Starting an investment journey

[xeny]

Dimebars said:

So the consensus then is a Vanguard account and then pick from there what to invest in?

Should I be looking at S&P500 or elsewhere?

Keep in mind Vanguard only offer Vanguard funds, which are pretty broad, but tend towards sensible choices, with low fees. It's not a good choice if you want to buy individual stocks, or active funds from the latest fashionable manager.

I'd suggest considering an world equity tracker, which is a broader (more constituents) index than the S&P 500. Worse performance recently, but have got to wonder if America's stock market can keep outperforming forever.

[Dimebars]

xeny said:

Keep in mind Vanguard only offer Vanguard funds, which are pretty broad, but tend towards sensible choices, with low fees. It's not a good choice if you want to buy individual stocks, or active funds from the latest fashionable manager.

I'd suggest considering an world equity tracker, which is a broader (more constituents) index than the S&P 500. Worse performance recently, but have got to wonder if America's stock market can keep outperforming forever.

I'm not wanting to be hands-on with this, instead pick something and leave well alone for the longer term (with a small monthly top up)

[duckson]

FWIW we went Vanguard and Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap fund for the Mrs's SIPP.

[mark seeker]

xeny said:

Keep in mind Vanguard only offer Vanguard funds, which are pretty broad, but tend towards sensible choices, with low fees. It's not a good choice if you want to buy individual stocks, or active funds from the latest fashionable manager.

I'd suggest considering an world equity tracker, which is a broader (more constituents) index than the S&P 500. Worse performance recently, but have got to wonder if America's stock market can keep outperforming forever.

I'd probably split between S&P and a global tracker in Vanguard (fees in an ISA will be cheaper than HL).

VHVG or VWRP (tracker) and VUAG (S&P500) are not bad options, obviously this investment should be seen as medium / long term, values do go down.

[Pit Pony]

Countdown said:

Open a Stocks & Shares ISA, stick it into a low cost Tracker like vanguard VWRL

Ive got a small amount of money invested in a SIPP that i no longer pay into, because all my contributions go into a company pension to which they controbute.
I've got a couple of Vanguard products wrapped inside my SIPP, because I felt that I didn't know what I was doing, probably 60% of the total
I've been monitoring them since last August. Had I put them in a bank and got 5% interest I would have done better. Fortunately my other gambling has resulted in a much better growth. Aerospace, defence, building and truck industry biased. I think a 25% increase in share value since August. The banking and telecommunications shares I owned have gradually gone down. So much so that I cut my losses and moved the cash into Trucks.

Note I now work in the truck industry and am gambling on the competition.

I say gambling, because you have no idea what fence the horse will fall at.

[xeny]

Pit Pony said:

I've got a couple of Vanguard products wrapped inside my SIPP, because I felt that I didn't know what I was doing, probably 60% of the total
I've been monitoring them since last August.

I'm not convinced that monitoring them over such a short time frame helps performance or mental health.

If I look at the past 5 years of a pretty sedate investment, it has done

-5.63%, +37.94%, +13.83%, -1.79%, +25.09% in each successive year. Expecting savings account like behaviour and consistency is foolish/unrealistic.

[duckson]

xeny said:

Pit Pony said:

I've got a couple of Vanguard products wrapped inside my SIPP, because I felt that I didn't know what I was doing, probably 60% of the total
I've been monitoring them since last August.

I'm not convinced that monitoring them over such a short time frame helps performance or mental health.

If I look at the past 5 years of a pretty sedate investment, it has done

-5.63%, +37.94%, +13.83%, -1.79%, +25.09% in each successive year. Expecting savings account like behaviour and consistency is foolish/unrealistic.

Definitely.

If you were just in Vanguards FTSE Global All Cap ie a broad global tracker so massively spreading the risk they would of been circa 13% up compared to last August….

[1781cc]

Defo wrap it in an ISA, vanguard are good and you could look into something like Lifestrategy 80 for good exposure to stocks and 20% in Bonds.


I would also suggest playing with a dummy portfolio (simulator on investopedia) so you can explore ideas, see how you are doing and how you react to big swings, sector changes and how companies behave. Investorpedia is a good place to learn terminology and Simply Wall street is great for looking at how companies fit into certain profiles, market caps, analysis and research etc...

I would also recommend reading The little book of common sense investing by Jack Bogle - I can send you a link to a PDF of it if you message me.

Finally, don't get caught up in people recommending individual stocks and pumping stuff up

Investing can be fun

[gotoPzero]

If its longer term I would go with VUSA.

That's just my 2 cents though.

[superpp]

My investments are in Vanguard with the FTSE Global All Cap fund.

Be wary of going into a number of funds, as most hold a lot of the same companies when you dig into them.
Recent video on this:
https://youtu.be/8ReMmFAFLEU?si=vMWRQiFqCcy2r4kL