Best Stock & Share ISAs and how it works?

[Investmentadvice]

Can anyone explain stock snd share ISAs to me? If you open one do you just put money and they invest it? Or do you have to choose your investments yourself?

And what are the ones offering the best returns?

Thank you

In terms of how cash is invested there are any number of permutations for choosing including index trackers or, for the brave/informed self selection.

OP, check out Money Saving Expert and Meaningful Money - they're both really informative, and the latter has handlers of podcasts about different things, including investing.

^hundreds

I use an online investment manager- Invest Engine. I put in an amount and then you have a questionnaire about the risk level you’re happy with and ethics around companies. You have the option to drip feed the fund and you set the amount. I can view the fund via an app and each month they take my contribution and invest it for me as per my pre set options. Had it two years and had no issues.

There's one called a 'lifestyle' or something, at the company Vanguard.
They are packages, in risk levels of 20 / 40/ 60 / 80 / 100%.
So, the company do the thinking about risk and selecting the stocks and shares combination, you decide to trust Vanguard to do a good job with your money.
It's best to put in a regular (monthly?) amount to ride out bumps, and decide you're going to leave it in for at least five / ten years.
You could begin here with £25-50 pcm, and watch how it works out?
Agree with earlier poster - read around for advice. And so not spend money on an IVA if they are not while of market / you don't have lots to invest.
Good luck with your LONG TERM savings!

It's also worth mentioning that you should think about how long you'd like to invest the money for - I'd only consider a S&S ISA if I was planning to invest for over 5 years.

In most case it’s up to you to choose the investments yourself. The ISA is just a wrapper. There are a few which will ask you some questions about your goals and then choose the investments for you. One has already been mentioned by a PP. Nutmeg is an alternative that also does this.

Nobody can tell you what the best returning investment will be. It sounds like you’re a good candidate for one of these “choose it for me” services!

In less you use an IFA which is not really needed unless it is part of an overall financial strategy with pension as well you can invest yourself. The key to successful investing is to diversify to minimise risk of loss and not to invest outside your appetite for risk. So if you are going to stress and sell out if the market drops 10-20% then you need to go very low risk. Check out multi sector funds with a mix of bonds and equities. MSE forum is a good place to get advice. Ultimately it is down to you to choose the fund(s).

I started off doing DIY but when my husband came on board we used an IFA as the investment portfolio was bigger than I was comfortable with managing myself considering I didn't really think I knew what I was doing with fund picking. They have lots of resources available to him. I didn't make any massive mistakes though when I was doing DIY. Check out platform and fund manager charges and look at the Morning star fund ratings. Monevator does lots of beginner investing information.

I would also say you need to understand how investing works. The ISA wrapper is just to keep the investment free of tax. The investment itself within the wrapper has to be picked by you. You also would need to choose an investment platform. We used Fidelity then Halifax. There are loads and all have different charging structures. Some are percentages and some flat fee.

There is no best performing fund. They all go up and down all the time. Look at performance stats for 5 years which is minimum timeframe. If you are going to need money out before then you need to save rather than invest..

Have a watch of some YouTube videos explaining them..

Thank you. It looks like I need to do more research/read about it. I just wanted something that is managed and not high risk where I put money every month.

DH had one with Halifax and it worked like that and it increased in value quite a bit then stopped increasing as much. I opened one with Halifax and they opened a share dealing account so not sure what to do with it so have not transferred any of the funds from the cash ISA.

Another post where everyone is quick to offer advice without understanding anything about the poster's wider situation and goals.

How old are you?
Do you have any debt such as personal loans or credit cards? - you should pay this off first.
Do you have cash savings of 3-6 months of your expenses? You should build this up before investing ideally.
What is your pension provision/planning looking like? Make sure you are contributing to your workplace pension to a level that maximises your employer's contribution.
Do you have any big purchases/expenses expected in the next 5 years?
What are you plans/objectives for money you invest in a S&S ISA? Do you have an expected level of return? How do you feel about putting your money at risk?

Investing in S&S is a long term thing i.e. 10+ years. Depending on some of the answers to the questions above will help determine what you should invest in.

Well, @Hitchens I don’t profess to be a financial advisor hence I beg your pardon for not being duly diligent. 🙄

Not everyone @Hitchens, and more importantly I'm sure the OP is aware that they've asked on MN, rather than paid for professional advice 😄.

The OP asked a question about ISAs. They got some answers which may, or may not, move them on.

Not, IMHO, my place to start going into the whys/wherefores.