Is it safe to invest in stocks and shares?

Financial_Virgin

I have quite a bit of money to save but don't know what to do with it. With the bad press at the moment I can't decide which way to go.

Can anyone help???????

Aegis

Financial_Virgin wrote: »

I have quite a bit of money to save but don't know what to do with it. With the bad press at the moment I can't decide which way to go.

Can anyone help???????

Entirely depends on your attitude to risk and your objectives. If you don't mind seeing your capital fluctuate a bit then the stock market is good for long term growth. If you want absolute security of capital and have short-term requirements, not such a good idea.

dunstonh

What bad press are you on about?

Stocks and share ISAs can invest in many areas and many cover many risk profiles. You dont even need to invest in the stockmarket and there are options with guarantees if you really think you need them.

Riq

stocks and shares carry high risk, but give high returns.

It's just what risk horizons you have.

cheerfulcat

Financial_Virgin wrote: »

I have quite a bit of money to save but don't know what to do with it. With the bad press at the moment I can't decide which way to go.

Can anyone help???????

Either the world markets are FUBAR ( not in the development sense, and apologies for the language ) or they aren't. If they are, then it doesn't matter where you put your money- all is lost anyway. If they aren't, then this may be a good time to buy equities. To even out your returns you could drip-feed your investments, buying a few of your selected shares/unit trusts/investment trusts etc. every month.

Do some research, and don't rely on " the press ", ' cos they know just about as much as you do...

jamesd

You might take a look at these to see some of the variation available, or consider combining them in the proportions mentioned while you learn more and become more comfortable with the way things work:

30% BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha
20% Cru Investment Portfolio
20% Invesco Perpetual Monthly Income Plus
20% Invesco Perpetual Income
10% Neptune Global Equity

The first three are quite stable and invest in different ways while the last two are one of the most popular UK funds and a fairly aggressive global fund. The proportions are selected so that it's unlikely you'd lose capital over a year or more, but at the expense of substantially reduced long term growth potential. Still likely to be more than 9% a year though.

dunstonh

Riq wrote: »

stocks and shares carry high risk, but give high returns.

It's just what risk horizons you have.

That is not quite correct. The investment options within an ISA can include low risk investments and high risk investments. Stockmarket is also not one risk level as you can get medium risk coverage through to speculative. And of course, you dont need to put stocks and shares in a stocks and shares ISA. Its a shame the Govt didnt alter the name to Investment ISA as that would be a better reflection of what an ISA is.

Sapphire

Financial_Virgin wrote: »

I have quite a bit of money to save but don't know what to do with it. With the bad press at the moment I can't decide which way to go.

Can anyone help???????

Personally, I wouldn't put money into stocks and shares unless I could forget about it for at least five - or preferably ten - years, no matter what any financial adviser suggested. Too risky and too volatile over such a short time period.

xiox

Sapphire wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn't put money into stocks and shares unless I could forget about it for at least five - or preferably ten - years, no matter what any financial adviser suggested. Too risky and too volatile over such a short time period.

Yes - if we were to have a big recession in the next year it might be at least 5 years before stocks and shares recovered to where they were before. I've got cash saved to go towards a house. I've thought of putting some of it into shares, but my opinion is that the economy is probably in a pretty bad state and it would just be gambling with my money.

dunstonh

Personally, I wouldn't put money into stocks and shares unless I could forget about it for at least five - or preferably ten - years, no matter what any financial adviser suggested. Too risky and too volatile over such a short time period.

No financial advisers recommend terms of less than 5 years anyway. Its become an automatic statement in the same way as "you could get back less than you pay in" has.

Yes - if we were to have a big recession in the next year it might be at least 5 years before stocks and shares recovered to where they were before. I've got cash saved to go towards a house. I've thought of putting some of it into shares, but my opinion is that the economy is probably in a pretty bad state and it would just be gambling with my money.

Again, making assumptions that the investment would be 100% stockmarket and 100% UK.

xiox

dunstonh wrote: »

Again, making assumptions that the investment would be 100% stockmarket and 100% UK.

Assuming 100% stocks (yes - I know there may be safer options), is there really much protection afforded by spreading investments round the world? If Wall Street sneezes, the rest of the world appears to sneeze now. You're also vulnerable to currency fluctuations. There are some bits of the world less linked to the western economies (brazil, etc), but these are traditional "high risk" areas. I can't see a safe place to put money in the stockmarket at the moment (though it helps to avoid financial institutions).