Everywhere I look online, one of the keys to wealth is investing. There’s no other way around it; you need to invest to build wealth and reach your goals.
But I have a confession: investing scares me.
It scares me immensely! I have done lots of reading around investing, looked at various different strategies for investing and researched various companies in relation to investing. However, it still seems a bit of a scary world and one which I’m not sure I’m ready to be in just yet.
I’m scared I’ll lose my money. Surely, this is one of everyone’s worries when investing? I’m worried that I’ll dive in there and lose it all. We’re not at the stage in life where we can wave goodbye to our hard earned money, and I’m worried that I’ll jump in with my own strategy and just get it plain wrong. Then, all of our money will go and that’ll be that.
I’m scared I’ll choose the wrong platform. When looking at the various platforms to use to invest, trying to work out which one is best is also confusing. Some of the platforms available in the UK seem to charge lots of different fees, fees for buying shares, fees for managing funds, fees for just having an account – the list seems very long! When you factor in all of those costs, it’s hard to find one where your money would be best. Has anyone got any tips for this?
I don’t understand how you pick funds…! I’ve got a list of individual shares/companies that I would like to invest in, but then lots of places online warn you against individual shares as it’s too risky and the fees involved are huge. So, the other alternative I think are funds, but I have absolutely no idea where to start when picking funds. Where do you start?! There are ones that different companies recommend, but are they any good? I just don’t know how to decide.
Do I open a S&S ISA or not? For those who don’t know what a NISA is, it’s a tax-free savings/investing account with a £15,000 limit per year on it. So, you can invest/save £15,000 in one tax year, and no more. Then the next year you can invest/save a further £15,000 and so on. But, the fees mentioned above still apply, regardless of what type of account you get.
Can you see my dilemma? I want to invest, I really do, but I have no idea where to start. There is one post online that says to just go for it and see what happens. But, I’m not that kind of person. I need to know what I’m getting into before I take the plunge. I need to understand the various aspects about it before I can press the button and say “Okay”.
So, I’m stuck! I don’t really know where to go from here. I’ll carry on my reading and researching, but I’m not sure how that will help me in the long run. Perhaps I need to speak to a financial advisor? Decisions!
Can you help? Anyone in the UK help me with platforms? I’d love to hear from you!
P.S do you have twitter? Follow me here!
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Don’t be scared by it! I felt the exact same way half a year ago, but I decided to just try my hand at it with small amounts… Now I can’t even remember why I was scared!
If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend buying funds or ETFs. In the UK you have access to a lot of nice Vanguard and iShares funds, so be sure to check those out.
Not too long ago I wrote a post on my thought process when deciding on exchange-traded funds, maybe you can check that out? It’s called “My ETF Strategy and Portfolio”.
Still, my best advice would be to just try it out with a small sum of money. That’s the best way to learn the practical side. You’ve got the theory down already since you’ve read a couple of books and articles, so just go out there and try and apply that knowledge.
Good luck,
NMW
Thanks for your reply 🙂 I know I just need to go for it, but there’s a little voice in my head going “but what if..” which is stopping me at the moment. I’ll check out your article 🙂
Saw your tweet on this. You’re not alone for sure. A lot of people are in the same boat. Hence why not a ton invest properly. Two tips that a lot of people don’t think a lot on: Investing is for the LONG term. You’re not a day trader (I hope). Think long term (ala retirement).
Secondly, research and read. Take time to understand funds, fees, etc. Reach out to different forums and read up. Don’t be afraid to ask friends that are in the investment/wealth management world. Oh, and be leery of commission only financial advisors. They typically do not have your best interests at heart since they are commission driven. You need to find someone with a heart of a teacher.
Go and invest wisely! 🙂
~Allen
Thanks for stopping by! I do need to do some more research and reading around various things; I need to find more forums! 🙂
No problem, do feel free to contact me. Check out the monevator site, they have a page about comparisons between different brokers, although it doesn’t give the answers to every question. There is also morningstar.co.UK which I think had a comparison too
When I think about investing, one thing that came into my mind is “what if”, what if I invested a wrong one? What if I lose all my hard earned money? But after reading some blogs that talks about investing, you should make sure that you know what you are doing and you also have a clear goal.
I was scared of investing too, but then I learned that it’s really not that scary. Investing in individual stocks is scary so try to see if you can invest in mutual funds or ETFs, preferable index funds. They’re just a collection of hundreds of companies and it means instant diversification so if one company goes under, your overall investment won’t be affected as much. It also means that if one company goes up a lot, your overall investment won’t increase as much.
That’s true; I think to begin with I should invest in funds so that the risk is lower 🙂
Hello, fellow Brit here. I have two ideas for you to try, see which one you feel most comfortable with. I’m not an advisor though, so please be aware this is just my own knowledge built up over the years.
1. Check out iii.co.UK to open your S&S NISA with. It costs £20 per quarter. But that £20 gives you £20 worth of trade fees. If you trade live, it costs £10 or £7 through some special offer on a mobile device. If you don’t care about trading live, you can do what I do and buy your favourite shares or funds for £1.50 on one date a month. You set it in advance to tell it what shares you want. Of course, that £1.50 comes out of the £20, yay!
2. Keep it simple and buy a vanguard life strategy fund. You can choose what proportion of risk you want e.g. 40% bonds 60% shares. It is basically a fund of funds with the bonds being in things like ultra safe UK government bonds as well as other bonds. The shares portion is globally diversified and all in index trackers, well the whole thing is I suppose.
You can buy the life strategy fund also through iii at £1.50 per month if u like.
I don’t work for iii but I’ve been really happy with their service.
A third option which is sort of in between And only if you have a lump sum, is to look at this
http://monevator.com/guaranteed-equity-bond/
I hope this helps, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions
What a long reply! Thanks for taking the time to respond 🙂 I shall look at iii – I have looked at their website before. I’ll do some more reading and then hopefully make my decision 🙂
I totally understand what you mean about being scared about investing. I’m terrified! I know I need to learn about it, but my brain just can’t process it 🙂 It’s on my to-do list, though…
If you’re scared about investing then perhaps you haven’t read enough investment books. I’d pick up a few books and gain a little bit more knowledge.
Passive investing with index ETFs is a great way to get your feet wet. With index ETFs you’re buying the entire stock market so you’re not picking the stocks on your own.
Thank you for stopping by – any books you’d suggest? I do think that I need to do some more research before I jump in.
the little book of common sense investing
the little book of value investing
I think someone else mentioned this but small sums of money is the best to get started on individual stocks. Also go for dividend stocks as those are typically a buy and hold strategy so you don’t need to stress over the price as much. Tons of good dividend blogs out there to help you with any questions or just for learning/reading.
Thanks for stopping by – I’m continuing my research and hoping to take the plunge into investing soon 🙂
Take it slow and only invest what you makes you comfortable. Remember that nothing ventured-nothing gained.
Keep cranking,
Robert the DividendDreamer
This is very true! I’m doing more research at the moment but am closer to taking that first step 🙂