HL fund

[TheOneWithUnagi]

Have a small pot (junior ISA) for each of the kids which we are adding £100 a month to. My daughter's was with nutmeg but I found the fees very high so I've moved it into HL which has nil platform fees for junior ISAs.

I'm not expert enough to pick holdings myself so want a fund. Where do I start with choosing a fund? It's long term so happy to go medium to high risk to maximise returns (7-8/10 kind of level).

@TheOneWithUnagi

I have a small spread of funds as they are also diverse. One of my ISAs is spread with
Bailee Gifford American ACC
Jupiter India ACC
Fidelity Index World
Legal and General European Index

I have avoided the U.K. funds

You are very sensible to invest rather than keep cash. Is a mugs game and over the long term you should so well. Read reviews on HL but also google the fund and "Morningstar" which is a very good review of funds.

You do need to keep an eye on them but accept you will have ups and downs. These are not for day trading but long term gains

Thanks appreciate that. I'll have a look and a google, good idea to diversify the funds as well as you say!

Equally novice so I just stuck mine in. Vusa. I'll check these out too thanks

@MarieG10 how are you finding jupiter India.

Op look a at a spread of index funds

I e been very pleased with it. Did 31% last year. Way above my expectations. Seems as a long term investment India is very good.

I just stress though these are for long term

www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F00000MWK9&tab=1

@MarieG10 thanks, what rating does Ms give it

My view (for what it’s worth, and it’s not advice) is that for a long term investments you’re very very unlikely to pick funds or stocks better than the market average performance, and the extra fees for stock picking / actively traded investments make the job harder still.

For our children’s investments we have 65% in a global equities index tracker and 35% in a global bonds tracker. Two funds, low fees, massive levels of in built diversification. The only thing you need to do is rebalance the equity / bond split once or twice a year so it stays in line with your preferred weighting.

@jaundicedoutlook the evidence is that 80% of the time your understanding is totally correct

Can I please speak up in favour of your children?!? A 65% equities/35% bond split is appropriate for someone approaching retirement not your children!

Let me give you some facts and figures... Between 1900 and 2022 global equities produced an annualised real return of 5% pa and bonds produced an annualised real return of 1.7% pa (Source: Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2023).

So let's compare £1,000 invested for 10 years in 100% equities against 65% equities/35% bonds using the Credit Suisse returns above.

Equities - £1,628.89
65:35 fund - £1,473.05

Obviously it's important to balance any investor's risk profile with their capacity for loss..... but for most children it makes sense to be invested in riskier assets in the hope of higher returns during the accumulation years.

Thanks for the patronising tone, midlife. Yes - the equity / bond split is indeed a functioning time horizon and risk appetite.

Edited: I read the posts properly and answered my own question 😊

I’ve been investing since my early 20s, so for 20+ years and through a number of market cycles. I manage all my own investments. If you are only investing £100 a month, find a low-cost vanguard/blackrock S&P 500 index fund or global equities fund and stick with that. You really don’t need to diversify beyond one fund at this point because you want to have enough in one fund to really benefit from compounding.

Please don’t put money into fixed income/bonds for kids, they have so much time in the markets that they can take on a lot of risk and don’t need the need the income/protection that people closer to retirement need. You will miss out on a lot of growth. My son’s ISA is 100% US equities, at this point, he doesn’t need anything else.

Importantly, keep investing for your kids through market downturns/volatility. I never sell and tend to buy more when the market fall and everyone is panicking. This is where you really make some money (referring to index funds/ETFs and not individual stock picking).

2 kids isas each have different in but most in a world tracker, one is Fidelity world index also Jupiter India, Legal and General European Index - so similar to another poster. Recently started with H and L having moved them from Family investments. The older kid is now over 18 and i bought a small amount in 3 uk high dividend paying shares when their price was low fornhim and they've done well so far him.(TW., Barc and Lgen.)