As title, would just like to dabble really, £500 here and there. Basic rate tax payer, income of £5500 a year.
Thanks in advance for any sage advice.
Yes five thousand five hundred.

iweb stocks and shares isa, you may wish to invest a little more than that as there is a flat rate dealing commision charge

quite easy to use

Thanks for that, would probably invest £20k+ but wouldn’t want to put all the eggs in one basket as they say.

Ianafa but..
Your right about egg in baskets but an Isa can hold multiple shares as the account can be the Isa and it is the amount deposited into the account not individual companies.

Be super aware shares go down, my whole account is in negative profit at the min but slowly comming back. It’s a very long game, unless day trading but that’s another story.

Again with the egg/ basket thing think about a range of investments in different sectors/ industries e.g. manufacturing, finance, oil, telecoms. In the hope if one tanks the others will even it out.

Again not an expert but read a load as I’ve built up the account.

Another option is stocks and share Isa from someone like Vanguard who choose the share in the fund.

I am currently using Trading 212 & Hargreaves Landsdowne both good. Loads of info on HL website

I am a complete novice and have picked a few shares and a few funds. HL good for funds.

Use ajbell ISA. Like it quite a bit. Currently about 15% up, but them only joined just after the crash so bloody well ought to be?

Research into the regular costs be they monthly account costs or trading commissions. I use Interactive Investor and have a few monthly things I buy which is automated.

Diversify if you can.

Read this, thank me later 🙂

Freetrade: how to build your portfolio

I’ve always used Hargreaves Lansdown for normal funds / ISA and larger trades.

Wanted to start dabbling with single stocks so started using Trading 212. They let you buy / sell for free, in addition to trading fractional stocks so you can invest £5 in Amazon rather than $3000+ (single share price you would need if using HL and not get killed by fees. If you sign up using this link you get a free random share (Disclaimer – so do I): http://www.trading212.com/invite/GISeebI3

Stay away from CFD’s. Mods – feel free to knock out my link for one of your own!

Also check out Freetrade & Revolut that offer similar.

Warren Buffet’s advice was just invest in a passive tracker and don’t try to outsmart the market. Only invest what you can afford to lose.

“Warren Buffet’s advice was just invest in a passive tracker and don’t try to outsmart the market. Only invest what you can afford to lose.”

His advice to his wife? Not advice he followed himself!

That was his advice to the average dabbler / STW reader / non-pro trader:

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/warren-buffett-recommends-index-funds-for-most-investors?r=US&IR=T

He is none of the above, at least I don’t think haha…

Cheers guys, what is a fund? can I specify individual shares in a fund?
Can I take increases in fund value out and would this have impact on the total money I can invest in a year.
Sorry, I left school at 15, thick as a brick tbh.

Have about £500 in shares at the moment with a Halifax sharebuilder account.

Find the fees are really cheap £2.50 purchase, they lump all the same customer purchases together, so they only purchase shares on set dates.

They allow fractions of shares too and have a research centre to, well research for free with recommendations and news.

Cheers guys, what is a fund? can I specify individual shares in a fund?

A fund is a large chunk of money invested in a range of shares. It spreads the risk quite a bit. You don’t choose the individual shares. The point is someone with supposedly more knowledge about all this has picked them (in exchange for a fee). You just need to find a fund or two that suits your level of risk and maybe general direction of investing (eg Ethical, Far East, Tech, etc).

Can I take increases in fund value out and would this have impact on the total money I can invest in a year.

You can put money in and take it out as much as you like. There are some tax benefits to having it inside an ISA and that will limit what you can do, but not that much if we aren’t talking huge sums of money. Personally I’d just leave it in there and let it accumulate, just take some out if you really need it.

Hargreaves lansdown has a great app and site, plenty of information, trades are £12 though, plus 1/2% stamp duty uk stocks (1% ireland)

if you setup a monthly investment saver, they take a direct debit off you around the 3rd/4th of the month and then purchase the shares/stock funds on the 10th of the month, fees are £1.50 per stock.

this is probably the best way to drip feed funds into an account, although you have no control over the price they buy at, its done on a fill/kill at best order on the date, i’m currently buying a few companies shares investing £50 a month, which will be £600 of investment per stock after a year..

as others say diversify, i’m a bit heavy on uk banks, so on good days its good, bad days its bad..
before last thursday i was up 15% in 2 weeks, then down 8% in 2 days..

far more interesting than 0.000001% interest at the bank..
remember high risk = high reward (or loss)

as others say stay away form CFDs as that will escalate risk