Stocks & Shares ISA for beginner

[lovenaturelovelife]

I have £250pm that I would like to invest in S&S, i have no idea at this stage- how does thses ISAs work? Opened HL ISA online and was expecting a ready made investment option. I was hoping to pay a fee of £3/£5 and they will invest my money. Now i realise it's very complex to understand investments. How to understand all this?

Following, I'd like to know too!

I'm willing to take high risk as wont be needing the money for at-least 10/15 years.

I'd recommend following 'stocksandsavings' account on Instagram. It's fabulous, with podcasts etc. they explain what they invest in and discuss their portfolios.
They use the platform trading 212 which I use. It has a great app. They recommend it due to its low fees.
Unfortunately I only put in a tiny amount of money, but already from following this couple, my portfolio is 15% up. Started in May. I've picked one of my own stocks which is doing well and followed them for other advice.
It's so exciting, good luck!

Did you open a stocks and shares isa? As opposed to a cash isa?

How high a risk? You could have the grand sum of heehaw in the account after 15 years?

I have one with Fundsmith. You can open it on the website and they'll contact you for all the paperwork. It's quite simple. It was recommended to me by an acquaintance and I studied their strategy for a bit and decided I believe in it. They are not a broker, they invest themselves and review their portfolio periodically etc. FCA regulated etc.

The fees are high compared with other accounts but if you want something very beginner friendly and ready made (like it sounds like you do) then Nutmeg would fit the bill. Platform fees are 0.75% a year vs eg vanguard 0.15% but you just pick your risk appetite and they do it all for you.

I would recommend Vanguard. You can determine the debt/equity proportion according to your risk appetite.

How much have people made using these accounts? 10% or more?

Meaningful money is a great resource to learn about investing.

I've roughly doubled my money over 10 years, not linear growth though. Self invested through Hargreaves Lansdowne.

I was/am a beginner and have found Vanguard good (search old threads on here). You can invest into one of funds which are diversified for you, and can choose the level of risk. The fees aren’t too bad and the app is easy to use (although I probably shouldn’t check it as much as I do!). Mine is up about 10% since I started in the summer. Although I know that’s irrelevant since I’m leaving it there about 10 years. It did dip below 0% just after I started it but then has bounced back.

Mine went down for a few years (over covid) and had less in it than I had invested but this year has gained about 17%. So it's quite volatile.

I work in investing (and with a lot of fund managers). My advice would be to stick with HL - they're a bit more expensive than AJ Bell and ii but all three offer a wide range of funds and shares.

To start with I'd pick one of the HL ready made portfolios. My sister has done this and is pleased with their performance this year. They're usually categorised by appetite for risk.

As PPs have mentioned, there are robo adviser options such as Nutmeg. Personally I'm not a huge fan as they're often based only on trackers/ETFs not actively managed funds. The three I've mentioned above have ready made portfolios with both.

Once you've started, you could have a look at the resources on these three platforms. There's lots of articles and AJ Bell run some great webinars (and you don't have to be a client).

You could move onto picking a few of your own funds - either from the HL Wealth 150 or even better, have a look at Trustnet. It has league tables for all the funds by sector and you can see which ones are consistently top quartile against their peers.

I'd also be careful sticking everything in the US. It's been on an amazingly run but the fund managers are asking when it will end. There's benefits of spreading your risk and the U.K., for example, is more attractively valued.

I generally make 25-30% a year by self investing, 2022 was a notable exception though as bond and equity markets tanked. Quite a few of my funds (including a U.K. one) are up 100% plus over the last 5 years.

Any tips on how to do this? I’m not getting anywhere near those returns.

Any tips on how to do this? I’m not getting anywhere near those returns.

What are you currently invested in?

Seconded. That chap is so helpful! His YouTube videos explain how to pick a tracker fund. I used invest engine to set up my s&s isa and did it all myself thanks to his tutorials.

Vanguard announced a big change to their fees yesterday ☹️, not great for those with smaller pots.

if it’s long term and you’re just getting started just use a tracker- it just buys the whole market or a subsection of it. Fees are v low as it’s not actively managed by anyone- a computer just trades to keep your holdings in line with the index.You can’t “beat the market” as you effectively are the market but you can’t lose against it either.

Hi OP, a few tips:

• don't believe everything you read on MN about personal finance! Stories that sound too good to be true are likely to be just that.

• make sure you have a substantial pot of cash savings before dipping a toe into the stock market

• don't invest in single shares. A fund that has lots of investments covering different geographical areas, different sectors, etc is much safer in the event of a crash

• "high risk" does not necessarily mean "high return". A good long-term portfolio might have some more risky elements, according to what the holder believes will do well, and some very safe and boring elements, such as government gilts (a type of bond).

• HL have advice on their website, and they offer readymade funds that are designed for beginners. I'm not saying these are necessarily right for you, but worth checking out

Thank you everyone, great advice. I really appreciate it. I'm thinking of starting with Halifax ready made investment rather than HL, it's all very complicated to self invest with zero knowledge.

Another thing is it best to do trade every month or just a year to save fees etc, this bit is rather confusing.

Another thing is it best to do trade every month or just a year to save fees etc, this bit is rather confusing.

It depends what you've bought. If you're in a tracker fund, it will readjust itself according to how the market goes, so you can leave it alone. If you're in an actively managed fund, its managers will do the buying and selling of stocks etc within the fund for you, so you can also leave it alone.

Your Halifax readymade is probably set up so that Halifax's people will do the work for you. I'd check it 3-4 times a year, and maybe measure it against other funds doing the same thing to check it's on track. (FT.com has tools for this - Google "ft fund compare")

.

I'm with Hargreaves Lansdowne with a S&S ISA. Someone upthread was asking about returns. I put my money in at the end of October last year, so just over 13 months.

Returns are as follows:
Legal & General Global Tech Index Trust 52.15%
Royal London Global Equity Select 32.99%
Fidelity Index World 32.99%
Fundsmith Equity 16.80%

I know this has been a heck of a year for tech stocks and the American market, but I am absolutely blown away by the performance of these funds. Out of interest, I chose the funds myself based on some background reading. At the time, Fundsmith Equity was the fund everyone was pushing, but it has consistently failed to live up to the hype, so I have moved most of my holdings into the other funds during the year.