Has anyone invested in S & P 500

[Imtoooldforallthis]

I've just seen Dave Fishwick on this morning recommend Vanguard S & P 500 and wondering if this would be good for my two daughters 21 and 23. Looked on the website and was a bit confused by it all. Just looking for advice and if I could go through a FA to help.

Why would you want to just invest in 507ish companies all in the United States?

Why not invest in 6000 companies, mostly in the USA but also others around the globe?
Look at Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap as an example fund.

No need for a financial adviser. Learn about investing by reading, listening and watching - books, podcasts, YouTube.

Here is one to start with.
Ultimate Guide to Investing - Part 1
meaningfulmoney.tv/UG4

When and what are they planning on using the money for? The type of wrapper used is important - Pension for retirement. Lifetime ISA for a first home deposit and for retirement. ISA for mid-long term expenses such as buying a car in 10 years time.

They should look at their workplace pension, what fund choices are available in that.

Thought it might be a good idea for my girls to start investing now, but it would only be a very small amount as both on low incomes.

I don't even know if there is a minimum you can invest.

So basically looking for something very simple.

£25 a month is probably the realistic minimum. Moneybox App will do less but fees on low amounts may not make sense.

They should look at their workplace pension and maybe a Lifetime ISA for saving a home deposit (cash LISA if purchase is within 5 years).

Guide then towards information if they are interested in it. The earlier they put in to pension the better but it is hard for them to think 40 years ahead.

See if you can get them interested in this podcast series and the accompanying ebook: meaningfulmoney.tv/season-13-millennial-finance/

I’d also recommend the Vanguard global all cap, thousands of companies worldwide, but it has to be for the long term. Do your daughters understand money? Do they have debt? Do they have an emergency fund? All things that need to tackled before they start investing.

They don't understand investments but no debts and have small savings.

I’d work on their understanding of money and building up 3-6months of emergency fund before you start to invest. If they’re employed make sure they’re getting full benefit of their workplace pension.

try to get them to listen to some podcasts such as mentioned above, or look at the Rebel Finance School. The fact you’re starting young is a massive advantage.

Get them to understand pensions first. That money is invested and cannot be touched but they may have some limited control over the investments. Have them read the quarterly pension fund report - it's not always a long document, some providers make it as easy to understand as possible.
For example Nest Pensions: www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/dam/nestlibrary/Nest-quarterly-investment-report.pdf
Doesn't even need to be read, just scroll down to the graphs.
The 5 year cumulative performance shows how the various fund choices available have grown and how some go up and down a lot... but grow over time a lot, whilst others don't grow much but also don't go up and down much.
Being young they have a very long time to be in their pension, so they can risk the ups and downs.
Have a look at the asset allocation chart for the fund they are in... do they understand what an equity is, what corporate bonds are. Start to get them to learn the terminology and about what their pension is invested in... they may see some individual companies they know, such as Apple, Tesla, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, so that can be used to make more interested as they OWN a little piece of Apple, Tesla, Google, Amazon!
The quarterly report has a glossary but anything they want to learn more about, just Google it. There are many investment sites which will explain the basics of what something means.

@nannynick

Where can you buy global all cap?.is it the vtax?
JL Collins recommend?

VTSAX which JL Collins talks about in his book cannot be got in the UK.
Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap is available in the UK from Vanguard Investor and many UK brokers.

If wanting just USA stocks then Vanguard US Equity is similar to VTSAX and is available from Vanguard Investor.

75% of my holdings are in the Vanguard VUSA S&P 500 fund, I'm in it for the long term, it

My fund has returned around 30% in the two years I've had it, I invest 10% of my income in it a month. I am hoping to use the fund to retire early (currently 28, wish to retire at 55)

Why can't you edit posts on Mumsnet? Hit post by accident

I would suggest your daughter's do some basic research Into investing, time in the market is better than timing the market, the sooner you invest the better off you will be. For short term savings I would recommend a global all cap fund instead, but expect much lower returns. On average the S and P 500 nets around 8-10 percent a year, which typically is more than Inflation, you're pretty much guaranteed to make money over a 5-10 year time frame with a deep recession or world war being the only two factors that could prevent this. But even then you'd only lose If you sold, it would soon recover.

@nannynick thank you..

It get confused by all the short name's for the funds and the fact you can't get some in UK at all etc

I think you can do better. The S&P has fallen a lot in price this year (although recovered somewhat in the last few weeks) but is heavily tech-focused.

How much do they have to invest (and monthly or lump sum?), what's their appetite for risk and how long do they want to invest it for (minimum length)?