Unit Trusts. General Advice

GreyPilgrim

Long story short - heavily in debt, then debt free, then saved like bu*gery to get to about £10,000 in ISA's and savings. I'd like to start thinking about something with a slightly higher risk and possible rate of return, with long term growth in mind. Filling up our ISA's and having that guaranteed chunk of cash will always be number 1 priority - I understand the difference between saving and investment, and I know that you should only risk money that you can afford to lose.

I'm thinking Unit Trust. A lump sum investment and then a regular small monthly contribution.

I understand them in principle and I've done a tiny bit of internet reading on various vendors this morning. Jupiter was the first result that Google threw back and I've looked at a couple of their products...minimum seems to be £500 lump sum and then £50.
I think I'm just after some guidance here. I'm not after recommendations, hot tips, 'dead certs' (if only) and feedback on individual companies / mangers etc, maybe just a few pointers for useful information / background reading on the subject in general before I go ahead and take the plunge, rather than my scattergun approach trying to digest everything.

Really sorry for such a general, bague post. it's very hard to know where to start...

Aegis

Start somewhere like here: www.h-l.co.uk

Hargreaves Lansdown will discount most purchases of unit trusts and OEICs, so you'll get them a lot cheaper than from the providers themselves!

The next suggestion then becomes a little easier: spread your investments. A single unit trusts is a good start, but it invariably specialises into a single sector or geographic reagion, which means that you need several in order to diversify. Through a fund supermarket (like the one I linked to above) you can access the majority of funds that investors have access to, and you can usually start investing at a level of £50 per month per fund (i.e. not needing a lump sum investment as far as I know). There's also a nifty little trick where you can switch any amount out of a fund you're invested in into another fund, negating the need for a minimum investment level.

I hope that helps you do some more research!

stevedb11

GreyPilgrim wrote: »

Long story short - heavily in debt, then debt free, then saved like bu*gery to get to about £10,000 in ISA's and savings. I'd like to start thinking about something with a slightly higher risk and possible rate of return, with long term growth in mind. Filling up our ISA's and having that guaranteed chunk of cash will always be number 1 priority - I understand the difference between saving and investment, and I know that you should only risk money that you can afford to lose.

I'm thinking Unit Trust. A lump sum investment and then a regular small monthly contribution.

I understand them in principle and I've done a tiny bit of internet reading on various vendors this morning. Jupiter was the first result that Google threw back and I've looked at a couple of their products...minimum seems to be £500 lump sum and then £50.
I think I'm just after some guidance here. I'm not after recommendations, hot tips, 'dead certs' (if only) and feedback on individual companies / mangers etc, maybe just a few pointers for useful information / background reading on the subject in general before I go ahead and take the plunge, rather than my scattergun approach trying to digest everything.

Really sorry for such a general, bague post. it's very hard to know where to start...

Hi, If you are a complete beginner in Unit trusts/investing have a look at this guide from Fidelity.
http://www.fidelity.co.uk/pdfs/direct/moneyguide.pdf
Then you may want to go to Hargreaves and Landsdowne, I believe they have better discounts.
Hope this helps. Steve;)

GreyPilgrim

Nice bit of reading for the afternoon there, thanks chaps.

One question I'm trying to find an answer to regards the ISA wrapper. We currenly only fill the cash component, but is it possible to have the cash component with one provider and use the share element to harbour unit trust investments with a different provider?

I'm sure this will be answered in one of the links above, but if there's a simple yes / no to be offered by anyone...

stevedb11

GreyPilgrim wrote: »

Nice bit of reading for the afternoon there, thanks chaps.

One question I'm trying to find an answer to regards the ISA wrapper. We currenly only fill the cash component, but is it possible to have the cash component with one provider and use the share element to harbour unit trust investments with a different provider?

I'm sure this will be answered in one of the links above, but if there's a simple yes / no to be offered by anyone...

Yes it is, for 2007/08 I have a cash ISA with NS&I and a mini Stocks/shares ISA with H&L.
Steve;)