Vanguard life strategy

[fedup078]

Apologies as I'm a total novice at this
Im looking to put some money, not a massive amount, maybe £1k to start with, into a vanguard life strategy isa
So do I just put the money in , regularly add more and hope for the best or is there some strategy to it? Can you take it out whenever you want?

Yeah, get started. Over a period fo years you will read more about investing and you may come up with a strategy but initially the key is getting started.

Taking money out can take about a week... so just remember it is not instant as the units in the fund have to be sold, that needs to clear and then money transfer. In the same way payments in can take a fee days... payment needs to clear, fund units brought.

meaningfulmoney.tv/UG5 may be a good podcast/video to listen/watch about starting investing. There are many good podcasts and YouTube channels about financial planning and investing once you get in to the topic.

@nannynick thanks I'll watch that
I just spoke to a friend who has just opened something similar with a similar amount and they said it just bounces up and down by around the same amount everyday

Yes, get started. But first -
S&S ISAs should be considered long term. You sure you don't need that money in the next 5 yrs or so? A S&S ISA fluctuates regularly, you need to be able to take a deep breath if it drops a bit, then forget it till it rises.
Vanguard Lifestrategy offers several levels of risk, so when you open the ISA and are asked to choose funds to go into it, take your risk adversity into account. Or you can spread the risk within the ISA - I have investments in Lifestrategy 60, Lifestrategy 100, and a couple of index accumulation funds with risk levels between 4 and 6. The more risk, the more chance of a better return.
I started with a lump sum and continue with a direct debit every month. I think it's the best, most grown up thing I ever did (apart from childbirth).

In the early days it can look like you're not making any gains. The trick is not to check it too frequently.
Over a year, I've seen a 20% gain in my stakes but in the shorter term if I had looked it would have said -2% or -4% or whatever.
These are long term investments, 5yr minimum.

@LionLily
Thanks great advice
Yes I won't need it
I'm spreading out an inheritance and these are one of the options I want to put it in along with a Lisa and overpaying mortgage but also I'm keeping a chunk of 'what if I lose my job' money in premium bonds

2 pieces of advice

1. vanguard Lifestrategy funds come in 5 different risk levels : 20%/40%/60%/80%/100%. The % refers to the proportion of the fund that is invested in equities (single company stocks & shares). The higher the % the higher the risk level. Higher risk means higher potential gains but also higher volatility, the value will make bigger jumps up and down - not good if you need to disinvest when it’s down. You can go onto Trustnet and add all of the funds to a basket to produce some neat little graphs comparing them.

1. Do not look at your fund values everyday, it’s madness. You are investing for the long term 5+ years, there is no point. Check them every 3/6/12 months at most, whenever you do a general check over your finances. It’s like putting a chicken in the oven to roast for 2 hours and opening the door to check it every minute! Google “time in the market vs timing the market” for the theory of why.

Don't forget that premium bonds may take a few weeks to process your sale - keep at least six weeks of your emergency fund really easily accessible.

- keep at least six weeks of your emergency fund really easily accessible.

I'm not sure I follow the thinking on this advice. Most large emergency purchases would be paid for by credit card so that there will be at least a couple of weeks grace.

I keep my emergency in premium bonds rather than a current account. Neither pay interest but there is the chance of a jackpot from these bonds.

@FinallyHere on average it takes about 3 working days in my experience
I win most months and I've certainly got more than I would have on interest rates

Agreed @fedup078 such a great idea.

OP is not necessarily talking about the failure of the fridge freezer. I use that as an example as mine died last week and of course, I used the cc to get a next day delivery from ao that I won't need to pay for till the end of May.
Sudden redundancy is not unheard of in service industry at the moment, bank or payroll cock-up, hacking of bank account, sudden disappearance of spouse and accompanying paycheque. Lots of reasons to have a bit of money there within hours/days.

@BeastOfBODMAS that sounds like good advice. I opened a vanguard ISA account with 2K at the beginning of the year and add £300 each month. Some of the funds are in the retirement 2035 pot and the rest I'm just randomly buying medium risk level shares until I can sit down and really work out what I am doing.

Like you OP, I have a year's survival money in premium bonds and this new Vanguard investment.

It's a good choice of fund. You can't really go wrong with consistently putting money in and sticking to it even if the market goes down.

I'm following this thread for tips as I've got 10k to invest on behalf of my children. They both have £6k each in their saving account I opened when they were babies. I'll keep £1k back but will invest the rest as we won't need it for university fees for 10 yrs.

I don't even know thinking about bank interest rates anymore they are not relevant.
I always think in terms of investment % now.
Aside from the covid dip mine has also an average ish of 20% ( stocks and shares isa)

And sipp.

Mine is pb for emergency cash, ie new car or boiler, a little in instant account for less expensive emergency.

Then sipp, opened with 100£ but that then gave me boost to start saving regularly into it.. And then stocks and shares isa is my capital I don't want to touch and grow. The bulk of my money is in vanguard life stragety and index funds. Then I have some gamble funds.

Regular drip feeding in is better than large deposits.

Milky, get junior isa.

@Puttingouthefirewithgasoline do you recommend a particular junior ISA?

1. there are platforms to hold it on and buy funds /trusts /direct shares through.

I am with hargreve and landsdowne. I wouldn't say I recommend them I used just used them because I know my way around their site and I like their app. For fees I don't think they are the cheapest but you can move the isa.

I also have a cash isa for them which gets 1% it used to get 3.5 so I can present this money as cash perhaps for fun and stocks for saving.

Within the platform of hargreve a you can choose where to invest.
I'm a fan of the vanguard range because they buy a little of "everything" in every sector around the globe with a weighting towards the UK and the US.

But your not relying on one sector which could go bust.
I've got some life stragety funds for them and some other vanguard stuff.. Then less money in some more adventures funds /trust eg Scottish mortgage trust (shares).

It's gone off like a rocket in recent times but that's down to tesla. That's driving it also it holds a alot of other currently fashionable companies.. But it's narrow and reliant on those companies only so that's why I call it the gamble fund.
Most advice I have read is to simply hold index funds /funds like vanguard and then a small % of more adventures ones.
Drip feed money in, unless everything crashed like it did in last march!!
That means you don't buy at a certain price. I made this mistake with Lindsell train, I brought top price unfortunately and even though the fund did OK under the pandemic its lost me money.. I'm only starting to see a small profit now.
Scottish mortgage on the other hand I purchased when it had a huge dip and I've more than doubled my investment there.

Don't choose to many funds, cross reference with morning star, trust net.. Google... Don't have more than 10.