Share trackers and other things

[Kai1977]

Just looking for some general advice about where to put my money really. I am keeping the figures relatively vague as it's a public forum.

I'm married and both my DP are on good salaries. He pays the mortgage and invests in shares, I pay bills and currently save my money in ISAs (shares/cash). No debts now.

I will have well over £1k a month to save/invest regularly.

My feeling is that I should put the bulk of my monthly money drip fed into more ISA trackers (shares) and the rest in money (we want rainy day money)

I don't want loads of hassle each month and I am mid level risk adverse. Can anyone suggest the types of managed investments I culd include? How do I find decent ones (I currently use thr HSBC share tracker managed by a third party). I know nothing about bonds etc but would consider them.

Thanks!

[Ellisandra]

If good salaries means higher rate tax, are you taking advantage of higher rate tax relief on pension contributions?

[Kai1977]

Yes higher tax rate and no, not exactly sure what that is! Thanks for the tip, will investigate that first and foremost.

[Kai1977]

Anyone else who can help with this?

Thanks

[Flum]

Yep, pension saving will save you tax. Use all your isa allowance too. Vanguard funds are lowest cost usually.

[specialsubject]

stuff your pension as full as you can - how much you can put in relates to your earnings so make the most of this time.

make sure you have six months living expenses stashed, it will lose value with inflation but you have to have it.

yes, fill the ISAs but pensions first.

I go for trackers as I don't see how managed funds can do better, certainly not enough to justify the charges. But that's me.

[Sunseed]

If you may need access to money sooner than 55 then it is not good advice to put it all into pensions!!!

[Kai1977]

Thanks, I have around 9% of income in pension (plus employer puts more in), then with a recent promotion I now have closer to £1.5k for savings (per month, but we are ttc so that may well change) so yes, makes sense to save mix of money and shares.

I'll have a look at some tracker/managed funds and work it out from there.

[kath6144]

Op we use Hargreaves Lansdown as an investment platform. It allows constant tracking to see how your funds are doing and you can change where money is invested if need be.

We both invest in a variety of managed funds within our ISA, plus DH has some shares. We also both have personal pensions (SIPPs) in our HL accounts that we put some money in (DH self employed so minimal Employer pensions, I do have company pensions, old and new, so put less in SIPP)

All I would say is, drip feed the money in monthly and across different funds/trackers, so you iron out the peaks and troughs of stock market in general, but also across different sectors.

We have only really lost money many years ago, when we were green and didn't realise we should invest monthly!

[kath6144]

In terms of which funds/sectors, Hargreaves Lansdown do a 'Wealth 150' list, which is their recommended top 150 funds, and you can search across different sectors and also I think, risk. They also include the different charges in their info

We have some European funds that have done exceptionally well, but also have UK funds and some covering other parts of the world/sectors.

Whilst HL arent the cheapest on charges, we have stuck with them for many years as they are easy to deal with and have lots of information on their website (and an excellent customer service dept if you need them).

[Kai1977]

Thank you for the help. I think that sounds like the sort of thing I need