I don't think I have the appetite for investing

[itwasnevermine]

I know what they say. To invest you need to be able to leave the money in the account and forget about it. But I just can't.

I've got £400 in a stocks and shares ISA. Hardly anything to write home about. But I'm on £1390 a month (after tax) so watching that go down is painful. It's dropped £1.50 today and I'm sat here literally thinking "well that's 6 minutes work, that's one unit of time recording, that's the form you drafted earlier". It's a negative mindset.

Is it bad if I pull the money out, redirect half of it into my long term savings and half of it into my travel fund?

Some of us aren't cut out for non guaranteed investments. I'd rather stick my savings in a reasonable rate cash ISA and skip the drama.

How long ago did you invest?

It's been building over the last eight months or so. Put £200 in from my short term savings this week and I just can't handle it going up and down

Yeah I have a Lloyds account with 6.25% interest and I'm watching it all go up and down and thinking that's surely a better way to manage it given it's not a huge sum

It is so small it is barely worth it, and salary is not high either so it is not like you can save much. I would do the cash ISA

Same here!

I would move it OP.

edited to sing - remember when I pulled up and said “get in the car” 🫶🏾

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. As my salary grows to be honest I'd rather put what I would've shoved in there into my pension

@EmeraldRoulette as soon as it recovers the losses I'm going to move it!

I love that song 🤣

Do you watch your pension in the same way? You know that’s also probably invested in stocks and shares and so also goes up and down??
That said, it does sound like a stocks and shares isa isn’t for you right now. It’s a relatively small amount that you have invested and it sounds to me like the chance of greater returns over the long term isn’t worth the stress you are experiencing now.
(For comparison, I do have some money in stocks & shares ISAs which I’m not expecting to need for 20 years or so, and I rarely look at the value. If I saw a drop I wouldn’t worry as would expect it to gain over all in that time.)

I agree OP, you need to be able to lock that money away for at least 10 years really and it doesn't seem worth the stress for you. A decent rate cash savings account will suit you better.

@Inspirationfailure I check it occasionally but it seems to just grow and grow, I've not seen it dip down yet

Your pension will be subject to the same fluctuations. Maybe it doesn't update as often?

But as long as you're happy to lock the money away until you're at least 57, which is the main disadvantage compared with an ISA, you could just put your medium to long term money in a pension instead?

For most people a pension is also favourable regarding tax. Money you put in an ISA can be withdrawn without tax, but it's saved from after tax income.

For a pension, you get tax relief on money that is invested. But you can take a quarter out as a tax free lump sum and while the rest is taxed, it may be subject to a lower rate of tax as people above state pension age don't pay NI and may also have a lower marginal tax rate.

There's also considerations about allowances but these are unlikely to limit you unless you start to earn a lot more.

But obviously also make sure you have a decent amount of cash savings for variations in spending, emergencies and large purchases like car replacement and home improvements.

Have you got all the other things in place too ?

The ones recommended by the financial flow chart, so sorry I can't link it, but it is easy to find on the web.

Three to six months expenses in an easy access account
Enough to replace roof, boiler car in another easy access account
Savings for holidays, Christmas, birthdays and other one off annual expenses like insurances and Moat

Enough going into your pension

Then think about S and S investing, you should only invest money you don't need, and can wait at least five if not ten years for

I think you may be investing too soon in your current position

Moat ? I meant MOT, but if you did have a moat it would need a large amount of annual upkeep, so would need its own savings account

Some people don't have the appetite for investing and there are some fairly decent savings rates now so there's no harm in moving it once you've recovered the losses.

I am the opposite though and I've done well putting decent sums in high risk assets. I check regularly as I have the app on my phone but it doesn't occur to me to sell. I just see the numbers and note that it's a red day and shrug. I feel confident in the investment choices as I've done my due diligence and I'm expecting it to go up in the long term (20 years) and I know there will be ups and downs.

I don’t have a head for finances at all so I can’t speak as any sort of authority- just from experience. I had 10,000 in a stocks and shares ISA for nearly ten years. It didn’t lose money- but it only gained about £800 in all that time. I should have given up sooner, but I realised eventually it was a waste of time; withdrew it all and it’s now in a cash ISA where it is earning interest. Not megabucks but at least it’s gaining, and will continue to do so. I’ve realised I’m too risk-averse for stocks and shares.

Thanks everyone. Going to pull it out when my global holding is back up and consider it again in a few years when I have a decent amount to invest and leave for at least 10 years

If you’re a basic rate taxpayer you have a decent tax-free allowance for interest so I wouldn’t bother with cash ISAs either - just a good high interest bank account will pay more than a cash ISA

Yeah I'm going to focus on my 6.25% Lloyds account which matures next year so I can use the savings in there to max out my LISA, and then just my short term savings for things like travel, a car - I'm still studying so I'm hoping that by the time I'm done with my exams I'll have a decent amount in there to do some fun stuff with

Yes i was going to say s&s lisa might be better or split with a cash one. As the 25% means it can drop a fair bit without you losing money!

Just be aware that if you have more than £20k approx then the interest in an ordinary account will be taxed.
Use ISA and LISA wrappers.

And if the Lloyds account is a Regular Saver you pay in monthly, then you will only get the 6.5% on the first months contribution.

If you havnt worked this out then you are investing far to early in your financial journey, and need to get all the base Rainy Day and Emergancy funds in place over the next couple of years.

Good luck, being financially independent and healthy at a young age is such a gift to your future self

I completely disagree with the PPs and would 100% keep it in a S&S ISA.

As you say it is a small amount and you have other savings anyway so you probably can afford to keep this small amount and see what happens.

I invested in my 20s for less than a year. After a couple of months it kept going down so I pulled it out. Now I'm in my late 40s and just starting to look at investing from scratch. I think if I'd kept my investment going then what it might have grown to.

You could look at what fund etc you've invested in and switch that. But I'd say with the benefit of hindsight you shouldn't stop investing.