Newbie investor in S&S ISA

Toolea · 2026-03-02T13:00:13+00:00

I'm a total newbie to investing but want to move money out of my existing cash ISA and into a S&S ISA as I have too much sitting in cash after inheriting money after a bereavement. I understand that I need to transfer properly and I have signed up with Lightyear as I saw they had good reviews. Is anyone else with them? Stupid question here but, once the £34k cash isa from my Coventry Bank ISA has been properly moved over to Lightyear S&S ISA how do I then proceed? I have never done this before and am nervous about doing the wrong thing…

BalletSki · 02/03/2026 13:24

I don't use that provider, but I imagine they're all similar. The money will sit as cash within your S+S ISA when it's first transferred in. You need to buy investments with it. Some providers have pre-prepered pies/portfolios which you can select based on your appitite for risk. All providers have a range of individual funds/stocks you can buy.

Do some research about how you'd like to invest. The general advice is to buy into funds, not individual stocks.
Funds = a collection of shares in hundreds of companies. Stocks = a share of 1 company eg Amazon
And to choose passive funds which track global/country/geographic area markets which have low fees. Low fees are less than 0.5%.

You could also choose to invest in particular sectors eg a fund for companies all producing semiconductors; Or commodities eg gold; Or in government bonds.

There's always a balance between risk and reward. But make sure you understand the difference between risk (you might loose money) and short term volatility (markets go up and down, that's normal. You haven't lost money if you wait it out. Markets have historically always recovered.) Look at the historic graphs of the funds you're interested in to see the growth over 10 years and the volitiliy (up/down peaks along the general trend upwards)

Original poster

Toolea · 02/03/2026 16:32

BalletSki · 02/03/2026 13:24

I don't use that provider, but I imagine they're all similar. The money will sit as cash within your S+S ISA when it's first transferred in. You need to buy investments with it. Some providers have pre-prepered pies/portfolios which you can select based on your appitite for risk. All providers have a range of individual funds/stocks you can buy.

Do some research about how you'd like to invest. The general advice is to buy into funds, not individual stocks.
Funds = a collection of shares in hundreds of companies. Stocks = a share of 1 company eg Amazon
And to choose passive funds which track global/country/geographic area markets which have low fees. Low fees are less than 0.5%.

You could also choose to invest in particular sectors eg a fund for companies all producing semiconductors; Or commodities eg gold; Or in government bonds.

There's always a balance between risk and reward. But make sure you understand the difference between risk (you might loose money) and short term volatility (markets go up and down, that's normal. You haven't lost money if you wait it out. Markets have historically always recovered.) Look at the historic graphs of the funds you're interested in to see the growth over 10 years and the volitiliy (up/down peaks along the general trend upwards)

Thank you very much @BalletSki
That’s extremely helpful and much appreciated.

OP posts:

Carrotsandgrapes · 02/03/2026 19:58

If you're unsure/new to investing, a good bet is just to buy a single, low fee global fund that covers different regions, company sizes and industries. That spreads the risk for you and you don't have to think about it.

Then the key thing is to put your money in, then ignore it! As PP said, there'll be years when you're down and you might panic(!), but over the years the trend will be up.

Make sure you have an emergency and rainy day fund in cash savings.