Should I take gains out of a stocks and shares isa

[Garedenhelp]

Hello, I have never had investments before. My mum kindly gifted my £10k to save on behalf of my kids. I put it in a Vangaurd stocks and shares ISA and it is currently up over £800 , which seems amazing and I'm conscious this could drop and fluctuate. I'm thinking of taking out the £800 to safeguard the gain. Is this a good idea? Thanks

I wouldn't. I would leave it in as long as possible.

That's the whole point isn't it?

Bad idea.

You leave it to compound.

Unless you are absolutely desperate for that £800, then no don’t take it out. Leave it there to grow.

Keep it invested, and keep it inside the tax wrapper, for as long as possible.

She gave the money for your kids.
That means you invest it now - and when they are - say 18 and need to pay for uni - you give them the money…
What you say about stocks going up and down its true - if you are talking short term - but in a longer term - market indexes go up.

Please tell me you didnt invest in individual stocks - and picked an index (which is a basket representing a market, or an industry)???
For individual investors who dont know much about investing - you are really better off with say FTSE-index; or Dow Jones; or Technology Index.

Ok thanks all I will leave there.

To be clear I wasn't going to take out the money and spend it I would have put it in a separate savings account gor the kids.

Jsku yes it's split , mostly in FTSE some in a European fund and a smaller amount I an emerging markets fund.

Say as an example…

I have a stock open atm. Same stock.

Bought 9.99 worth at 0.049p.
Bought 20.00 worth at 0.134p

Stock is now worth 0.15p

9.99 is now up 214% and worth £31.44
20.00 is now up 12% and worth just c.£24

If the stock goes to 0.20p

The 9.99 will have gone up 308%
The 20.00 will have still only have gone up 50%

To have the 20.00 do a 100% return (ie. Double your money). It needs to go to a whopping 0.268p

And the original £9.99 would be then at a 446% return.

Or turning it around.

0.049 is 36% of 0.134 so you loose 65% of your original money if it drops to original 0.049 price.
0.134 is 273% of 0.049 so that’s a hell of a lot of gain. That’s tripling your money.

You see compounding is wild and confusing. But this is why the rich get richer. It is so powerful. The most you can lose is 100%. The most you can gain is infinite.

Keep it in. If it drops you just use it as an opportunity to buy more.

Personally - if the emerging market finds have made money - i’d sell them and move money to world market tracker.
Emerging market investing is risky - they have not really done well over time.. Whole Market trackers are a lot less risky.
And - as you live in europe - its a good idea to spread exposure and invest in the US funds.
Again - less risk than emerging markets.

This seems correct, but also like a really complicated way of explaining compounding.

How about: I invest 10k in stocks or some sort of investment fund

In the first year this goes up 8% (to 10,800)...so +800 pounds

In the second year this goes up another 8%.....so +864 pounds that year.

in the third year another 8%....so +933 pounds that year.

Of course...stocks can also go down. Although holding for 10+ years should mitigate the occasional bad year.