confued about stocks and shares ISA.

madmags69

Hi Everyone

I have a stock and shares ISA, which I have bben in since May 2002. I am with Sterling. I pay £100.00 a month, with conmission £97.25. As from April 2008 the value is £8.253.68, I think I am making a lose in this and I don't know wether to cash it in or hang on an see if it improves.

I would like to hear from any one who knows what they are talk about. Because the finacal adviseor that I have is a waste of space I have not heared from him in 2 years.

Thanks for reading

Maggie

turbobob

At £1200 a year over 6 years you would have paid in £7200, so not a fantastic return. But at least its not a loss. Do you know what fund(s) its invested in?

I would guess there's every chance you could do better, particularly if its just been put in one fund and not reviewed for some time. You can re-allocate it to other funds without "cashing it in" (which will mean that money will lose its tax free status) by transferring it, either by switching other funds within the existing wrapper, or by transferring it to another ISA provider. Going through a discount broker will mean you won't pay the commission you've been paying (but equally you won't get any advice from them either).

bigfreddiel

madmags69 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I have a stock and shares ISA, which I have bben in since May 2002. I am with Sterling. I pay £100.00 a month, with conmission £97.25. As from April 2008 the value is £8.253.68, I think I am making a lose in this and I don't know wether to cash it in or hang on an see if it improves.

I would like to hear from any one who knows what they are talk about. Because the finacal adviseor that I have is a waste of space I have not heared from him in 2 years.

Thanks for reading

Maggie

So you have been investing£100/month for 6 years (72 months) so total outlay is £7,200 - so its not fantastic.

Who is your stocks and shares ISA with? Is it in a particular fund? You really need to check its performance in comparison to other like funds and I find the Commshare site's performance checker really good - https://www.commshare.com/valuations/performancebrowser.aspx

So give that a go or post more details of your funds here.

For example the Invesco Perpetual Latin America fund has grown 400%+ in the past 5 years

Remember previous performance is no indicator of future performance - and no I'm not an IFA or broker.

You really need to keep an eye on what you have invested in and cut out the dead wood - don't sell your shares or funds outside of the ISA tho' - you cannot put previous years savings back in - you need to swap your current funds for a better performin fund and maybe diversify a bit.

Hope that helps

fj

Browntrout_2

On a quick check, 72 payments monthly of £100 each now worth £8,253 is approx 4.4% pa return, about high street average building society cash account, i.e. pants.

However you say you are with Sterling?

Maybe £sterling is what you are invested in, and in which case your return is about correct. If you want better growth than this (and who wouldn't unless for zero risk) you will need to use equity based investments.

I would seek out an independent financial advisor you can trust to transfer this investment to a fund which at least tracks the FTSE all share (low cost) or one which aims to beat it.

The average return on the stock market in the last five years (UK Equity income) is averaged at 83% and a top performer, such as Invesco Perpetual High Income returning 143%.

Aegis

madmags69 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I have a stock and shares ISA, which I have bben in since May 2002. I am with Sterling. I pay £100.00 a month, with conmission £97.25. As from April 2008 the value is £8.253.68, I think I am making a lose in this and I don't know wether to cash it in or hang on an see if it improves.

I would like to hear from any one who knows what they are talk about. Because the finacal adviseor that I have is a waste of space I have not heared from him in 2 years.

Thanks for reading

Maggie

If you give us some information about where your money is being invested, we might be able to suggest why the performance has been pretty rubbish, and also where you should go for other options.

madmags69

Hi Everybody

Thanks you for all the advice, I am going to give you the funds I am invested in Fidelity Global Special Situations

Monthly
investments Holdings Price Value


* Fidelity Global Special Situations 16.50 92.4600 16.7500 1.548.71
* Fidelity Special Situations 16.50 92.2000 17.1800 1.584.00
* Newton Higher Income 33.00 4.400.7900 0.6188 2.723.21
*Threadnedle UK Corporate Bond 34.00 4.752.7450 0.5045 2.397.76

100.00 8.253.68



I hope this helps you to help me.

Thanks

Maggie

dunstonh

All good funds really. A bit dated now a couple of them but the problem is not the quality of the fund so much but the timing. Remember that monthly payments take a while to build up in value and just as you were starting to get some value along comes a stockmarket decline late last year, beginning of this one which wipes 20% off the value (although recovered some of that recently).

Had you invested in that spread in 2002 as a lump sum you would have done very nicely indeed. However, by the end of 2002 you barely had £1000 in there so you missed out on it.

Monthly payments take 10 or so years to really come to life.

turbobob

Just out of interest I shoved them into the fund comparison chart feature on
Trustnet. The Newton higher income fund seems to have been hit hard recently (the purple line on here) but remember when it is low, your monthly payment is buying more units, giving potential for it to grow quickly when the fund does recover.

madmags69

Hi

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me, now I have to decide what ot do now. Thanks anyway

Maggie.