First Stock & Shares ISA, what to do?
Discussion
I've finally saved 20k up and I'm looking to put it all into a tax free stocks & shares ISA but I've never done anything like this before... At first I was looking at buying individual shares using Hargreaves Lansdown but after reading a couple books I've realised I should probably leave it to the professionals. Putting the money in a fund seems like a more sensible idea but I don't really know what's best!
What would you guys recommend I do getting into this to ideally take advantage of the recovering economy.
What would you guys recommend I do getting into this to ideally take advantage of the recovering economy.
Firstly, remember that ISAs are just a tax efficient 'wrapper' for your money - the funds underneath can be many and varied!
If you are saving for a first home, then a LISA might be a good choice.....our kids have AJ Bell one's - simple tracker fund options to pick.
If not: then I like the ethos put out by Lars Kroijer - maybe watch some of his short videos & see what you think.
With that in mind, I would then suggest a low-cost tracker.
I am personally a big fan of IM (see sticky thread here) & would suggest having a chat with them - they have low cost trackers, and the ability to give you helpful guidance for your personal situation (note - not advice ;-)
Alternatives could be Vanguard LifeStrategy - pick your 'risk' and select funds.
Depending on your situation & when you think you might need the money, you may also want to put more into a pension fund - usually THE most tax efficient wrapper for your money long term. With limits on access, of course.
The more you investigate and read, the more you will learn - it isn't too hard, and the best financial advisor with your interests at heart can be yourself (note - bad decisions could also make you the worst advisor!)
If you are saving for a first home, then a LISA might be a good choice.....our kids have AJ Bell one's - simple tracker fund options to pick.
If not: then I like the ethos put out by Lars Kroijer - maybe watch some of his short videos & see what you think.
With that in mind, I would then suggest a low-cost tracker.
I am personally a big fan of IM (see sticky thread here) & would suggest having a chat with them - they have low cost trackers, and the ability to give you helpful guidance for your personal situation (note - not advice ;-)
Alternatives could be Vanguard LifeStrategy - pick your 'risk' and select funds.
Depending on your situation & when you think you might need the money, you may also want to put more into a pension fund - usually THE most tax efficient wrapper for your money long term. With limits on access, of course.
The more you investigate and read, the more you will learn - it isn't too hard, and the best financial advisor with your interests at heart can be yourself (note - bad decisions could also make you the worst advisor!)
This is either pedantic or useful but...
Remember that £20K is the annual limit on what you can put in a traditional S&S ISA but you could have opened an S&S ISA with as little as a few hundred quid.
So you don't have to put the whole £20K in in one go and most importantly you don't have to invest all £20K in one go though you may take the view it's right to do so.
I'd think about two things personally.
Remember that £20K is the annual limit on what you can put in a traditional S&S ISA but you could have opened an S&S ISA with as little as a few hundred quid.
So you don't have to put the whole £20K in in one go and most importantly you don't have to invest all £20K in one go though you may take the view it's right to do so.
I'd think about two things personally.
- Appetite for risk i.e. you put in £20K and wake up one day and if you sold it all right there and then you'd have £12K - that's what happened earlier this year more or less and thinking you can stomach it is much easier for most people than watching it happen with your money.
- Do you want to do this as a hobby or do you want an easy life? If it's the former you need to put some time in to understand things. If it's the latter I'd second the suggestion to read the IM thread and I'd also consider a low cost simple option such as Vanguard.
StottyGTR said:
Thanks all, I wasn't aware of the IM thread so I'll give that a read as I'm sure it will answer all of my questions (and probably raise many more 
)
One additional thing.) Spend time reading up.
You don't need to know masses but it amazes me how many people will spend ages reading up on their next car but do bugger all research on where they invest 20 grand
Aftershox said:
IMO put in savings into a FTSE100/FTSE250 tracker is quite safe for a 20% return over the next 2 years.
if it were THAT easy, we would all be doing that!no worries about a long recession?
Just look at how long Japan took to recover....
A recovery fund sounds lik a good idea - perhaps a proportion in that and then decide on the rest.
It's doing FA sitting as cash in a ISA.
Kiribati268 said:
LeadFarmer said:
I thought they had closed the door on new LISA applicants?
Just HTB ISA, AFAIK LISA are still open for businessReally only make sense for first home buyers - for longer term pension savings, pensions generally make more sense!
StottyGTR said:
Thanks all, I wasn't aware of the IM thread so I'll give that a read as I'm sure it will answer all of my questions (and probably raise many more )
I sometimes think it is invisible! ) 
Feel free to post there and we will help you find the right direction. It is free and needn't be with us at all.
(Thanks all for the mention)
JulianPH said:
I sometimes think it is invisible!
Valid point - if a sticky stays up beyond a certain length of time people go blind to it, especially if it has hundreds of pages. They're not going to read every page from #1, and if they just look at the last page, they have no idea of the context. Hence it's easier to ignore it and start again.Personally my advice would be to open an ISA with iWeb. The platform is easy to use and understand and their charges both for trading and ongoing maintenance fees are really low. Also importantly they charge nothing if you want to leave them. I couldn't comment on their research area but I don't use any stockbroking websites to find info in the first place. There are a wealth of sites for that.
I have used several brokers over the years and iWeb are my favourite since Barclays sh@t the bed and destroyed their perfectly good platform.
You could do worse than take out a sub to Money Week, it's a great mag to read to ease yourself into this confusing world. It basically provides a round up of recommendations from the press and media together with explaining things to a varied level of reader knowledge.
Oh, and buy investment trusts rather than funds, but then Money Week will explain that to you.
I have used several brokers over the years and iWeb are my favourite since Barclays sh@t the bed and destroyed their perfectly good platform.
You could do worse than take out a sub to Money Week, it's a great mag to read to ease yourself into this confusing world. It basically provides a round up of recommendations from the press and media together with explaining things to a varied level of reader knowledge.
Oh, and buy investment trusts rather than funds, but then Money Week will explain that to you.
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