Help! Financial advice required

[Shake me up Judy]

Being at home over the Christmas break has allowed me sort out a lot of paperwork and think about what investments to make in the New Year.

We're far from loaded but have reasonable savings built up over the past 5 years or so and I want to make my money work a little harder for us as well as finding good investments from this point forward.

Question is are IFAs any good or do they just give you information / advice that with a bit of research you can find yourself? One collegue is firmly of the view that an accountant is a better investment...

Currently our money is tied up in unit trust (UK and European funds) and cash ISAs. There is a bewildering range of funds out there.

Any gurus out there?

[puggit]

Don't know if helps, but saw a report on Sky news that suggests stocks were a better investment then property for 2005 (that's last year!).

FTSE 100 rose 16%, property market rose 3%...

[UpTHeIron]

IFA's can be good or bad, many are commission based and therefore only push 'their' products, others charge for their time. Logic states the latter are better, but I'm happy with my commission charging IFA, who comes on recommendation / tie-in with my accountant.

I've made a number of investments with him - some good, some not so good - and nothing I couldn't have done without time to research and a slice of luck.

The big issue that he cannot answer (but can offer obvious advice on) is what level of risk to take...

Hmmm...not helping am I?

I find an IFA is useful as an "expert" to bounce ideas off and make recommendations, but at the end of the day the decision is all your own.

[fid]

puggit said:

...a report on Sky news that suggests stocks were a better investment...

I'd say so...a 71% rise in a day isn't bad! Be quick looking at it, though

[fid]

UpTHeIron said:

IFA's can be good or bad, many are commission based and therefore only push 'their' products...

Doesn't that make them FA's, rather than IFA's??

[Shake me up Judy]

quote]I'd say so...a 71% rise in a day isn't bad! Be quick looking at it, though [/quote]

Impressive... Too late for me though! I know a guy who bought 1700 shares in a small oil exploration company at 2p each. Just before Xmas they were at 195p. He's going to sell at £200 an 100 fold return. Clever / lucky bugger!

[anonymous-user]

I deal with IFA's some of the time.

Some are shocking.

One asked us to write to a client to explain the difference between, Income, Reinvested income and accumulation Funds. I.E the difference between an investment for income and one for long term growth!!

[clubsport]

Investing is all about the risk you are prepared to take and the time frme you are prepared to tie up the underlying capital,you have the cash isa's which is good...worth considering premium bonds...up to 30k, in a single name ..more available in wifes/husbands, relatives names etc... they offer a reasonable return with liquidity and the optionality of a larger win!
Once you have a stable foundation....then you can consider a slighly riskier approach..
The 2p oil stake is all very well,,, but you normally need quite a few eggs in a basket to find a winner, and stomach the losers...timimg is important, if you had been convinced on oil prices you could have bought brent crude outright or tried something like www.finspreads.com for example..... worth keeping some capital back to play and keeping your ear to the ground, for me one of the no brainers of '05 was virgin mobile, nowhere near as risky as speculative oil stox, but cannot really complain at the return since allocation...Good luck!

edited to add some curious dodgy share price link;
www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=qkquote&cb=1135977942&period2=5&btn=s_ok&symbol=LSE%3AVMOB&s_symbol_search=LSE%3AVMOB

>> Edited by clubsport on Friday 30th December 21:26