Advice on Investments / Savings for a Novice

[matt.m]

I need some advice from the PH finance group

My wife and I over the last 12 months have been renovating our house and the last piece (kitchen) should be in place by the end of Feb. However, to do this has meant that we have pretty much used our savings as deposit and to fund the works.
We now need to switch back to replacing our savings. It’s this that I need some advice on.
We will have approx. £5k left at the end of Feb. We both have good company pensions accruing in the background, so we are looking at saving £1.5k per month.

What are the options?

We currently have saving bonds, which have not had a result in at least 6 months. We also have a Marcus account and an instant access savings account.

We would be looking at 3 pots – one that allows us easy access to money – holidays etc. The 2nd would be for longer term saving / investment and could be riskier. Finally, we would want an account that allows us to build up 6 months salary to cover the worst-case scenario of us losing our jobs.

I guess what I am after is, what are the best ways to do this? I’m happy to consider stocks / shares ISA or an investment vehicle for a longer-term investment, but don’t know what I am looking for or at when researching.

Clearly, we’re starting at a low base, but the aim is to replenish our pot as quickly as possible. In terms of outgoings, we own both cars, have a mortgage (small compared to many I guess), then we have Sim only deals on our phones and have subscriptions to Netflix, prime and Disney + for tv. So there isn’t much fat to cut (we don’t have leases on cars or big phone contracts.)

So there we go, any ideas, thoughts please shout

[Phooey]

The stocks/shares account probably needs the most (long-term) thought as that is one that would (ideally) need to be 'locked' away for a period of years - ideally 5 to 10 minimum. If I was starting again, and for total simplicity, I would just invest a monthly amount into a cheap global tracker using it to your best tax advantage - which for example might be an ISA. Vanguard is worthy of a mention, so is Intelligent Money. With Vanguard I'd probably pick FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRL), and with Intelligent Money - Index 100

[sicasey]

Another vote for VWRL.

Set up a monthly standing order and forget about it.

[Abdul Abulbul Amir]

sicasey said:

Another vote for VWRL.

Set up a monthly standing order and forget about it.

Go for VWRP for auto reinvestment.

[matt.m]

Thanks both, I’ll have a look at the vanguard option.

The goal for this pot is to essentially start it, save to it each month by DD and forget about it for 20 years say.

[sicasey]

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

sicasey said:

Another vote for VWRL.

Set up a monthly standing order and forget about it.

Go for VWRP for auto reinvestment.

That's a good call, for those who want complete investment autonomy.

[okgo]

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

Go for VWRP for auto reinvestment.

I may well be being stupid, but I cannot see this appearing on my account, what is the full name of this fund? I can find the one mentioned but not this auto-reinvestment version?

[bitchstewie]

Which platform do you use?

They may not offer it and something rings a bell that perversely Vanguard don't offer the accumulation version of VWRL on their own platform.

[okgo]

bhstewie said:

Which platform do you use?

They may not offer it and something rings a bell that perversely Vanguard don't offer the accumulation version of VWRL on their own platform.

I am using their own platform yes, and that is weird, why?! I've put a this years savings into LS100, obviously that seems to be a global product but has quite the focus on US at 49%, was thinking this might be a decent way to diversify for next year - is there a comparable that I'm missing that they DO offer?

[bitchstewie]

okgo said:

I am using their own platform yes, and that is weird, why?! I've put a this years savings into LS100, obviously that seems to be a global product but has quite the focus on US at 49%, was thinking this might be a decent way to diversify for next year - is there a comparable that I'm missing that they DO offer?

Check with them but it rings a bell as something I read.

Any global tracker type fund is going to lean heavily towards the US by definition.

If you want an accumulation product on Vanguard you may want to look at FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund - Accumulation but remember it's a fund not an ETF so you can't buy or sell at "live" prices.

[xeny]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Dividends. Growth is pretty much always autoreinvested by the nature of compounding - you see a return on your return, otherwise the growth would be linear to your original investment, and as a %, always decrease as the value grew, and you hope that isn't the case.