Do you invest?

[Greentoytractor]

And if not, why not?

Obviously a lot of people can't afford to, but my question is more for people who can, but keep all of their savings in cash rather than stocks and shares. This is the position I'm in, and have only just started investing in my mid 40s. I wish someone had educated me on investing back in my 20s. Feel like I've missed a trick!

Yes. I cut out the weekly coffees and cakes meet ups and reduced them to just once a week so I reckon I save about £20 week and now use that topping up my T212 global funds etc..so about £80 a month i trickle in.....i sometimes take a punt and buy odd shares...i bought gold and silver shares last year and now up over 80%...some AI have done well and others terrible....M and S slowly recovering, B and M down and down....I hold premium bonds but might ditch them as returns are now poor...I also wish i had started years ago....I dont understand why schools etc dont have sessions on investing and pensions. I only took out the teachers pension as colleagues talked me into it, otherwise i might not have bothered...am early retired and its quite small sum but useful. Clive thomson on youtube is excellent, i follow his advice and done well...others on that site can be hit and miss.

We do invest but not so much high risk as we are older and less time to recoup. DH and I both started very young. A very left wing and big militant labour supporting teacher talked about the evils of the stock market in general studies. I would have been about 15. He bought in a Financial Times and made up choose companies to invest in , I chose London Brick and cleaned up. So his anti capitalist rantings did me a favour. I and never even heard of the stock market till then.

My Mother got in to investing when my stepfather died. I remember her buying BT stocks. I was about 17 at the time. Her life turned around financially after he died. But it’s always a risk so you can't blame people for not doing it. I remember the crash after Trumps liberation day when markets went down about 20%. You just had to hold your nerve but I remember people freaking out especially on here. You only invest what you can afford to lose.

Yes my savings goal is to max my S&S ISA each year.

I don’t really keep any money in cash, just what I need month to month plus a small emergency fund.

I do and as you say, time in the market helps so much. I generally pick individual companies for my ISA and reinvest the dividends. I'm getting ds to start as young as possible.

Apart from company pensions I didn't use to. Only when I had a buffer, and liabilities I was comfortable with, have I started to. This is via a socks and shares ISA into a mashed investment portfolio by my bank. It was doing well, but took a dip with Trump's tariffs, and now with the war I expect the value to go down.

Your money is at risk.

Yes I have for about 15 years. I'm now 66 and I have a comfortable life financially.

The market going down 20%, or even up 20%, is only relevant if you are actually seeking to buy or sell. Ie you don’t lose until you sell. Much like owning a house, the value of your asset can go up and down.

I have always invested. And I’ve made an absolute killing putting relatively small amounts into funds. In the last 15 years these have way out performed House price increases, though I fully expect the recent action by the Americans and Iran to mean they will plummet in value. So I won’t touch them for awhile.

I have recently put a little into a S&S ISA. I still feel nervous about the risk of it going down as well as up. Right now I have 7.1% return which is great and better than any cash savings I have. I need to add more to it really. My pension is invested.

We have £50k each in premium bonds and some in savings. Friends tell us to invest better, but we win most months. Im cautious of taking a loss in stocks and shares. The wolf of wall st im not

yes i invest my Stocks and shares ISA allowance every year.

i highly recommend the 'finance rebel school' faceebook group. watch all the videos then make your mind up if investing is right for you.

my new mantra: Time IN the market, not timing the market :-)

@Whammyammy
But what % return do those monthly wins actually add up to? AFAIK on average it is less than 3% per year. You can do way better than that with a simple global tracker, especially if you have a 5+ years horizon.

Premium bonds, cash ISA, savings accounts, pension. I’m not ready for stock and shares personally

I would like to but don’t because I just don’t know how to even begin. I was never taught about it at school. I have sometimes looked online for guidance but there’s so much information and often one thing contradicts another (do this/dont don’t do this). So my savings are just in a savings account.

I've started just a few years ago when we stopped paying nursery fees.
I absolutely LOVE checking the app and seeing how much my investments have grown, it's completely addictive.

Yes, like a previous response my goal is to max s&s ISA each year

I started investigating as COVID was kicking off. I involved teen DS as I thought it was important for him to understand about investing early on (I started way later then I should have). We made a substantial profit on our 1st investment and we split the profit.

Since then I've ramped it up a lot and have a couple of different trading accounts with a diverse range of companies I invest in. Some of them are doing really well (1 is over 700% up right now) but thanks to Trump's war this week, yesterday wasn't a great day. A lot of it is about knowing when it's wise to sell and when to hold your nerve...

Same here! I'm nearly 40. I fell into investing because a company I worked for offered share save schemes as a perk. I was made redundant nearly 3 years ago and have only just got round to diversifying the shares and making a regular monthly payment into the ISA. A call with a financial advisor where they demonstrated returns using a compound interest calculator was quite eye opening. I wish I'd started years ago.

Yes a few people have recommended Rebel Finance School! I've opened a stocks and shares ISA and put some money into an all world fund.

I've literally had tens of thousands in cash for years... hate to think how much I could have made if I'd had it invested instead!

I've had my arse handed to me after sticking a lump in Korea. Fallen off a cliff thanks to Mr Trump this week

@curious79 Over the years we have had better and worse years obviously, no panicking or liquidating at a bad time here. We have done far better than if we had just left it all in products that were risk free.

I only started 3 years ago when I learnt about my company’s Sharesave. I invested 150 a month for 3 years and got a return of 17400 when I sold my shares 3 months ago because we needed money for house move, etc. I started a new set in January and will be keeping this for the long term. I put something in monthly

Yes I get that. My husbands friend often advises us, but I like the thought of winning the £1M.

low cost ETF and chill

Also a low cost ETF. Only has a few hundred in it at the moment though as I don't have a lot to spare. I'm also a fan of rebel finance school.

Well, for quite a while there was nothing spare. Then I prioritised catching my pension up a bit (which counts as investing, I'd say). I've only started up an S&S ISA in the past five years.

I still have some premium bonds as I put an emergency cash buffer in there to see the kids through university.

The balance is probably all wrong, but I'm slowly learning.