Reddit reviews Smarter Investing (Financial Times)

> I saw few guides but i wanted to see opinion of more people on one place compared to sites that have 1-2 editors.

The evidence is that passive investing - buying index funds, and holding them for decades - is the best longterm investment for the majority of people.

The vast majority of actively managed funds do not outperform that strategy - they work 70-hour weeks at it, and have research resources you don't, so you should be really well informed and have a good reason if you think you can do better. [1, 2, 3]

That statement is not controversial, and the passive investing methodology is well documented. There are lots of sites and books about it - we usually recommend Tim Hale's Smarter Investing for UK-based investors, and the book recommendations page at the Bogleheads wiki is also very good; Bogle's Little Book of Common Sense Investing or The Bogleheads' Guide To Investing are amongst the most famous books on the subject.

I would honestly recommend reading one or two books, because books from publishers are copyedited and checked for errors, and because they can take you through the subject start-to-finish in a consistent manner and giving a clear explanation of the whole subject. IMO Smarter Investing does this very well, but it bows to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and not the Revenue Commissioners.

I don't know much about penny stocks, but they're a bit notorious for being driven by scammers. I don't know if that's true or not, but I suspect so. If you want to invest in individual stocks then you have the edge in small cap (companies the size of Halfords, Cineworld and Carphone Warehouse - not intending to fixate on retail, I just picked 3 companies with names that will be well known to consumers), which is much better documented and easier to research, so why would you bother with penny stocks, which are more prone to directors pocketing cash or engaging in other fraud?

I'm pretty sure you'll find the majority of day traders lose money - I've never before had the need to discuss that, so don't have a citation in my bookmarks. Look it up for yourself, but understand that if something offers returns that are too good to be true, or better than index investing, then it's because it's risky - returns are always related to risk; this is a rule of investing so fundamental that I have no doubt it applied to the operations of bronze age merchants as it does to us today.

Have you bought and read Tim Hale's Smarter Investing first? If not, go and buy it! It's only £20 but it'll net you thousands of pounds in the long run. It's targeted at UK readers and outlines the steps needed to start investing in index funds. More than anything, it will empower you to make your own financial decisions instead of letting other people guide you what to do with your money.

One key point that I'll outline now is that your desire to have your investments be relatively liquid is not really compatible with investing in stocks. The reason for that is stocks are volatile and it's possible you could lose half of your investment overnight in a market crash. The probability of that gets smaller as you leave your money invested for longer, which is why people usually recommend a minimum of 5 years to invest your money, although 10+ years is ideal. Anything less than 5 years and your best bet is keeping your money as cash and spreading it around high-interest accounts (see https://www.bankaccountsavings.co.uk/ for the best accounts).

Once you've read Smarter Investing, you may be interested in investing in a global equity tracker. There are various effort-free options where you fund and forget, such as Vanguard's Lifestrategy series or the FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund.

Alternatively if you're feeling braver, you could check out my guide on constructing your own global equity tracker here.

But above all, read Smarter Investing!

Read this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/

Follow this: https://i.imgur.com/ezGWhE3.png

Notice on the flowchart that seek financial advice is waaaaaaaaaaaay at the bottom and basically the very last thing on the list.

Also, it would help the sub if your were a bit more specific in your question and gave details of your situation. i.e. current income and outgoings, current savings, goals for your money etc.


P.S. Those fees and costs are RIDICULOUS. Run away from whoever that is.

> As I'm still pretty new to investing, I was wondering if any of you had any advice, tips, suggestions for me.

Go here: https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/index

Then here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/wiki/recommendedreading

Then buy this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/

You'll thank me in 30 years. Best return on £20 you'll ever invest.

Don't forget to keep some cash on hand because you are young and your perspective on life is probably going to change quite significantly in the new few years.

Since you are from the UK I'm going to recommend /r/UKPersonalFinance's bible of Tim Hale's Smarter Investing. That basically explains passive investing, investing aims and timelines, portfolio strategies, etc and also inoculates you against trying to be too clever.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-3rd-edn-Decisions/dp/0273785370

You can also read the more general The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham but unless you are going to really dedicate a shed load of time to it Tim Hale's book is precisely what you need. Graham is basically the standard text on the matter but it goes into a lot of detail that isn't really relevant anymore whereas Smarter Investing is primed for modern investing and particularly deals with the UK environment more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Practical/dp/0060555661

If you are going to invest you absolutely want to use the right platform for it. The UK has a good number of tax efficient platforms for investment. Specifically:

1. Stocks and Shares ISA - Standard tax free investment account. You can put in £20k annually and will never pay capital gains taxes on the earnings. The new tax year starts on the 5th of April so if you have money to invest now you can put money in without using the limit for 2018-2019.
   
   
2. Lifetime ISA - Similar to a S&S ISA except there is a £4k limit (this counts to your £20k limit but you can only put £4k in a LISA). The big win with a LISA is the government puts in 25% of whatever you put in. The downside is you cannot withdraw money penalty free unless buying your first house or when you are 55. Withdrawing otherwise means you pay a 25% penalty on withdrawal (and because -25% is bigger than +25% you actually lose money). Again a LISA opened now can take £4k before the tax year ends on the 5th. Then you could put in another £4k from the 6th. One other detail is you cannot use a LISA towards a house within 12 months of opening it.
   
   
3. SIPP - A tax free investment pension. You never pay CGT like an ISA and you can put in however much you want. The government will give you back your income tax on up to £40k (that is the amount put in + the returned income tax caps at £40k) though you'll have to self assess to reclaim tax on higher rates (basically the government will put up your tax free limit for next year, the bonus is only directly 25%). You cannot withdraw until you are 55, penalties on early withdrawal are absurd (60%+). At 55 you can immediately take out 25% tax free. Any further withdrawals are taxable income.
   
   Basically it boils down to SIPP for retirement, LISA for buying a house (and to diversify against potential changes to the SIPP in law), S&S ISA for everything else. The one upside of an ISA over a SIPP is withdrawals from ISAs are never taxable. So using the £4k LISA limit each year makes sense once you are below the upper bands on income tax. As you'll effectively be able to withdraw from your LISA at will from 55.
   
   //edit - List of platform providers and fees below.
   
   http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/

Have a look at the flowchart.

As said by /u/GordonCopestake, your goals should not be a reaction to the money. If you don't have any concrete goals yet, now is a good time to think about them. However, do so pretending you don't have that £20k.

A couple of options to think about:

1. Put the money away as savings in some current account(s) until you have decided what your goals are. It's probably a good thing to start with regardless, as it makes managing the money easier. Look at this website to see how to best manage the £20k. If you want to keep things simple: open a Santander 123 and put it all in there.
   
   
2. If you're looking at property soon, a LISA might be good for you. You should first complete option 1, and then work out how much you want to move to your LISA every year afterwards.
   
   
3. Don't have any plans for the next 5 years (at least)? Maybe investing is an option then. This book is frequently recommended to read up on investing and what to look out for.
   
   Whatever route you take, I believe option 1 is usually a relevant starting point, so I would advise you look into that first. It keeps your newfound savings split from your checking account, and helps you keep a good overview of your money.
   
   Good luck.

Over at /r/ukpersonalfinance we have a small "recommended reading" list that's worth looking at.=: http://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/wiki/faq#wiki_recommended_reading

> Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
>
> This book was written by the father of "value investing", and the mentor of Warren Buffett, who is widely accepted to be the world's most successful investor.
>
> It was originally published in 1948, but Ben Graham updated it periodically over the years, and it stands as true today as it ever has.
>
> Beating the Street - Peter Lynch
>
> Published in 1994, this is arguably showing its age more than Intelligent Investor. Either way, valuable reading from one of the best managers of money in the past few decades.
>
> Naked Trader - Robbie Burns
>
> Subtitled "How anyone can make money trading shares", this is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek account of one financial journalist's attempt to quit his job and make £1,000,000 using a short-to-medium term trading strategy. Not very scientific, but an interesting counterpoint to the previous recommendations.
>
> Smarter Investing - Tim Hale
>
> The ultimate counterpoint to attempting to "beat the markets" - after spending 15 years working in active fund manager, Tim Hale concluded that the best outcomes for most investors in most situations would be a simple portfolio of "passive" investments (that is, funds which attempt to track a market, rather than outperform it). This style is favoured by the likes of Monevator, and many of the subscribers here.
>
> Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letters - Warren Buffett
>
> Not a book, but a series of essays over the years from the world's most successful investor. Makes interesting reading! Notably, the 2014 letter (not published in the above link but published here in abridged form) implies that he now feels most investors would be best served by low-cost trackers.
>
> The Financial Times guide to investing - Glen Arnold
>
> A great starter guide, going from the very basics (why businesses need shareholders) to more in-depth explanations of different types of investment, and step-by-step guides on how to execute trades.
>

No worries. If you're on track with emergency fund, pension and debts then savings are a good way to go either for retirement or other long term goals.

Stocks and Shares ISA invested in low cost index funds is probably the way to go. Take a look at the resources in the sidebar on this and there's plenty of historical discussion on this sub around which funds and platforms for S&S ISAs.

Tim Hale's Book 'Smarter Investing' is also well worth a read if you're thinking of going down that route. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-3rd-edn-Decisions/dp/0273785370/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

Yeah it is, most people don't notice that :)

Personally, I would invest weekly in your situation. I don't see any benefit in waiting that week. The fee to you will be the same whether you do it once a year, once a week or once a fortnight. Do have a look into vanguard product's, they will automatically rebalance them which is handy. Sort of like a fire and forget investment.

But I cannot stress enough - you should read Tim Hale's Smarter Investing. You need to outline your goals and invest appropriately. Eg, if you're saving for a house and plan to buy in 5 years you would be better with a cash LISA...

£16.24 and it'll be the best investment you'll ever make. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0273785370/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=&sr=

Vanguard is actually as accessible as the UK FTSE - I'm not quite sure what you mean? You can go through your broker, Hangreaves Lansdowne and they will have all the funds available.
http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/v/vanguard-lifestrategy-80-equity-accumulation

It's that simple!

Read this

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/stocks-shares-isas

Then this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-3rd-edn-Decisions/dp/0273785370/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=W2T0SMRDJQBVS7DJA12R

If you're still not 100% sure which one to get then opening a vanguard one won't be a bad decision (cheap, simple and diversified)

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/stocks-shares-isa

When you look at bonds I'd suggest you look at them in the form of bond index funds (from Vanguard and other fund providers). Avoid low-grade/"high yield" bonds (unless you really know what you're doing). I'd strongly suggest you read Tim Hale's book.

Edit: The other problem you've got is that bond yields are really low right now, so for relatively small amounts you might do better (even after tax) with cash in high-interest current accounts for the more stable part of your portfolio. But again, you'd have to do your own research - I put everything into S&S ISAs because I have a longer horizon and don't want to lose out on the tax-free allowance when bond yields rise again, even though for now it might give better returns in high-interest current accounts.

For my S&S ISA I put everything into this, you could save a bit of money and get HSBC FTSE All-World Index Fund C as it's essentially the same but with slightly less on-going charges.

I'd say I was on the upper end of risk tolerance though especially for medium term savings.

As for books I think this is the most recommended book on this subreddit for a very good reason.

It should be enough to teach you the power and benefit of investing in passive trackers vs trying to play the market via expensive active fund managers.

Plus there's a few other nuggets of valuable information tucked away in there!

> Do you have any recommendations for providers (beyond the list you gave)?

I use TD Direct Investing as my broker for both a non-ISA shares account, and an ISA account which is mostly shares rather than funds. I also use Sippdeal (AJ Bell) for my SIPP which does the same sort of thing (except I happen to be using their pension wrapper rather than an ISA wrapper) with a different fee structure.

If I was starting out today with an ISA I might use Charles Stanley Direct who have a reasonable price for holding a mixture of funds and shares, until you have about £20k, when some other options might be cheaper (their annual fee is a (low) percentage of your total assets but obviously costs more the more you have). Look for percentage fees if you only have (relatively) few assets and fixed fees if you have lots of assets.

If all I was doing was buying shares and not funds, and I only wanted UK shares (like RM etc), the cheapest option in or outside an ISA wrapper is probably x-o.co.uk, an execution-only no frills broker. But as a newbie you should not be buying shares in individual companies that you really know relatively nothing about (see comment below).

There is a decent comparison of costs of different brokers at http://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ ; Monevator is a good site overall and although it caters a bit more to the 'passive' investor rather than someone who trades shares or buys actively managed funds, due to the personal philosophy of those that run the site, the people writing there are pretty smart. Lots to keep you reading.

>I absolutely wouldn't sell then rebuy Royal Mail to move them into an ISA, I agree. Where do you think the Royal Mail stock is going to settle?

Exactly, if you had £1000 cash you would not buy RM shares now they have just spiked up 33+%. This tells you that if you have £1000 of RM shares you should not keep them. Where it settles is not relevant, you have just got gifted a free chunk of cash and that same day-one free gain is no longer available. If you want to gamble on it going up or down from here, you can, but you don't know what the odds are. So it is a game that mathematically you shouldn't bother playing. Sell the shares.

>Going forward I think I'd like to have about a 70/30 split between funds and shares picked myself (to practice investing, or something like that).

>Is this the right approach? I am trying to get into investing, and intend to put more money into it over the next few years. In your opinion, should I be focusing on funds and not holding some individual stocks myself?

Yes to the focusing on funds. A fund is a way of deploying £1000 into 100 companies across multiple geographic markets without getting out of bed and buying £10 worth of each of the 100 companies and paying £10 broker fees to buy each of them and £10 to later sell each of them, requiring each company to triple in value for you to even break even. Why would you want to access multiple companies? Diversification - you don't know which company will perform well or go bust. Why would you want to access multiple markets (USA, UK, Korea, China, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Brazil)? Diversification, you don't know which country will perfom well or badly compared to your own.

There are different choices in funds with different exposures to different types of companies around the world. There are different strategies - if you buy a UK index fund you effectively put most of your cash in the largest UK companies so that when it says on the news that 'the FTSE 100 went up by 4% last month', your portfolio also went up by 4% because you have 70 quid of your thousand quid in each of HSBC and Royal Dutch Shell oil, and 2 quid in each of William Hill and Tate & Lyle, so your proportions mirror the index and overall your portfolio will move like 'the market'. Whether it is sensible to have over 30x the exposure to oil companies like Shell and BP than you have to sugar and milk companies like Tate or Dairy Crest, is another question entirely. But it is one option. Otherwise you can have an investment trust or a more 'actively managed' fund, where the management fees are higher but someone is making decisions to pursue a particular strategy to try to beat the market.

Reddit loves passive investing using indexes because it is easy and for Americans it can be tax efficient compared to active managers buying and selling underlying companies all the time. On the main /r/PersonalFinance forum they would tell you to just buy Vanguard index funds (extremely low fees, basic index tracking). Vanguard have a product called 'Lifestrategy' funds which you can get in the UK through the brokers I mentioned above. It is one fund which is a mix of different international indexes so you are not just following UK (your local index) or US (the biggest international one, half the investible world). Blackrock do a similar fund family called 'Consensus'.

The best thing you can do starting out with 3k in your ISA and wanting to get into investing, is spend a couple of percent of it on some books. Sure, best way to learn is by mistakes so you could buy some individual stocks. If they go up you will think it is easy and will learn nothing. If they go down it is an expensive lesson. So go with books.

Standard book recommendation for a UK newbie is Tim Hale's Smarter Investing ;new edition out this month, old edition now half price on Kindle.

I have that book, he is a huge fan of index investing / passive investing which as mentioned is only one way of doing it. But it's standard issue for a new investor.

A more balanced approach might be in Andy Bell's new book DIY investor, he owns AJBell which runs Sippdeal, Money AM, Shares mag, and diyinvestor.co.uk. Preview here . I haven't read it but the guy seems smart enough and the preview looks like what you want (i saw a promo link because as mentioned, I use SIPPdeal as one of my brokers/platforms). If you can sell your RM shares at a nice price, you might have enough for a couple of books and £250 free profit.

Hope that helps get you started, enjoy. Just don't count on next £250 being as easy as the last ;-)

[Obligatory "Edit: Thanks for the gold !!!1!!one!!!" ]

> Do you reckon in my case, I should continue to maximise the H2B then transfer at year end to my LISA, or open a S&S ISA now, and open a LISA next tax year?

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend reading the MSE guide for LISA and H2B ISA's; MSE Lifetime ISA Guide

Short Answer; Keep contributing to your H2B ISA, then transfer it across to a S/S LISA if you're comfortable with that before April 2018 to maximise your allowance and bonus you'll get.

Long Answer; speaking from my own experience and plans with my H2B and LISA, I currently have been contributing to a H2B since they were originally offered. I will continue to contribute to my H2B till early 2018 (around Feb) then I will transfer it to the S/S LISA I opened with Hargreaves for £100 back in June - The reason for opening it with just £100 is that your LISA must be open for 12 months before you can withdraw from it to buy a house. While we aren't actively looking right now for a house (and if seems like you aren't looking right now either) anything could happen.

The reason I've kept my money with the H2B and not moved it all over to the LISA already is that (and ignore that it's a S/S LISA) the interest I'm getting in the H2B is too good to miss up right now.

After my January 2018 payment into my H2B I'll have contributed £2,000 into it for this tax year. I'll transfer it to my LISA, which I have already started with £100 this tax year, allowing me to contribute the final amount of £1,900 as a lump sum. That means by April 2018 I'll have maximised my LISA allowance of £4,000. I'll also have transferred across my previous H2B contributions of around £4,200.

The 25% bonus is then paid on the whole lot after the end of the 17/18 Tax year, whereas had the cash been left in the H2B I would have to wait till I exchange on the house to see any of that bonus.

It's important to note that anything transferred from H2B to LISA after the end of this tax year will not benefit from the immediate bonus.

Your other points about moving from the Premium Bonds to a S/S ISA. I feel you'd be best served by spending some time reading up on funds available to you and what your goals are. Tim Hale's Smarting Investing is probably the best £15 you'll spend to give you an insight to the world of Stocks and Shares and should be your first port of call. Time Hale - Smarter Investing

Repeating /u/jrharte:
>Read this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/

>Follow this: https://i.imgur.com/ezGWhE3.png

One of the lessons in the book is that the aim of the game in investing is not to gain the most tokens but to ensure you loose the fewest. This means minimising your costs, especially when you're at the beginning of your investing journey. The miracle of compound interest means that every £1 you save now will be worth many more £ in 10-20 years.

Another element to consider is how good are you at picking winners? Do you think you can pick shares which will consistently beat the market? How about funds? Can you pick the best fund manager who puts together a market beating basket of investments year after year after year?

I'd wager that you'd be honest with yourself and say probably not. So what are the chances of you picking a market beating financial advisor?

1. Yes - An ISA allows £20k tax free.
   
   
2. There are a lot out there. What you need to check for is how much does Natwest charge per transaction. i.e. to buy x number of shares how much does it cost. This kind of goes with your point 4. If you have £100 to invest, but it costs you £10 to buy and then £10 to sell you really only have £80 to actually buy the shares. Even if you bought £90 of shares, you would have to make 10% + just to get you back to £100, but then lose £10 when you sell them. So really you would need a 20% + profit just to break even after transactions !! If you manage to pick a share which is 20% + profit while your starting out - your very lucky :)
   
   
   Bottom line to buy shares and make it worthwhile you probably need £400+ - unless your happy to use the £100 just to test the waters and try things out. £400 would still cost £10 to buy and £10 to sell, but you would only need 5% profit to break even rather than 20%
   
   
   
   
3. Instead of buying shares which come with a £10+ transaction fee (buy and then sell) - take a look at funds. Funds are generally long term 10, 15, 20 years - but you pay a small yearly % fee instead of a one off payment like shares.
   
   
   
4. Dont buy a share based on its price - you need to research the company as you can buy partial shares.
   
   
   If your really really interested in shares over funds then read :
   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naked-Trader-Anyone-Trading-Shares/dp/0857194135/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
   
   
   If you happy to look longer term, then read about funds / passive invetments - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/
   
   
   Both these books are regularly recommended across this sub.
   
   

I would agree with the other posters that for an 18 year+ timescale, you should be looking at an equity based investment rather than cash. You should concentrate on minimising the fees involved in whatever product you choose - so some kind of passive index tracker is ideal.

My personal recommendation would be the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds :

http://monevator.com/using-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds-life/

You next need to decide what wrapper/platform you're going to use to invest in the fund. You could do this with a junior ISA in your childs name, but I believe this means that it will be under their control from the moment they turn 18. What I've chosen to do for my kids is invest the money I'm saving for them in my own ISA so that I can have some control over when and for what purpose the money is used for (I seem to recall I wasn't at my decision making best at 18....)

Since you say you don't have much experience with investing generally, can I recommend picking up the following book which I think gives a really good overview of how to invest cheaply and effectively :

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370?ie=UTF8&qid=1469529696&ref_=la_B001HCV9SM_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

(surprised by how expensive it seems to be actually - maybe try shopping around? Really worthwhile book though I promise..) There's also a lot of good information on the web - I'd recommend the monevator blog i linked to above as a good starting point.

I have no connection to either the monevator blog or Tim Hale - but I've found them both very useful personally.

I don't think active investing tends to get better returns than passive so I just invest as broadly as possible in the market. Much cheaper. I'm not picking stocks at all.

From

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/wiki/recommendedreading

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394958561

I would recommend Tim Hale’s Smarter Investing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0273785370/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile) so that you can get an idea of what asset allocation is most appropriate to your needs and what you would like your investment to do for you. I know everyone preaches to read that book but, honestly, it is the best £20 you will ever spend.

As mentioned above, past performance means absolutely nothing when looking at what may happen in the future.

Just to help you with your research as your actual question has been answered, what you're describing is called "Financial Independence", often combined with "Early Retirement" if your income grows significantly.

The relevant subs are /r/financialindependence/ (US and high-earners heavy) and /r/FIREUK/ (which has links to UK-based blogs like monevator.com). If you haven't already, you'll be recommended to read this from our wiki:

> Smarter Investing - Tim Hale
>
> The ultimate counterpoint to attempting to "beat the markets" - after spending 15 years working in active fund manager, Tim Hale concluded that the best outcomes for most investors in most situations would be a simple portfolio of "passive" investments (that is, funds which attempt to track a market, rather than outperform it). This style is favoured by the likes of Monevator, and many of the subscribers here.

> Just put whatever money into the FTSE 250 tracker ISA with the lowest fees you can find. A lot of High Street Banks will offer these.

Tracking just the FTSE 250 is a bit risky to be honest. It's way to exposed to the UK which is definitely putting all your eggs in one basket. Particularly if you live here, get paid in pounds, are invested in our property market etc. You want something that's a bit closer to representing the world market. As someone else said Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 or 80 would be good.

My main recommendation would be to read this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478026876&sr=8-1&keywords=smarter+investing

Essentially it comes down to how long before you might want to spend it.

If it's sometime in the next five years, then keep it in cash, because the stock market might dip and there might be less there than when you started with.

Beyond a five year horizon, the chance that the stock market has made you money becomes greater. Check out this graph for historical returns (although these don't guarantee the future will be the same). Furthermore if you diversify your portfolio, the risk of adverse real world events causing a fall in your investments is reduced. As such the standard advice is to find a low cost globally diversified passive fund or funds, the classic example of which are Vanguard's Lifestrategy funds.

The most important thing is to understand what you're getting in to, so the best advice is to do some reading. Monevator is a fantastic and accessible site, and Tim Hale's Smarter Investing book is often recommended too.

This is the most recent edition as far as I know - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-3rd-edn-Decisions/dp/0273785370

Tim Hale : Smarter Investing

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0273785370/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521540536&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tim+hale+smarter+investing&dpPl=1&dpID=51gWpJSooGL&ref=plSrch

Read Tim Hale's book Smarter Investing. You don't need to play the markets or analyse companies or anything like that. It is super simple.

Tl;dr: Step 1: buy index funds. Step 2: wait.

Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results (Financial Times Series) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0273785370/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_SmHTCbRPA8QA8 is the one most people advise but I found it a bit dry and repetitive. Basically the message is buy index funds.

/r/UKpersonalfinance has some interesting resources

I'd recommend Tim Hales Smarter Investing http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Financial/dp/0273785370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394958561 and Lars Kroijer Investing Demystified https://www.amazon.co.uk/Investing-Demystified-investment-portfolio-Financial/dp/1292156120/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 to get you started

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-3rd-edn-Decisions/dp/0273785370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504477816&sr=8-1&keywords=smart+investing

This one?

Why shouldn’t they get rich? They’re providing an excellent service.

> Analysis paralysis is a thing

> No it’s not

> Proceeds to provide a book the majority of people will not understand, leaving them utterly confused

I’m sure the book is actually excellent. I’m also sure I won’t understand it.

In any case, I’ll leave you to your blogs, books, models, predictions, etc.

I’m going to listen to Warren Buffet.


Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results (Financial Times Series) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0273785370/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_IyeWDbS7N2SD7

A book for those who actually want to move forward.

> virtually know nothing

Ok, sorry I thought you were further along than you first appeared.

Start with Tim Hale's Smarter Investing. Give it a couple of reads, ignore the stuff about Bonds if it flies over your head.

Heed Lars Krojer, at least for now.

Pop what you can in high interest current accounts while you can. Also go through Monevator and Pensioncraft as they're both good.

That sounds like a lot to wade through, but you don't need to do this all at once. If you only do one thing, Smarter Investing's it.

You mentioned not liking the LISA because of locking up your funds. Have a think about what you want in terms of accessible long term investments, and how much that should be 5 and 10 years from now. Look to build to that amount.

You can have both an S&S LISA and S&S ISA and contribute to both at the same time, so you can get the 25% and lock away some of the investment, but also keep an amount accessible based on your needs.

If you're going the Vanguard route, take a look at Pensioncraft's vids on two fund and single fund portfolios, in particular the difference between Target Retirement (which is best suited to a LISA) and the Lifestrategy and Global funds. Once you understand the funds and the differences, you'll be better placed to pick them. Feel free to come back here when you're ready to make the choice.

Just remember, if you're getting 3-5% in a bank account while you learn all this, you're not really losing any pounds. There's no harm waiting a little, or keeping it simple for now and switching say, 5 years later.

Smarter investing by Tim Hale is the one I would recommend.