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Breath Ray posted:im surprised more people arent investing in the housing market. i suppsoe it's a big upfront cost for most people. my gf keeps getting emails from estate agents in nottingham about £99k homes for sale but ive talked her down for now They are, the equity release market is absolutely booming. I spoke to a provider just last week that has a £9bn stake in the UK housing on market. Another has the backing of one of the UK's largest insurance companies.
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Nov 16, 2020 09:19
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Breath Ray posted:r I mean, the upfront cost keeps getting bigger because people are investing in it and have been for ages
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Nov 16, 2020 10:39
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Ty for the replies. For me this is my version of gambling, but I'm only pissing about with a few hundred quid tops. The stuff I am buying I am wanting to keep for while just to see what happens with it. I own stock in 6 companies (I use freetrade) and only 1 is positive, so this isn't about making money, it's about having fun. All my actual money is in an ISA invested in passives. What I am trying to do is being a good little capitalist (lol, I loving hate capitalism) and voting with my £ in the good companies that are ethical or green, not bullshit ethical or green, but doing it properly.
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Nov 16, 2020 22:34
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Theophany posted:They are, the equity release market is absolutely booming. I spoke to a provider just last week that has a £9bn stake in the UK housing on market. Another has the backing of one of the UK's largest insurance companies. good god. i thought equity release was more for long standingly mortgage free types. in three years ive barely got any equity to release!
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Nov 16, 2020 22:51
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Breath Ray posted:good god. i thought equity release was more for long standingly mortgage free types. in three years ive barely got any equity to release! There's an awful lot of borderline predatory advertising but thankfully the market has become more heavily regulated and must be arranged by a qualified intermediary and the person taking the loan must receive independent legal advice. Still, when they're offering rates of like 2.25% at 30% LTV, it's attractive if you want to gift away your wealth whilst you can still watch your kids enjoy it I guess. I only really do it for people who have so much wealth they start losing their IHT allowances.
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Nov 17, 2020 10:20
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Breath Ray posted:ive made a cool £9 in a month from a small investment in the wealthify ethical fund (ISA or taxable general investment account (if you've already opened a stocks and shares ISA or have maxed out your ISA contribs)). if you or anyone else invest £500 we both get £25 with this handy referral code https://invest.wealthify.com/refer/79256764 thanks to the one goon so far who signed up with my code. we're gonna be rich!
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Nov 19, 2020 02:25
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:
I think that the combination of different regulations and the perception that it isn't gambling (it is) makes it really dangerous. At least with stocks the spread was good and you probably wouldn't lose everything in one go with big name companies, but now they're pushing options and CFD and it's way worse.
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Nov 21, 2020 17:54
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I've been served up a fair few of those adverts recently and what gets me every time is the small (but bold) text at the bottom telling you what percentage of users lost money. The lowest I've seen so far is 79%. I don't know how you can look at that and convince yourself (a) you'll be in the 20% and (b) this definitely doesnt sound like gambling.
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Nov 21, 2020 18:04
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Staggy posted:I've been served up a fair few of those adverts recently and what gets me every time is the small (but bold) text at the bottom telling you what percentage of users lost money. The lowest I've seen so far is 79%. Its worse than that. Those 20% need to include the caveat, during the period we looked at. The chances any of them actually have a positive EV (over market) is close to 0. None of them will make money over time and those 20% are most likely to get into real trouble throwing good money after bad because a period of luck has lead them to believe they are actually able to beat the market. Sure someome can hit it good and get out ahead, they will make money. But that's exactly the same as leaving the casino early cause you won. If you actually think you have an edge and it's not luck, why would you ever stop
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Nov 21, 2020 19:57
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:Sure someome can hit it good and get out ahead, they will make money. But that's exactly the same as leaving the casino early cause you won. If you actually think you have an edge and it's not luck, why would you ever stop I’d say that everyone has an edge so long as they’re thinking straight. You don’t time the market, but when the market nosedives like it did earlier this year, it’s easy to identify ridiculously undervalued stocks and make a sizeable number of small profits. In normal market conditions I’d absolutely agree with you, and at present I’d say that we’re near enough the point where the risks are too great after that lovely spike thanks to the vaccine news. Vanguard is safer, definitely. Long term it’s better.
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Nov 22, 2020 14:22
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:I’d say that everyone has an edge so long as they’re thinking straight. You don’t time the market, but when the market nosedives like it did earlier this year, it’s easy to identify ridiculously undervalued stocks and make a sizeable number of small profits. You're saying you know how to time the market. In fact what you said doesn't even make sense. Don't time the market apart from now when you should time the market? I don't think you're understanding the risks here. What if you buy in on the way down but too early, you don't know how far down it will go. What if you see gains after a recovery but sell to early and you only get a small amount of what you could. What if you hold it too long and it falls again and you miss your gains. These are market timing questions. What if the undervalued company you picked doesn't recover with the rest. How exactly are you picking those companies? You're also saying everyone has an edge. By thinking straight? That makes no sense. Im sorry but you are incorrect on both fronts. You made a bet and it paid off, enjoy it but understand it for what it is. When stocks are low, it is usually a great time to buy if you intend on holding for a long time. Many people call downturns a sale on stocks for a reason. But as always, time in the market always beat timing the market.
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Nov 22, 2020 18:06
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Timing the market is wrong. But if you have cash that isn’t invested, then after values plateau after the downturn, you should use that cash. Optimising that payoff is a timing question. Some stocks are less risky than others, if you invested in Cineworld or EasyJet who are more vulnerable to current conditions, so your choice there is up to your risk tolerance. If you don’t buy or sell at optimal levels, that’s fine. You hold until a profit you’re comfortable with. Just act rationally, dont sell as a panic response to prices falling, don’t get greedy. You can use standard measures of valuing stocks, but in these conditions I found it best just using common sense in terms of vulnerability to COVID. Time in the market is indeed generally better. My point is that current conditions made it easier to avoid losses and make a series of small gains. There are always risks. The average benefit of the riskier approach is generally far less than the average benefit of the safe route. I’m simply suggesting that the pandemic has narrowed that gap, and if you have a sufficient risk tolerance, you may find yourself going above average.
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Nov 22, 2020 18:23
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Hello UK finance goons, First post on this new account but I've been around SA for a while. I've re-reg'd to talk financial advice as I've recently hit kind of a personal milestone at the age of 30, taken stock of what I have, and I'm wondering how best to put it to use, and even perhaps start work towards some early financial independance, or at least bring my time on the treadmill to a finish a few years earlier. Here's a basic rundown. I got where I am now from a situation of basically zero money in May 2019: Current cash in basic savings account: £10.5k Monthly income: ~£1600 after tax Living costs: ~£300 (including rent, utilities, internet) Food/travel to work/non-essentials + all other outgoings basically: ~£500 Rough savings per month - £700-800 I'm on Plan 2 of student loan repayment which amounts to £20,423, but I'm not earning enough to start repayment. I'm doing ok as my living costs are quite low, I'm not being maximum frugal as I still treat myself to non-essentials like books, and I'm saving around 50% of my income per month. How can I best put this to use for the future? Reading the thread and other advice threads here, it seems the best way would be: - Leave 3 months' emergency fund (let's say £3k) in the savings account or switch it to a higher interest account. - Open a Lifetime ISA and put £4k in it to start earning interest on that - do the same next year, etc - Start contributing to a Vanguard fund? Another factor is, I'm not earning as much as I could - I have an Engineering degree that I am not using - I will change this eventually, but my current workplace is *very* secure from Covid-related disruption and is a guaranteed stable income source with which to ride out the pandemic, I even get 100% wage while furloughed, so I am hesitant to leave this secure position when most people I know are getting cut loose left and right. I'm just wondering what I can start working on while I'm here now that I've got a fair amount saved. In a post-pandemic future I'll look at getting back into "professional" engineering to max my earnings. I'll be going back and reading the thread again to see if I've missed anyone in a similar situation. Please let me know if there's anything I need to clarify, and thank you.
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Nov 29, 2020 18:03
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Drone Evil posted:Another factor is, I'm not earning as much as I could - I have an Engineering degree that I am not using - I will change this eventually, but my current workplace is *very* secure from Covid-related disruption and is a guaranteed stable income source with which to ride out the pandemic, I even get 100% wage while furloughed, so I am hesitant to leave this secure position when most people I know are getting cut loose left and right. I'm just wondering what I can start working on while I'm here now that I've got a fair amount saved. In a post-pandemic future I'll look at getting back into "professional" engineering to max my earnings. Engineering is one of the first professions to go to complete poo poo during a recession and boy are we in a big one of those
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Nov 29, 2020 20:08
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:Can we have some kind of /thing/ against individual stock picking? I agree with this with one corollary. Like OP I did very well (as in, about 20x well) out of investing in Games Workshop years ago. I invested not because I’m a clever investor - at the time I worked as a lawyer for private equity funds, which was close enough to finance to recognise that I was not an investing savant - but because (1) they were profitable and didn’t hold debt; (2) they consistently paid solid dividends and (3) I’m a massive nerd and consumer of their stuff. If you’ve got a specialist interest and you know a company well (eg because you buy their stuff in preference to their competitors), then I’d say no reason not to invest if you have some free cash, after doing some basic due diligence*. Without individual stock picking you have a zero chance of outperforming, and you can’t totally eliminate the possibility of loss anyway. Treat it as the risky part of your portfolio and don’t put too much in it, and I actually think people are better served by having a little bit of exposure to stock picking. What you should NOT do is infer from this that you can beat the market consistently. I always treated GAW as a one off good luck thing. Your one really good investment might be in construction or oil or healthcare or security software or whatever you happen to understand, but it will likely also be a one off. * Check the annual reports for obvious bullshit, make sure you understand how they make money, and read the first few news stories. You’re not going to spot a clever fraud and tbh if you’ve done this much you have already done more than a disturbingly large number of professional investors.
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Nov 30, 2020 07:03
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Drone Evil posted:Hello UK finance goons, Zero to 10.5k in 12-18 months of pandemic is pretty good going! Don't worry about the student loan, it gets paid back automatically when you have a more lucrative engineering job (and if you don't it gets struck off 30 years after graduation) Do you have any kind of pension? (you should do as it's now law for companies to offer a workplace pension) If so are you contributing enough to get the employer match - For NEST this is currently 3% on top if you contribute 5% Do you or have you owned any property? If not (and you have a goal to do so of course) then the Lifetime ISA would be a good shout as you get a decent 25% kickback from the government whilst it's growing and can withdraw it for no penalty when buying your first home. Note the catches in the OP for this and be aware money invested here should not be seen as short term or an emergency fund. If you're happy with your emergency fund level and fill the £4k annual limit on the Lifetime ISA the next best investment vehicle is the Stocks and Shares ISA - this is the Vanguard one - and you've got a ceiling of £16k (£20k minus the £4k Lifetime) before you start paying any capital gains tax on contributions. Again - don't see this money as put aside for a rainy day/holiday/hobby cash. The aim here is to set and forget until you're in a position to draw it down in retirement.
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Nov 30, 2020 12:37
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Doccykins posted:Do you have any kind of pension? (you should do as it's now law for companies to offer a workplace pension) If so are you contributing enough to get the employer match - For NEST this is currently 3% on top if you contribute 5% Thanks for the response and encouragement! I do have a pension but it's on the Local Government Pension Scheme, I don't think employer matched contributions are a factor in that but I will read more into it. I also don't own any property + not likely to in the near future, so LISA sounds like a good option. So with the LISA and Vanguard set up, the idea each year would be to max the LISA first, and then put however much I feel comfortable into the index fund each month for the remainder of the year, and then just keep doing that basically, while continually optimising my outgoings + income? (That last part, at least, I am good at)
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Nov 30, 2020 17:00
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Drone Evil posted:I do have a pension but it's on the Local Government Pension Scheme, I don't think employer matched contributions are a factor in that but I will read more into it. You should absolutely be using your employers workplace scheme as well. Even if they offer the minimum, that's 3% of your salary, free money you're leaving on the table.
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Nov 30, 2020 17:52
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Mega Comrade posted:You should absolutely be using your employers workplace scheme as well. Even if they offer the minimum, that's 3% of your salary, free money you're leaving on the table. LGPS is my employer's scheme, I work in the public sector - I will double check tomorrow if they do the same kind of thing. In all honesty I've never quite understood how pensions work, so now's the time to get my head around it. Cookie Cutter fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Nov 30, 2020 |
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Nov 30, 2020 19:25
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Drone Evil posted:LGPS is my employer's scheme, I work in the public sector - I will double check tomorrow if they do the same kind of thing. In all honesty I've never quite understood how pensions work, so now's the time to get my head around it. Bang anything you don't need from now to age 55 into one. It's effectively an income tax refund.
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Nov 30, 2020 19:31
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if it's anything like the civil service pension scheme, you can pay an extra amount in each month, subject to a maximum. it sounds like you could afford to put in another £100 each month. you might be able to claim this excess earlier than state pension age but worth checking
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Dec 1, 2020 00:47
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If you're public sector, not putting into the pension scheme is usually setting quite a lot of money on fire
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Dec 1, 2020 01:14
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he'll be putting in to it i reckon. if he'd opted out he'd know. employer contribution is something silly like 22%
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Dec 1, 2020 01:25
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Drone Evil posted:LGPS is my employer's scheme, I work in the public sector - I will double check tomorrow if they do the same kind of thing. In all honesty I've never quite understood how pensions work, so now's the time to get my head around it. LGPS is a defined benefits scheme, your monthly contributions are a % defined by your salary (different salary bands have different contribution percentages); these contributions will "buy" you 1/49 of your pensionable pay as an annual pension payment. As an example in practical terms: Assuming you make contributions on a salary of £25,000, your contributions would be 6.5% per month and at the end of year 1 your pension would be £510.20. With the same salary in year 2, at the end of the year you would be entitled to another £510.20, which means your total annual pension would £1,020.40. The scheme will also make uplift adjustment to account for inflation so the pension amount would also increase. And so on and so on each year, the annual benefit would increase. On retirement that annual pension payment is payable until you pass away. In the above example, assuming all £25,000 is pensionable pay you would pay £1,625 across the year but get the equivalent benefit of £8,163.20 each year (I believe the scheme treats pension value as 16x the annual benefit - maybe 20x?). You can ignore the valuation, it is only important if you start getting close to the Lifetime Allowance, I just wanted to illustrate the overall value of the DB scheme. Employer contributions look massive but are a bit of a red herring, public sector pensions and your benefits are guaranteed by law - basically the UK taxpayer foots the bill. You can access your pension from 55-75, if you take it earlier than the normal retirement age your annual benefits will be actuarily reduced, conversely if you wait until after normal age the benefits will be increased. You can boost the pension either by purchasing "extra" pension which increases the annual benefit or you can make Additional Voluntary Contributions which goes into a pot to be invested, mirroring a defined contribution scheme. If you go to the LGPS member site, it has all the resources on the different options.
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Dec 1, 2020 18:00
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Thanks to everyone above for the pension advice, I'm in contact with an advisor from my scheme now, and looking at either purchasing extra pension or making AVCs. Seems best to hit the upper limit on extra purchasable pension with the original provider before then contributing to AVCs, as they have a different provider? Looks like I'm currently paying in at 7.25%, and "employer" (taxpayer) is contributing £2 for each £1 of mine. Another thing is - I also have an Armed Forces Pension that I contributed to for the 7 years I was in the military that I never paid any attention to. So I will track that down as well and see if I can roll it into my current scheme, or at least see what I can expect to claim from that in the future. For those who notice I've been previously employed for years yet 18 months ago had no money, I can expand on that if necessary but, I am where I am now, this is what I'm working with, and I want to do it right from this point on. I've also opened a LISA with Moneybox and filled it to the limit, to get the interest on the full amount for the whole year until I can contribute again.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:50
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Uh definintely dont roll the military one in with anything else without a lot of careful checking. Until 2015ish I think it was a final salary pension and probably the most generous pension in the country.
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Dec 4, 2020 11:58
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Saros posted:Uh definintely dont roll the military one in with anything else without a lot of careful checking. Until 2015ish I think it was a final salary pension and probably the most generous pension in the country. I'd be amazed if they'd let you do it without seeking advice first and any adviser that signs off on it wants striking off.
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Dec 4, 2020 12:17
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Saros posted:Uh definintely dont roll the military one in with anything else without a lot of careful checking. Until 2015ish I think it was a final salary pension and probably the most generous pension in the country. Beat me to this, your local authority one will be okay but unsurprisingly older army pensions are the tits
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Dec 4, 2020 13:38
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Oo ok, I was in from 2008 to 2015 so I might be in luck. I did leave earlier than any of the official exit points, 9 years service is supposed to be the minimum, but I know I'm still entitled to something. Lapsed service members have to send off a form to find out their current entitlement so I'm doing that today.
Cookie Cutter fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Dec 4, 2020 |
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Dec 4, 2020 14:59
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Doccykins posted:It's up to you - The drawback with the FTSE100 tracker is there isn't much diversity in it (literally only 100 stocks and a quarter of the market cap is HSBC, BP, Shell and GSK) so if one company takes a sudden turn for the worse you'd be more exposed. If you want something fuller that follows the UK market the FTSE All Share is available for 0.08% ER rather than the 0.06% of the FTSE100 which is perfectly fine as you're getting 569 stocks instead of 100. Just looking the big four still make up 22% rather than 26% but you get exposure to small and mid cap which are more likely to jump (or sink) than the established large-caps so you'll get higher volatility in the All-Share. is there a sustainable stocks and shares ISA focusing on uk companies where i can invest £7.5k? fundsmith's is for institutional investors only (>£5m) here is a league table but not sure which accept small upfront investments https://citywire.co.uk/funds-insider/sector/global-funds/i1504/?periodMonths=12&page=1&expandedList=true e. https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/need-help/answer/do-you-have-ethical-funds - not the most helpful page, but I found it. Breath Ray fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Dec 8, 2020 |
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Dec 8, 2020 19:40
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Fundsmith has a retail investor share class, but he's not UK-focused nor investing with an ESG overlay. He is a loving rockstar though.
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Dec 9, 2020 11:47
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he sure is. this is the sustainable equity fund referred to below. https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/docs/default-source/sustainability-facts-sef/2019-3-fsef-esg-facts.pdf in the end my gf went for the vanguard uk esg thing. my japan gov bonds isa is flying high, up 0.25% in just six months
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Dec 9, 2020 15:31
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Fwiw you can probably get the institutional fundsmith shares via a third party broker ISA. I bought the regular (non sustainable) I class equity from my iWeb ISA.
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Dec 9, 2020 23:48
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interesting! what does iweb get out of it?
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Dec 10, 2020 01:13
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Sloth Life posted:Ok so things as they stand on Jan 1, in order of priority.
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Dec 15, 2020 20:26
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Is it even worth bothering with cash ISA at the moment?
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Dec 20, 2020 22:46
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fluppet posted:Is it even worth bothering with cash ISA at the moment? No. Just use a savings account.
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Dec 20, 2020 22:59
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I set up a Child S&S ISA with Vanguard when my daughter was born three years ago. I just found out today that my brother also opened a Child S&S ISA for her - very nice of him, but my understanding is that 'an individual' can only pay into one account of this type at once - I assume the individual is my daughter in this case and we're breaking the rules. Is this the case, and if so how do I fix this?
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Jan 16, 2021 22:47
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If you're not wildly slinging weekly options, altcoins or penny stocks, Amazon has The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham for 99p today on Kindle. It's a great introduction to investing and well worth a read even at full price.
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Jan 17, 2021 15:20
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(sigh) Been a long time coming, but I've had an email come in from Santander:quote:Important: Changes to your 123 Current Account from 12 April 2021 No mention made of the other cashback options being affected - council tax, utility bills etc - but still, ouch. Time was £2/mth got you 3% interest 
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Jan 22, 2021 13:31
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so I could say that I finally figured out what this god damned cube is doing. Get well Lowtax.