TellinStories - new investor feedback please!
Posted: August 20th, 2022, 8:41 pm
Dear all!
Firstly I am so pleased to have found this site. Twenty years ago I was a fresh graduate with no money, plenty of debt and some very poor spending habits and the old TMF boards became a regular haunt and very much informed and helped transform my money management. Since then I have been very conservative and risk averse with my money.
My risk aversion means that I have always been a saver rather than an investor. Two years ago I decided that my overall level of savings was such that I felt able to begin to invest albeit only "small amounts". I began putting £50, then £100, and now £200 per month into funds via a Fidelity ISA. This went up and I thought I was a genius... then it went down and while not too worried by this (these are long term investments) this has made me review how I approach investing.
I've learned a lot so far - often by making mistakes - and I'd appreciate any thoughts / advice going forward.
1) Platform: I chose Fidelity as the fees are very low if you have a monthly direct debit, and there are no transaction fees for buying most types of fund, however it charges £10 for purchasing individual shares or ETFs. This meant that I saved up to invest a lump sum in Scottish Mortgage. This negated the drip feed approach and meant I purchased at literally the wrong point. Therefore I've now also opened a Freetrade account to purchase individual shares and ETFs. This is not an ISA obviously but I'm a long way from having to worry about tax on dividends or CGT at this point.
2) Funds: my choice of funds was not always good, often based on what I'd read in the paper. I recently looked closely at the funds I was invested in and realised that I have a) invested in several that overlapped investments significantly and b) invested almost exclusively in actively managed funds c) been very tech-heavy. So I have selected a new portfolio of 8 funds (£25 / month into each), all 4* or 5* Morningstar rated. There are four cheap index trackers covering UK, Europe (ex-UK), USA, and Japan, as well as keeping four of the actively managed funds: Invesco High Yield bond fund, Fundsmith Equity, Rathbone Global Opportunities and Scottish Mortgage. The aim is to drip feed monthly, review annually and not worry too much.
3) Shares: The funds are meant to be long term and less risky investments with mine and my wife's joint savings. But I also have some of my own money that I can experiment with and so I have been buying individual shares in small amounts (usually £100) so that I can learn while having some fun. Top three holdings are Trident Royalties (I invested £500 and this is +25%), Darktrace (+75%) and GSK (only bought this week). Overall up about £250 for less than £2k invested but I appreciate that, apart from Trident which I bought at Xmas, these are all less than a month old and purchased during what I have read is a mini bull run.
Any thoughts and suggestions will be gratefully received!
Firstly I am so pleased to have found this site. Twenty years ago I was a fresh graduate with no money, plenty of debt and some very poor spending habits and the old TMF boards became a regular haunt and very much informed and helped transform my money management. Since then I have been very conservative and risk averse with my money.
My risk aversion means that I have always been a saver rather than an investor. Two years ago I decided that my overall level of savings was such that I felt able to begin to invest albeit only "small amounts". I began putting £50, then £100, and now £200 per month into funds via a Fidelity ISA. This went up and I thought I was a genius... then it went down and while not too worried by this (these are long term investments) this has made me review how I approach investing.
I've learned a lot so far - often by making mistakes - and I'd appreciate any thoughts / advice going forward.
1) Platform: I chose Fidelity as the fees are very low if you have a monthly direct debit, and there are no transaction fees for buying most types of fund, however it charges £10 for purchasing individual shares or ETFs. This meant that I saved up to invest a lump sum in Scottish Mortgage. This negated the drip feed approach and meant I purchased at literally the wrong point. Therefore I've now also opened a Freetrade account to purchase individual shares and ETFs. This is not an ISA obviously but I'm a long way from having to worry about tax on dividends or CGT at this point.
2) Funds: my choice of funds was not always good, often based on what I'd read in the paper. I recently looked closely at the funds I was invested in and realised that I have a) invested in several that overlapped investments significantly and b) invested almost exclusively in actively managed funds c) been very tech-heavy. So I have selected a new portfolio of 8 funds (£25 / month into each), all 4* or 5* Morningstar rated. There are four cheap index trackers covering UK, Europe (ex-UK), USA, and Japan, as well as keeping four of the actively managed funds: Invesco High Yield bond fund, Fundsmith Equity, Rathbone Global Opportunities and Scottish Mortgage. The aim is to drip feed monthly, review annually and not worry too much.
3) Shares: The funds are meant to be long term and less risky investments with mine and my wife's joint savings. But I also have some of my own money that I can experiment with and so I have been buying individual shares in small amounts (usually £100) so that I can learn while having some fun. Top three holdings are Trident Royalties (I invested £500 and this is +25%), Darktrace (+75%) and GSK (only bought this week). Overall up about £250 for less than £2k invested but I appreciate that, apart from Trident which I bought at Xmas, these are all less than a month old and purchased during what I have read is a mini bull run.
Any thoughts and suggestions will be gratefully received!