Investing- want to start and need your best tips

[Dellabob123]

Wise Mumsnetters-I need your financial expertise. my bank is offering investing options, via their banking app. Investment of say £50 per month or whatever you can comfortably manage over a long term. I’m really interested and have ordered a book and also started research and listening to a podcast.

Is there an amazing, easy to navigate platform that you recommend or should I go with my bank for ease and security?

Any blogs or daily news that’s easy to understand that can help me decide?
should I go for the isa investment?

I’ve still got so much to research but for anyone who invests, I’d love some pointers.

Have you covered pension contributions first?

They are the best initial investments because you can salary sacrifice from gross and move the money tax free.

So that's 20-40% more before you even start.

Thank you @frozendaisy
just starting out….that’s good advice.
how do you go about that? Is that best done through my banks investment platform or do you recommend something else?

And sorry for the dumb sounding question, but would you invest in pension as well as other areas or simply pension contribution. I am at very early stages but really want to get a grips with this.

Thank you 😊

The 'amazing, easy to navigate' platform, or one that is at least perfectly fine and almost certainly charges less than your bank is Vanguard.

What you want is a stocks and shares ISA with them. However, you probably want to know more about why you want that and which fund you should pick.

You mention a book and a podcast. If it's not Meaningful Money, you should also give that a go.

www.amazon.co.uk/Meaningful-Money-Handbook-Everything-everything/dp/0857196510

meaningfulmoney.tv/mmpodcast/

There's loads of back episodes. A lot cover investing and some cover other things like mortgages and pensions. A couple I've recently listened to that were useful as a novice investor in helping find out what I don't know and whether or not I should worry about it are:

meaningfulmoney.tv/2017/01/18/how-to-choose-a-multi-asset-fund/ good for narrowing down an overwhelming number of funds to go in your S&S ISA.

meaningfulmoney.tv/2022/05/11/drawdown-or-annuity/ - I think it was this one - he talked about a technique where you buy a few different funds (once you start looking in Vanguard you'll see what I mean) then you just pay into them/leave them to do their thing and when it comes to the time to take money out, you can take money out from the one that's performed the best, and not touch any where the value has lost, because that's how you lose money by investing.

I found that this helped me worry less about getting it wrong as in choosing the wrong fund. Because in Vanguard, you can just pick a fund and invest some money, so I've just been picking a few of the most popular ones and putting money in each - I'm investing to provide an income in around 10 years time when I hope to retire or go very part time and will need to top up a small historical pension that will start paying at 60, but won't be enough to live on until I get the rest of my pension and state pension at 67/8. So then I'll be able to take money from the ones that have done well and leave alone any that aren't

I've listened to a good chunk of this podcast over the last 2/3 years and have learned so much. I've been wanting to invest for around a decade now, but was put off because I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want to get it wrong.

However, I've now learned that, as I've said above, it really is as simple as putting a bit of money in a S&S ISA and leaving it alone. Investing is what you should do with money you can afford to not have to use for at least five years.

So you have to make sure you've paid off any bad (ie expensive) debt first and have a decent emergency fund (size of which dependent on how secure your income is)

Also have a look at ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/ to see if you're at the stage where investing is right for you.

Good luck

Vanguard also do SIPPs (pensions).

MM also covers pension vs ISA.

meaningfulmoney.tv/2022/03/23/pension-or-isa/

Often there's not much in it because, while a pension gets tax relief, the income you take from it, apart from you can take some as a lump some, is taxable, so if you're likely to be paying tax in retirement, which you will if you have a full state pension and even a small private pension. However, if you're currently a higher rate tax payer and are likley to be a standard rate tax payer in retirement, it can be advantageous.

Whereas if you put your money in a S&S ISA, it's tax free when you take money out. So it could work out the same. Plus you can take the money out whenever you want, whereas with a pension you have to wait until you're 55/7 depending on your age.

You only receive tax relief on the first £40k you pay in to a pension per year and this figure reduces drastically after you take a tax free lump sum also.

www.ii.co.uk

Thank you everyone.
@BarbaraofSeville that is exactly the info I was after. I hadn’t purchased that book, so doing that now.
i am looking at similar, ten year investment and this has given me the confidence I need.

final question- did you invest a lump sum or do you invest a monthly amount- this is the bit that confuses me at the moment- it’s what my bank app is suggesting?

It’s up to you if you want to do a lump sum or monthly amounts. Monthly amounts can take advantage of fluctuations in the market but can attract higher charges.
We use Hargreaves Lansdown for ISAs and SIPP

Agree with pp, Vanguard is a great option for investing.

One of the keys to investing is to know how long you want to invest for, and what you’ll use the money for. You’ve said above that you plan to invest for 10 years, so you can afford to take a low-medium level of risk. Generally, the longer you plan to invest for, the more risk you can afford to take. For example, I am planning to invest for around 30 years, so at the moment I split my investments between Vanguard’s Lifestrategy 100, and the S&P 500. This might change in the future though as I get closer to retirement age and want to take less risk.

I’d also advise as pp suggested - don’t start investing until you have the rest of your finances sorted:

• An emergency fund to cover 3-6 months of living expenses
• A pension you’re actively paying into
• Sinking funds for monthly spending like clothes, haircuts, travel etc

Once you’ve got these sorted, then you’re ready to explore investing!

you’ve all offered extremely helpful advice, thank you.
I don’t have any bad debt, I could extend to 15-20 years with a monthly investment and I do have 3 months expenses coverage…. I did the flow chart (thanks@BarbaraofSeville ) and feel comfortable investing - i want to be fully armed before I hit go.

I’ve ordered my books and will resume podcast listening.
it makes it so much easier listening to your real life examples and advice without any hard sell. Thank you again ☺️

Hi Dellabob123, I haven't been on here for a while but I was looking for similar info to you recently and came across this thread. It's taken us ages to get off our backsides and set up an investing account with someone. I'm interested to hear how you are getting on? We'd heard of Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity and seen the vanguard adverts but ending up going with Interactive Investor for both of our ISAs (currently considering them for pensions too). The main reason we went with them was the monthly cost which apart from trading fees (which we won't be doing) is the same every month. I think it's the only one that does this, although may be wrong - most of the others seem to take a percentage every month which can vary.
Like you, we read a few books and delved into the vast podcast world. Much of it was over our heads. Recently we like The Big Green Money Show on BBC Sounds (Deborah Meaden co-hosts that from Dragon's Den) and Interactive Investor do one with gabby Logan, which has loads of celeb guests called The ii Family Money Show. This one is brilliant! It is great hearing from them as they're all successful - they had Richard Curtis on (love 4 Weddings!) - but some know nothing about this world and others do. Made us feel slightly less stupid anyway!! Definitely worth a listen.
The pensions decision will be a big step, as it's more money. If you pick this up let me know what you ended up doing.
Thanks for starting the thread.

Barbara has covered pretty much everything.

I don't trust banks and investment though.

I would go through vanguard.

There's been some good advice on here already, but for some interesting reading I always recommend looking at the Moneyvator website - especially the Slow & Steady portfolio postings and the table about brokers (https://monevator.com/find-the-best-online-broker/).

I use iweb for my stocks & shares ISA as it has low charges if you're using ETFs, ITs or shares and Hargreaves Lansdown for my SIPP (higher charges, but I don't trade much and I don't fancy moving it atm). I don't know think iWeb have a monthly plan tho.

Depending on your age the "easiest" and cheapest thing to do in when in "accumulation mode" is probably just to add a bit monthly into one of the Vanguard ETF world trackers (eg VEVE - developed world, distributing, VHVG - same, but accumulating; VWRL - all-world, distributing). Once you've built up a bit of capital review again.

I would recommend a bare minimum of 6 months living expenses in an easily accessible account (ie a cash savings account - look around for best interest rates without withdrawal penalties).

As others have said (and imho), for us non-Masters of the Universe types putting money into low-cost index trackers and leaving it alone is probably our best plan ove rthe long-term. Remember though, the stock market can go down as well as up (and if you're investing over the long term you will live through at least one such period). Losses only become "baked in" if you have to sell - one of the reasons you want a back-up cash fund so you can (hopefully) ride it out and remain invested.

Also remember to do your own research - only you know your financial circumstances and attitude to risk!

Or learn how to invest yourself.

Piggybacking on this thread as I have a S+S ISA with Moneybox but seem to be running at a loss on it most months - maybe this is just the reality of investing but it makes me wonder if I've chosen my funds poorly....and every time I try and work out what the best options to go for are I can't get my head around it, and I'm wondering how to make it more effective to calm the impulse to move all the money into my LISA (which I max out at the end of each year anyway).

They allow investing in some US stocks now which feels a bit more straightforward (if also making me think 'well, if I've heard of that then it can't be a bargain to put money into right now, no?') but the funds to pick from feel more abstract.