How to start saving/investing?

[tineyed]

At the moment I have a direct debit for a savings account and save £400 a month. I know it’s not much but it’s the best I can do at the moment. I’d never saved before as parents didn’t save or any savings they did have came from inheritances.

My money is just sat in a good rate bank account. How do I start investing properly? In what? I know I am not allowed to buy individual stocks and shares because I work in a job that might get inside information

Most investment things I see online need like £50k but I only have about £5k

Are you debt free?
Saving £400 a month is great. That will build an emergency fund. How much cash savings do you feel you need for your emergency fund?

You mention you have a restriction in what you can invest in, so what are you allowed to do? Could you buy a global mutual fund, tracking an index?

Are you putting money into pension? That is often tax efficient but locks the money away.

Are you using ISA? That can be useful for starting investing as your investments are inside the wrapper and thus grow tax free.
ISA is also accessible, so if you needed to take money out in say 8 years time you could.

Think about your short term and long term goals. Investing is long term. Savings are short term.

What about insurance - income protection, critical illness, life insurance if you have others dependent on you.

Maybe a good place to start is to read some books about personal finance and investing. Some can teach the basis of what an ISA is, what a pension is, how to choose funds.

The Simple Path To Wealth, JL Collins
That book is a good read in my view. It is by an American author but it is mostly about buying as much of the stock market as you can, at low cost, not about picking individual stocks.

The Rebel Finance School runs free courses that help you understand how to invest rebeldonegans.com. I've just finished the most recent course, it is really inspiring.

The meaningful money podcast is great and uk.based. You can buy funds so something like FTSE 100.ex UK on vanguard in an ISA wrapper is a good general place to invest.

But, it's a good idea to fill up a number of 'pots' to cover all the bases

Emergency fund in easy access savings account (like Chip) with 3 - 6 months of expenses

Short term savings - buying a 2nd hand car or house deposit

Pension - work ideally pays in for you as well

Investments - longer term ideally 5 years min

You can start investing with any amount, no need for £50k, anywhere that says that is wrong.

I agree about needing more information before you start. It's very likely that putting a regular amount in a low cost index tracker fund in a S&S ISA is the best way to start investing (assuming there are no rules connected to your employment that prevent this), but you should learn more about why this is the way to go, because anyone can write any crap on the internet.

I second the recommendation for the Meaningful Money podcast. They did a recent series covering the financial flowchart, which would be an excellent place to start as it covers in detail all the other things you should consider before you commit to investing.

£400 a month savings is great, many people don't achieve anywhere near that, but you need to consider what this money is for. Does it get used up paying for holidays, Christmas, car repairs/servicing etc or is it genuine spare money that's building up to a significant amount? You also need to consider if you'll need any significant amounts of money in the short to medium term, eg house deposit, new car.

But have a look at:

https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

And a listen to:

https://meaningfulmoney.tv/category/podcast/season-25-finance-os/page/2/

If you work in financial services and are subject to heightened controls then you should still be able to have a stocks and shares ISA or a managed trading account. Ask your compliance team for details of what they will accept. You may have to do regular disclosures or seek pre-clearance for any ad-hoc activity such as trades, but there's no reason why you can't invest.