Stocks and Shares

[cisamcgu]

Does anyone here invest in stock sand shares, specifically the ISA thing. I am pondering investing some cash, proceedes from a house sale, and was wondering if it was a smart thing to do - I have filled the cash ISA for this year and have never dipped into the eralm of shares before ..

I was thinking about a simple FTSE tracker

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Does anyone here invest in stock sand shares, specifically the ISA thing. I am pondering investing some cash, proceedes from a house sale, and was wondering if it was a smart thing to do - I have filled the cash ISA for this year and have never dipped into the eralm of shares before ..

I was thinking about a simple FTSE tracker

Generally, those who invest in turbulent times do well in the long run. However, I'm posting this from a window ledge.

 

[byegad]

As a long term thing they're fine. I read somewhere that if you'd had $10,000 invested across Wall St the day before the crash of 1929, by the same day in 1939 you'd have had $20,000. It had to be across the whole market as some shares were literally worthless but your remaining shares would have gone up by 1939.

The trick is finding the 'Right Fund'! Otherwise it can be money!

 

[swee'pea99]

By any conventional wisdom, now would be a good time to invest. Shares have lost a lot of value lately, and as they say, what goes down must come up. The only thing that might give you pause is that we do not live in 'conventional' times, and in truth, nobody knows what's going to happen next. I read somewhere recently that shares in japan are still at something like 25% of where they were before the crash of 20 or something years ago. It would be against all historical precedent for the FTSE to fall from 5000 to 1000 over the next two years. But not beyond the realms of possibility.

 

[accountantpete]

Historically putting your money in somewhere near the bottom and staying the long term gets results.

Trouble is that no-one knows if we are near the bottom and there is no guarantee that what has gone on before will repeat itself in the future. Look at the banks - how are they going to make money in the future?

I'd just invest what you can afford to lose.

 

[diapason]

I'm no economist, but if I had cash to invest, then property looks to be a good bet. Buy to let will see an income and your investment should rise in the long-term. Otherwise, that hoary old chestnut, GOLD should be a winner.

 

[cisamcgu]

I was thinking long-term , something > 5 years, and I know it is all a bit of luck and guesswork

Still, it is a bit more fun than just sticking it in an investment account

 

[TVC]

I have a managed fund which covers stocks, bonds and property which is invested globally, the admin fee is measurably higher than a basic fund (like a pension) but I've also done much better than average over the past three years since the initial crash. Worth a thought?


Serious point, ask a proper financial adviser, not us.

 

[Moodyman]

I have a managed fund which covers stocks, bonds and property which is invested globally, the admin fee is measurably higher than a basic fund (like a pension) but I've also done much better than average over the past three years since the initial crash. Worth a thought?


Serious point, ask a proper financial adviser, not us.

This.

 

[Archie_tect]

Or invest with Venture Capitalists... win some, lose some but they always seem to come out on top and who wouldn't like to have funded 1% of EA Games or Microsoft or Apple when they started up as fledgling companies!

 

[cisamcgu]

Serious point, ask a proper financial adviser, not us.

Fair point, I shall have a good read around and then maybe ask advice. Currently pondering a HSBC FTSE 250 tracker through Hargreave Lansdown though

 

[swee'pea99]

I would be very hesitant before approaching a financial advisor. Twice I've approached them, and twice they've turned out to be total charlatans, interested in nothing but selling inappropriate products on which they were clearly going to 'earn' big commissions.

 

[ASC1951]

Fair point, I shall have a good read around and then maybe ask advice. Currently pondering a HSBC FTSE 250 tracker through Hargreave Lansdown though

For a 'good read around' I recommend this http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/0954809327

It's not a beginner's read, but his central premise is well set out:-
- not even the best fund managers can beat their benchmark consistently;
- they charge you in numerous hidden ways (bid and offer spread, management fees, trailing commissions etc) so that you cannot easily see how much you are being charged;
- those charges will erode your returns very significantly;
- you are being charged for something which is usually worthless, because in the long term they don't out-perform;
- you can easily become more expert than most financial advisers and their interests are not the same as yours.

John Kay's conclusion is that almost everyone would get the best returns by a) choosing a range of sectors which give a good spread of risk and b) within that sector, picking the ETF or Tracker which has the lowest TER [total expense ratio, a figure which they have to declare.]

HSBC have a good range of ETFs and Trackers. So do Blackrock and several other providers.

If you are going to invest, an ISA is a sensible vehicle provided you don't have to pay any extra for the tax wrapper. One of Gordon Brown's less publicised actions was to remove the tax benefit from dividends accrued in an ISA, so that for a standard rate taxpayer they have no advantage unless you manage to create an investment gain above the CGT threshold. There are several ISA providers who make no extra charge. [Hargreaves Lansdown's Vantage ISA is only free if you invest in funds i.e. not free at all, because of the arguments above and because commission is fed back to them by the fund managers.]

 

[TVC]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1318357993' post='1877841']
I would be very hesitant before approaching a financial advisor. Twice I've approached them, and twice they've turned out to be total charlatans, interested in nothing but selling inappropriate products on which they were clearly going to 'earn' big commissions.
[/quote]

Fair point about independent advisors, I took advice from the financial services dept of my bank. They recommended the type of product that best suited my needs, and although they gave me details of their offering in that class, there was no pressure and the guy made it clear that I should look at other offers in the market.

 

[Brains]

I'm no economist, but if I had cash to invest, then property looks to be a good bet. Buy to let will see an income and your investment should rise in the long-term. Otherwise, that hoary old chestnut, GOLD should be a winner.

But unlike shares where you want to buy at the bottom (now'ish) and sell at the top (several years ago, and several years time)
Gold is the item to invest in when all is rosy (several years ago) and sell when the shoot hits the fan (now'ish)

Gold was about $200 back in 2002 and over $1,500 today - the worse the situation gets globally, the higher the cost will go.