and products available.

It's a topic that regularly comes up on this forum. Here's quite a good thread on the topic from quite a few years ago: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4752194

Eyeful

1. https://www.kroijer.com/

2. Read:
https://www.biglawinvestor.com/meet-the-gotrocks-family/
https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/
https://monevator.com/best-global-tracker-funds/

3. Look at the following YouTube Channels:
James Shack
Meaningful Money
Tom Crosshill
PensionCraft

Albermarle

Read through this forum and the Pensions forum regularly.

Newbie_John

With savings account you can easily compare them and pick the best. But that's not the case for investing as all the predictions come from hope. It also varies depending on how much you invest, how long for and how much time you can afford to check, research etc.

I found Yahoo Finance helpful to play around. Create a test portfolio there and say that you purchased your items on various days in last 5 years and see how it worked out. Just remember that past performance could mean nothing in the future - that's why people diversify - if fund X performed well in last few years and fund Y badly, it can be the other way round..

gesdt50

Heard some professional investors talking about investing in stocks and keeping some investments in cash which I found surprising as I thought cash would not be there choice for such professional investors so am wondering do they mean some kind of cash investing in the trading arena what with so many acronyms/abbreviations in money investing?

Albermarle

gesdt50 said:

Heard some professional investors talking about investing in stocks and keeping some investments in cash which I found surprising as I thought cash would not be there choice for such professional investors so am wondering do they mean some kind of cash investing in the trading arena what with so many acronyms/abbreviations in money investing?

It probably means they keep some of their funds in cash, to take advantage of any buying opportunities, for example after the market had had a dip.
There could be a myriad of reasons and its not unusual for professional investors to hold a wide range of assets, including cash.

eskbanker

gesdt50 said:

Heard some professional investors talking about investing in stocks and keeping some investments in cash which I found surprising as I thought cash would not be there choice for such professional investors so am wondering do they mean some kind of cash investing in the trading arena what with so many acronyms/abbreviations in money investing?

Difficult to comment meaningfully in a vacuum without hearing/reading exactly what was said and in what context, but investing should be seen as complementary to saving, i.e. it'll generally be prudent to maintain a cash deposit pot for emergencies, etc, in order to avoid having to liquidate investments at an inopportune moment in the cycle.

gascar

There's a huge spectrum of advice out there. I suppose most of it is good for somenone, just not much for me.

Much of the advice seems to be from an age when people squirreled their money away and forgot about it, driven by men in bowler hats who told everyone they wouldn't understand. Do keep looking at it. Have a phone app and take a look every couple of weeks and keep your ear on the news. You can set up price alerts with some brokers.

Watch Bloomberg or something topical, from time to time. They have bank chiefs and fund managers expounding, wuite often. They're mostly right, on trends.

Diversification is a religion for some. To a point, but only stuff which is doing OK or better, thankyou. I'll pass on the Bosnian blacksmithing sector. Low cost index funds? No thanks. Far too volatile to be left alone, and slightly higher cost hedged and managed funds do better.

Here's a chart I posted elsewhere:

3 years to date.

Brown is approx Building society or Money Market

Green is your low cost index fund - the S&P 500. OK 50% in 3 years is ok.

Orange is a managed hedged bond fund.  80% in 3 years, is better. (Edit I forgot the fees, 1.66%pa  at AJ Bell)

Past performance is no guarantee yada yada but after being that smooth for that long, I doubt it'll tank tomorrow.

Sunshine_and_Roses

Thus is something I would benefit from learning more about too, will be looking at these links.  I am better learning from podcasts and thought Martin's recent special about investing was really useful.  

Hope the OP does not mind me asking on Thursday thread,  but any basic investing podcasts recommendations would be appreciated.   Might help others too.