Morning all.

Looking at the business pages suggests I really should get some cash back into some shares. Now, I previously had NS&I FTSE tracking GEBs, which stood me fairly well given the way the stock market went over the last five years, but obviously you don't get any dividends etc. and you're stuck in for a long time.

I'd like to get some cash into an UK FTSE 100 all share or tracker (I seem to remember you don't see divvys with a tracker, do with an all share?), and a bit spread about to emerging markets and the US.

The problem is, there are too many products, managed by too many people 😆

Has anyone got any pointers on sifting the wheat from the chaff?

Worth looking at ETFs (exchange traded funds), basically a fund which invests in a particular sector but is traded on the markets as a share so nice and easy to buy/sell. Charges tend to be lower than a managed fund also. There are now lots of ETFs available investing in lots of different sectors ranging from the FTSE 100 through to Nuclear power companies.

(They're not good for regular drip feeding of small amounts though as the share purchase fee imposed by share services etc will be disproportionately high)

Really depends how much you want to risk, and what kind of return/income you want from it?

If its big money and therefore either the losses/returns could be high and you'll need tax advice etc, then probably worth finding a good FA.

If neither, then just take a punt 😉

What I have will more less fit into an ISA, put it that way 😆

Looking at tracker funds, so fairly conservative – I'll want this cash for a deposit on a house at some point. I don't think there's any point in someone who isn't trading massive sums trying to actively play the market.

Some info:

http://www.fool.co.uk/isas/information/choosing-an-index-tracker.aspx

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/tracker-funds

Buy through HL:

http://www.h-l.co.uk/

http://www.h-l.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices–and–factsheets/search-results?companyid=&tab=prices&x=0&y=0&sectorid=&tab=prices&investment=tracker

Cheers. Fidelity has also been recommended by a mate who knows his stuff as the cheapest UK Tracker (as mentioned in the thisismoney link).

Can I get HL to set me an ISA up and shove everything in it, or do I need to do work? 😆

Edit: It seems they will. Now to convince the bank to release my cash from their 0.1% savings account 😆

I think it's just an application form – I have my SIPP through them which was pretty easy.

If you are likely to need the cash as a deposit in the next 5 years i'd leave it in the building society. If you are sure you want to invest then just be prepared for it to possibly be worth less if you suddenly need to draw it out in 2 years or so.

A double dip recession could still be on the cards yet and the time to get back into the market would have been last year when the FTSE was down at the 3500 area. Now it's at 5500 ish the scope for decent growth is far lower. Especially with the public sector cull to come.

As always with stocks & shares investments – only invest if you are willing (and able) to accept a financial loss if markets move against you.

I know all the can go up as well as down business. On average, they go up more than they go down, and I'm not going to bet the farm.

Over the longer term i could not agree more – it's just you mentioned that this will form part of a house deposit in the reasonably near future and i'd personally never enter into a share based scheme if it was for less than five years at least. Unless you have a pretty high tolerance for short term risk.

Like you say though, you're not investing your life savings so the downside is not so bad.

The key thing there is "at some point". I've naff all idea of the timescale, unfortunately, could be 3 years, could be 5, and things that are good for me buying a house – drops in house prices – are bad for the stock market.

There is no point in buying a Fidelilty Tracker though H-L as you only add H-L's fees for no benefits as there are no initial charges to refund, just an annual management fee, which certainly used to be the lowest in the sector. Fidelity will sell it as an ISA direct.

Even over a ten year period – returns can be disappointing, my Fidelity tracker bought 10 and half year ago has returned 2.19% per annum to date, this time last year, it had returned -0.7% per annum!

What fees do H-L add? Surely they just get their share of the annual mgt fee?

Trackers ain't great in bad times and the market is down over the last decade – is that 2.19% return compounded? If so better than I'd have thought.

0% for cash and funds that pay renewal commission (more than 2,000 to choose from)

0.5% for all other investments, capped at £200 a year

From H-L site, fees for ISA, a tracker will not pay a renewal commission as they are designed to be low fee – so you pay 0.5% per annum extra. (unless you have got £40,000 invested in their ISA.)

Why not just stick it in a Nationwide 3 year fixed rate ISA paying 3.75%?

If you're saving for a house seems the best idea to me.

TR – yes both are compounded returns.

Why not just stick it in a Nationwide 3 year fixed rate ISA paying 3.75%?

I'm after a mix of equity and savings, so I might yet 😆

exed all my unit trusts 5 years ago and started to manage the money myself after reading Warren Buffet article the crux of which is "that someone who trades actively is like a person who has lots of one night stands and thinks it's romantic"

With a bit of effort yourself think you can co better than most fund managers

With a bit of effort yourself think you can co better than most fund managers

I think I'd need more money than I've got to make the effort pay 😆

And maybe a year or two playing fantasy stock market.

invest in what you know about or think I know about 😉 ,I work in construction/property/development so follow that section of the market

With a bit of effort yourself think you can co better than most fund managers

Well some funds perform appallingly and I don't know why people choose those over funds from the likes of Fidelity, Jupiter, Schroder, BlackRock…. I studied investment at Uni and I came out of that thinking I should leave it to the pros as I ain't got the time or access to the info they have anyway. Most of the money I have invested now went in during the last decade, I have a compound return of 6.85% compared to a FTSE 100 return of 2.4%. Actually my biggest return (not included in that) is from an investment into the company I work for that got bought out last year so kinda agree with andylaightscat but mostly say leave it to the experts.