Update - Anyone see any issues with this portfolio?

FIRSTTIMER wrote: »

Also, if I need to withdraw from the LISA is the penalty applied to all the cash including any growth, or just what I have paid in, meaning either way I loose out.
Thanks

If you withdraw from the LISA early you give up 25% of whatever amount you ask to take out, as a penalty.

So say you put £1000 in, the bonus takes it to £1250. But it does badly and there is no growth. Then you want to get some money out so you ask for a £125 withdrawal. They deduct 25% penalty from that so you only get £93.75 from what would have originally been £100 at time of pay in and what would have also been £100 if you'd put it into a 'normal' ISA and invested in the same investments, getting no growth.

Instead say you put £1000 in, the bonus takes it to £1250. The investment doubles in value to £2500. Then you want to get some money out so you ask for a £250 withdrawal. They deduct 25% penalty from that so you only get £187.50 back from what would have been £200 if you had just invested £100 in a non-bonus product and doubled your initial investment to £200.

Instead say you put £1000 in, the bonus takes it to £1250. The investment quadruples in value to £5000. Then you want to get some money out so you ask for a £500 withdrawal. They deduct 25% penalty from that so you only get £375 back from what would have been £400 if you had just invested £100 in a non-bonus product and quadrupled your initial investment to £400.

Instead say you put £1000 in, the bonus takes it to £1250. The investment is a poor one and drops by 40% to £750. Then you want to get some money out so you ask for a £75 withdrawal. They deduct 25% penalty from that so you only get £56.25 back from what would have been £60 if you had just invested £100 in a non-bonus product and lost 40% of its value due to bad investment choices.

In each case - no matter what the growth is - the money you're able to get out after the penalty is 93.75% of the money you'd have been able to take out if you had used a normal 'non bonus' type of LISA.

As to the question on whether there are cheaper options; Vanguard is fine for investing in its own products until you have a lot more invested than you currently do. Similarly if you want a broader choice of investments and access to a LISA product, HL with its lack of transaction fees is not bad for the first couple of years while your balance builds

Once you have been going for a couple of years your LISA(gross of bonus) may be at £10k, or more with growth. And hopefully throughout that third year you'll be taking it up to £15k or more. At that point you'll find that the HL platform fees at 0.45% of the £10-15k is a relatively steep £45-£68 annual charge, which is more expensive than paying AJBell Youinvest platform fees at 0.25% of the £10-15k (only £25-£37.50) and paying their 12x £1.50 monthly dealing fees.

FIRSTTIMER wrote: »

Cheers - does anyone know whether they will enter the LISA market on their platform?

No.

As in, they have not said that they will, so nobody knows definitively that they will enter the LISA market... but as they grow in the UK they may well start adding LISAs and SIPPs and whatever else comes along, so nobody knows that they won't enter the LISA market either.