Looking for investment advice

[InOmniaParatus42]

I've been one of those lucky people whose salary continued during the lockdown period, but outgoings went down massively - thanks to reduced childcare costs, no coffees, no takeaways, no travel costs. As a result, I've finally paid off all pending credit charge bills and have about £2000 spare.

I know it's a tiny amount from an investment perspective, but any advice you can provide would be great. Also looking for investment advice for monthly savings - if I could save £200 - £300 a month, where is the best place to invest it?

Thanks!

if that is all your savings, don't invest it. It needs to go into a cash savings account. Interest rates are of course derisory so it will get wrecked by inflation, but at least it won't vanish in a market crash.

otherwise; stocks and shares ISA. look for low platform charges and spread your money between funds.

Thanks @mencken!

This is not all my savings. I do have a separate cash savings account. This is just something extra that is sitting in my current account and I'm thinking where else I can put it so it grows. Any advice on what sort of funds I need to look at? as you can see, I'm completely clueless

I'd start by reading a guide like this: www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/investment-beginners/

I would say I'm quite knowledgeable about investment (part of my job), but for personal investment I like to keep it simple: regular investing in tracker funds run by a big household name, low charges, no point in paying lots for an investment manager who might beat the stockmarket. One fund is a UK tracker, one is a US tracker - gives a bit of diversification. Badly hit by pandemic wobbles, but now should be a good time to invest as over the coming years markets hopefully recover - as long as you understand the risks.

If you already have an emergency fund set aside and have paid off debts, then investing the extra money would be a good idea.

Personally I’d recommend having a look at Vanguard. Their “Lifestrategy” stocks and shares ISAs are very good (80-100 are higher risk and better for long term investors) and the cost to invest is small compared to other investing platforms.

With investing it’s important to have a long term goal, so if you think you’ll need the money again within the next few years it might be worth re-thinking. But if you’re comfortable with an element of risk and are happy not to touch the money for 15 years+ you can get great returns.

Maybe also take a look at some financial YouTubers? (I watch a lot of Mamafurfur’s videos, which is where I found out about Vanguard).

Thanks @Waiting42021 and @DadDadDad. I'll check out those links and youtube channels.

And to follow up, if you can open an investment account and comfortably save £200-300 a month, you could get huge returns a few years down the line.

Definitely worth doing if you can afford it! Check out an online investment calculator, which will show you how much your investment could be worth in 10/15/20 years if you were to put away £300 a month. Really spurred me on to get investing

I had pretty much the same situation due to lockdown. I opened a Vanguard S&S isa. I put most of it into the 60% equity Lifestrategy and just as a punt put a few hundred into the 100% equity. (They are both part of the same isa). I am quite enjoying checking on my 'investment' every few weeks. I don't envisage having to touch the money for the foreseeable future, and am able to add a couple of hundred a month. I also have good cash reserves, pension is sorted, and no other debts, so felt I could take a chance.
Vanguard seems a very user friendly platform, with a good range of funds. If you were thinking of just putting aside money for a lump sum at retirement, their pension funds seem very straightforward too.