[Closed] Investment ISA - What to invest in?

OK I am no expert but at one point I thought I would invest in a few shares, strike the big time and retire. Oh how niave I was 🙂

My savings plan is now this. I have a set amount in a Stocks and Shares Isa with Hargreaves Lansdown. This is invested in a passive tracker of the top 100 global companies. Can't mind the exact Index tracker name but basically your money is invested in them. As they grow so does your pot. But what goes up can also come down. But for a bit of learning check out passive investing and Index tracker funds.

I also have a some more invested in 3 sets of shares which have decent dividends which are then reinvested in these companies. This is a long term approach.

I'll either do ok or be living under a bridge at some point.

Fundsmith and Vanguard are a couple of funds to look at. Not particularly exciting but have made steady gains. You can buy both directly or through a investment company so worth looking at the fees. As a self employed person a S&S ISA is a good middle ground between cash and pension. Ideally you need a bit of all three but it's a good place to start.

i got some good advice from members of the forum here, then later read this 'RESET' book from amazon which includes a bit of an idiot guide into investing, which platforms to use, how to do it, explains pitfalls and fees, gives a few options. sounds like the sort of info youre after and its only about £3 for kindle.
funnily enough the funds and platforms it recommends were almost the same as the advice i got from here anyway.

I also started a S&S isa recently. Ended up with Vanguard as their fees are the lowest (0.14% irrc), but you can only choose their funds. Hargreaves Lansdown for example has access to a wider range of investments but the fees are quite a lot higher.

FWIW I have spread my pot amongst the Vanguard Lifestrategy 60%, 80% and 100% equity options for now - idea being the higher equity/lower bond based ones are slightly higher risk/reward,a nd vice versa. All are well down at the moment of course but I'm not too worried as they're meant to be a long term view.

I would go for Vanguard funds. The fees are significantly lower. If you look at the effect of a difference of 1% in fees, compounded over how ever many years you might hold the fund for, it becomes significant. There is a choice of funds, so you can choose a tracker (invested in all the shares in, for example, ftse 100, and various different geographical markets. If you want to reduce risk, as your total grows you can include a fund based on bonds rather than shares. Bond prices generally go up when share prices go down (I'm not going to explain it here!)

Split the money 4 or 5 ways between low cost trackers eg

30% US Equities
25% UK Equities
25% European Equities
10% Japan Equities

And 10% slightly higher risk eg

10% China Equities / High tech fund eg Scottish Mortgage Trust

I'm not quite clear if you have savings (if no savings account) but if not, might first be prudent to sort out an emergency fund - 3-8 months' cash. Then if everything goes titsup at once you're not screwed (imagine if you had put all your money in the stock market last November and needed to get your hands on it now!).

While you're building that up, have a few "shadow" portfolios (i.e. pretend to buy XYZ and see how well you would have done) - that can be educational in the best and worst ways.

Then when you get investing you'll have had a little more of a runup.

Books:
Alvin Hall's "Your money or your life" and Tim Gayle's "Smarter Investing" helped me get my head round things a bit (risk/reward, asset mix). The latter has sample portfolios which is handy.

Website - moneyvator
Citywide forums & moneysavingexpert have some interesting threads - see what other people are doing and why.

OK I am no expert but at one point I thought I would invest in a few shares, strike the big time and retire. Oh how niave I was

I'm still in stage 1 of this approach. Doing ok so far, but conscious of how easily you can lose it all again. I put some money from my pointless cash ISA into a Shares ISA at the end of March and topped it up a bit in April. Bought 5 or so key FTSE 100s at various points and played higher lower for the last month. I've made around 20% profit in the first month (yes, I know it's not profit till you close all your positions but you know what I mean)

I screwed up a few things well and good... sold £3k of BP at its low point last week when they announced the lates oil issue. I assumed they would drop further, but they didn't. They marched on up to today's ridiculous high. Bought Jet2 and BA then dumped them on the up, then bought again. Thought I did well selling Jet2 at 630 yesterday, made a neat little profit of £200 or so. But then the ****ers went up to 680 or so today . Quite amusing.

I'm hoping to catch [near enough to ] the next drop to get back into BP especially. I'm sure I'll get burned, but the fact is it's bloody addictive.

I should probably stick it in a fund like the posters above said.....

Probably will stick the remains in there after I get stung 🙂

I should probably stick it in a fund like the posters above said…..

It's a lot easier. Obviously weird times but fundsmith is up more than your 20% over the last month for zero effort. Big drop just before though for balance so it's only really recovering rather than real gains but if you are just counting that month it looks good.

You are mad to invest in anything (other than a bit of cash for a rainy day) if you haven’t paid the maximum you can into a pension this year. To put £1 into you pension it only costs £0.80 as you get tax relief on it. Once you have made the maximum contributions you can THEN think of stocks and shares ISA.

You are mad to invest in anything (other than a bit of cash for a rainy day) if you haven’t paid the maximum you can into a pension this year. To put £1 into you pension it only costs £0.80 as you get tax relief on it. Once you have made the maximum contributions you can THEN think of stocks and shares ISA.`

It's really not that simple. Surely this pandemic has shown that a bit of rainy day money that you can potentially access might be useful. This goes double for the self employed. Don't also forget that while the S&S ISA is bought with taxed income the pension is taxed on the way out. Not usually to same amount but it reduces the benefit. Personally I'd say you want some cash savings, some S&S ISA and some pension. How you split that depends on your age and personal circumstances.

VWRL

Exactly what neilv said. Pension first for saving if possible as it is effectively free money (income tax savings)
The downside is it is locked up until 55

1 clear debt
2 savings for any unexpected issues
3 saving for anything you may want to spend before 55
4 rest in a pension.

You can invest in a pension in many different ways

Sort out your pension first. it's effectively free

Free money I mean to say about pension

Savings for a rainy day, I'm presuming you want in a stable investment so probably stick with cash, bonds possibly safer funds.

Fwiw I invested in a few funds (supposed similar levels of risk) a few years ago with HL. Some did average, one did spectacularly well, one did nothing. The key message: spread your risk.
I've just invested in a few index trackers (UK and international) to take advantage of the market hopefully having been somewhere near the bottom.

and if you've done 1-4 and in receipt of pension?

And also as a ps, don't feel limited by what your employer will match your invest to, into a pension on your behalf via payroll. They may not match is you want to make higher contributions, but it is still worth it for the tax savings. You can also make a one-off contribution from your own account rather than payroll for similar savings (though missing out on ni benefit)

Dunno what I'd do if in receipt of a pension. I'm not there yet. It depends on how much income tax you are paying I suppose. I guess theoretically you could both pay into and withdraw from a pensio at the same time (or buy an annuity or something) but I don't know the detail.

There are pretty strict restrictions on contributing to a pension whilst also in receipt of one. If you are in receipt of a pension the question that I would ask is do you need to save or invest at all?

1 clear debt
2 savings for any unexpected issues
3 saving for anything you may want to spend before 55
4 rest in a pension.

Sort out your pension first. it’s effectively free

Why is it number four on your list then 🙂

I think your list is spot on, though (not counting mortgage as debt). By all means put it in a pension but do the others 3 first

Personally,i don't like personal pensions.Yes,the Government adds to it but potentially gains more back in tax if the fund grows.If the poster is looking for a largish lump sum down the line then a pension won't do that.
Follow the old saying , "its not timing the market its time in the market ".
You need to decide just how much risk you are prepared to accept and how active you want to be.
Do you want to be regularly checking the performance and switching funds,or just leave it and hope the fund managers do their job in the long term.
I have had better results from the specialist invest companies than ones that do pet,house,car insurance,etc.Banks have been particularly poor with a limited range of investments spewed out of the computer depending on your criteria.
Some years ago i was talking to a man who had his own investment company for the seriously wealthy.A client asked him how he could make him a million and his reply was " give me 2 million to start with ".

May be worth looking at more ethical alternatives (if you're concerned about such things) - Legal and General's 'World Future..' funds or Fundsmith Sustainable Equities for example? Or go for iShare's FTSE100 tracker ISFD (Irish, so avoids stamp duty).

A client asked him how he could make him a million and his reply was ” give me 2 million to start with

50% return then - nice.

Some years ago i was talking to a man who had his own investment company for the seriously wealthy.A client asked him how he could make him a million and his reply was ” give me 2 million to start with “.

I think he needs to work on his sales pitch.

Will, how relevant is all of this advice for someone based in Norway (the OP) ? Does it make difference?   I'm over the border in Sweden and currently have no debt, but just stick money in a savings account every month, no real idea what to do with it. it's  a rainy day fund, some of which i will be spending at the OP's business at some point in the near future!

I suppose the only real difference will be the tax. Is there an ISA equivalent? How do pensions work there? The actual principles will be the same. The investments will be in funds or shares for global companies, and unless the tax is really different you should get a much better return than cash. You could invest your rainy day fund in the OP's business, then get a healthy discount 🙂

The downside is it is locked up until 55

Only of you're old, the access age is rising with the pension age, so will be going up to 57 soon, I just scrape in under the old 55 in the current plans.

Pensions aren't risk free, all the rules on access to them / taxation can be changed at zero notice by the government, so whilst they are quite generous now, if a post CV-19 cash strapped government is looking to save some money, you could quite easily see the tax rules changing e.g. we've had dividends go from tax free to taxed, lifetime allowance added in, the 55 thing is increasing and once your money is in them, you can't take it out if they change the rules...

I suppose the only real difference will be the tax. Is there an ISA equivalent? How do pensions work there?

The principal is you should only be taxed once.

So with pension you pay in from your gross income (before tax) and pay tax once when you take money out (although currently you can take up to 25%/£250k tax free). NB It's not quite that simple as dividends are taxed within a pension, so you get double taxed on them as they tax you again when you take the money out.

With ISAs you pay from your net income (ie after tax), but you take out tax free, so any growth is untaxed.

How are dividends taxed within a pension?

Op: have a look at a Lisa. More locked in, but if you want to get the money back for buying a house or retirement you get a 25% bonus, making it about as tax efficient as a pension for most folks.

What is the max contribution to your pension per age group?

Thanks for all the info.

Yes I live in Norway, hence why a British pension doesn't make sense just now.. I don't think.

I don't yet understand pensions here very well, only just getting to grips with setting up the business, doing our accounting and how to pay ourselves (we have a ltd company). Once we're actually making some money I'll be setting up a pension here properly.

I have some money in the UK and thought I would put that into a S&S ISA instead of transferring it here, plus we might move back to the UK one day...

Basically this all started because I don't have a pension but thought I should maybe have one. But then being sort of between 2 countries I don't really know where to start with pensions so the S and S ISA seemed like a good compromise for now. Plus the stock market seems to be about as low as it can be at the moment so seems like a good time to invest in it.

What am I supposed to do if I don't know how long i'll live in Norway for? Or which country I'll be in when I'm old?

What is the max contribution to your pension per age group?

For anyone posting here there is almost certainly not an age-related cap on what you can pay in. There is an Earnings-related cap and a lifetime contribution cap. Most people can (together with their employer) pay up to £40k per year. If you earn more than a certain amount, that comes down.

At some annual income levels, this results in 62% tax saving on pension contributions! At others, it acts as a massive marginal tax penalty.

You can only open an ISA if you are a UK resident.

I still have a bank account and address in the UK and spend several months of the year there.

Pictet Robotics has been good to me.

I'd (and have) invest in two things:

1) Global equity tracker with low fees - trying to beat the market is a mugs game
2) Amazon - my only exception to 1) - it's a global unregulated monopoly.

Don't consider Amazon unless you're in for the (very) long term; see recent comments by Bezos.
Personally, I woudn't invest in them unless and until they become 'good corporate citizens' - tax and their treatment of employees are major concerns for me.

For anyone posting here there is almost certainly not an age-related cap on what you can pay in. There is an Earnings-related cap and a lifetime contribution cap. Most people can (together with their employer) pay up to £40k per year. If you earn more than a certain amount, that comes down.

just to add, the total fund is limited to just over £1m, which sounds like a lot, but it works out at as little as £17k/year if you retired at 55 and wanted to track RPI

How close an eye do you have to keep on Funds? Are they managed well for the first few years and then de-prioritised as new funds come to market or do you pick one and leave it for 10yrs?

What am I supposed to do if I don’t know how long i’ll live in Norway for? Or which country I’ll be in when I’m old?

Doing something, even if it causes some difficulties later, will almost certainly be better than doing nothing. Now is a great time to invest in the stock market provided of course you have the available funds and can afford to lock it away for a few years.

In terms of investments there is no significant difference between a S&S ISA and a Pension. You can invest in basically the same things so the returns aren't any different. It's only the tax rules that are different. ISAs are taxed on the way in, Pensions are taxed on the way out. Other than that they are basically the same.

Don’t consider Amazon unless you’re in for the (very) long term; see recent comments by Bezos.

We'll see.... all he's said is he'll spend one quarters profits on internal investment / covid costs - something they've done consistently for years anyway. Every market they've entered they decimated - and in several are an unregulated monopoly (online sales, cloud compute). Which is a licence to print money.

If you're looking at this long term/early retirement then absolutely and totally a Vanguard Target Retirement fund taken up through them.

Read about Warren Buffet's million dollar bet vs active fund managers here

A well diversified equities heavy and low cost passive index fund will outperform the active market every time long term.

Great decision to invest by the way.

Mr Money Mustache's website is a good place to start.

Loads of great books such as The Simple Path to Wealth or Millionaire Expat to explain things. Fortunately, being in the UK, ISAs allow you to invest tax free like an expat. I've got mine stuffed in Luxembourg as I live internationally.

Unfortunately, there's some terrible advice in this thread. Don't go for individual companies, don't go for active funds, etc.

Probably a bit like reading advice on mountain bike purchasing on the Bogleheads forum!

Non-stealth edit.

Should have said, some great advice as well! Definitely some to avoid, however...

Good luck!

AWS by no means has a monopoly on cloud compute. Gcloud and azure are right there in terms of cost and features

Definition of a monopoly is more than 25% market share. Aws has 33%, next nearest is 18%.

@Ewan - they also need to be able to dictate the pricing within the market to have a monopoly. It's more of a oligopoly at the moment with GCP and Azure.

Some really helpful advice as always.

On the side note of whether Amazon is worth the risk. Amazon has been buying market share for online sales but it’s not clear where it actually generates profit as it’s reporting is so opaque. It seems that it’s making money in its cloud division but using that to buy sales elsewhere.

A well diversified equities heavy and low cost passive index fund will outperform the active market every time long term.

Thats not true (also define "long term")

Fan of passive low cost investments (Vanguard especially) but there are managed funds that have outperformed them. Difficult to find one as the majority are poor but a small number do.

As a non uk resident you may pay voluntarily uk ni to accrue uk qualifying years. It's been discussed on here a few times but I think it's a good investment. Once the years are paid its a done deal, ie, you cannot access till retirement and the govt may change the rules.

Really no-one knows over the long term what will perform, so get a mixed bag of investments and spread the risk.

Certainly this year has taught me the value of defined benefits, I know some people who cashed them in. Again no-one knows what's going to happen.

Thats not true (also define “long term”)

Fan of passive low cost investments (Vanguard especially) but there are managed funds that have outperformed them. Difficult to find one as the majority are poor but a small number do.

You've fallen for the con I'm afraid. You're right in one way, a small number of active funds outperform the market each year. After fees it's about 20%.

So let's say these magic fund managers outperforms the market. Well done them. Unfortunately, the next year the 20% thing success happens again leaving 4% of funds up. The next year? Not looking good but a small amount are up. The magic active funds you hear about are the handful out of thousands, yes thousands, that have rolled six on the dice a few times. It's luck.

This is the reason Warren Buffet took on the hedge funds, in the bet I linked to, over a 10 year period. He wiped the floor with them and he knew it would happen.

Index funds are a no brainer winner long term term but advertising works and so active funds live on. Newspapers report them with glee because they pay for advertising and all feed the same monster.

So, what do I call long term?

20+ years.

The reason I invest in an index tracker?.

I know I'm stupid. I don't have any training in equities analysis, I don't have have insider information, and I know there are financial experts out there smarter than me. I accept this. And so... I don't pay the fee's for financial advice (through a fund manager or advisor) as it pays for their porsche not my retirement. After you take this middle man out you are simple, efficient and effective.

Cheers for the info Hugo, good to read the Buffet article. I have actually already read a bit on MMM and would say that I live a fairly MMM lifestyle. Except for the savings part, but that's mainly because I've never actually owned or made much money to save yet as we started our own business two years ago. Otherwise I don't spend money on unnecessary things, eat cheaply, have a cheap car, use offers and sign-ups for discounts etc and just generally try to be pretty frugal.

This year and next should see us actually starting to make money though and have an income, hence the decision to start saving!

I also use the Moneysavingexpert site a lot, almost my bible (if any of you don't then I would definitely give it a go). After reading up on various savings options on there I had already opened an account with Fidelity (via Cavendish so fees are .25%) and invested in a couple of their top 50 suggestions with £100 before starting this thread. I chose that one as it had the lowest fee but most options to invest in whereas Vanguard you could only invest in their funds.

By the sounds of it, it might be better to use Vanguard and just invest in a couple of different their index funds for different sectors/parts of the world? As you've mentioned I don't really see myself investing in specific companies as it is probably more suited to short term/day trading and you've got to be more involved. I was thinking to invest for the next 10-20 yrs or until we think about building our own house somewhere.

Poolman - could you link me to some info about that or explain what you mean? What I've read is that you need to live and contribute to NI in the UK for at least 10 yrs to access your state pension so I might well be willing do that just to be sure of at least some kind of pension.

I'd expect you can buy the Vanguard funds on the Fidelity platform, the fees will be slightly higher than direct but they may be other benefits to using Fidelity. I use Interactive Investor and have about half in Vanguard funds.

If you're not sure where you'll be living, but considering contributing to a UK state pension, think about both ends of that deal. If I remember correctly, if you're entitled to a UK state pension you can take it even if you don't live in the UK but there's a penalty, I think it's that you lose the index linking.

By the sounds of it, it might be better to use Vanguard and just invest in a couple of different their index funds for different sectors/parts of the world?

Yes, absolutely, but luckily Vanguard do a range of funds that do that for you so you can hold just one fund. The Target Retirement funds are based on your retirement date and and alter the shares/versus bonds allocation to be more aggressive early and more conservative later. The Lifestrategy funds have a set asset allocation depending on which one you get, eg Lifestrategy 80 one has 80% shares 20% bonds. Hope that makes sense!

10 years is a funny length of time, especially if you're going to be using it to fund a house. You could be at the top or bottom of an economic cycle and I wouldn't want to be relying on an exact amount. That said, even if the stock market stayed the same for 10 years you'd still be way ahead of a bank account on dividends payments reinvested!

I can only say what I'd do in the circumstances. If it were for me I would go for one of the target retirement fundsl set for 10-20 years ahead.

The target 2030 is currently 68% equities and 32% bonds.

The target 2040 is currently 80/20.

As the approach the "retirement" date they eventually both reach 50/50 for lower volatility (and it must be said, returns).

Just have one fund so no moving parts. Vanguard will rebalance for you. Super low fee so all the gains are yours.

I'm not a financial advisor, but then as Mr Buffet says "no advisor gets rich suggesting index funds".

just piggybacking this thread rather than start another......

one of my lads has moved in with his girlfriend (rented house), theyve got a 6 month old baby now, so im trying to get him to think about investing in a LISA, either for a first time buy or retirement.

i sort of understand the 'pay in £4000, the government pay £1000' side of it, and you can choose to either take advantage of that for your first home or leave it til retirement (stop paying at 50, take it out at 60).
The Moneybox LISA is recommended on MSE as a cash LISA. knowing his views on risk tho, i think he'd prefer to invest in S&S, which i believe you can also do with a LISA.
how would that work? would it still be a case of investing say £4000 into the LISA, government tops it up to £5000, then you buy S&S? and if the shares rise then all that gain would be theirs?
and how would that work tho if he was daft and drew it out for something else and forfeited the government percentage? would they just force the sale of x000's worth of shares?

could end up a hypothetical question anyway as who listens to their boring old dad, i never did 😀

thanks

I’m not an expert on LISA’s but would say two things:

Any money in Equities / Stocks you should be prepared not to access for 5 years min (some would say 10) - to ride out the downturns. So in my opinion I’ve always winced when people say they are using equities to save for a house - yes returns should / will be better than cash over the long term - but you need to manage your risk appropriately to prevent your house deposit dropping 30% etc.

I’m not sure the market is as developed for S&S LISA’s as it is for ISA’s and Pensions etc. It’s something I’ve never looked into but my limited understanding is that there are far less options for investment platforms.

Any money in Equities / Stocks you should be prepared not to access for 5 years min (some would say 10) – to ride out the downturns. So in my opinion I’ve always winced when people say they are using equities to save for a house – yes returns should / will be better than cash over the long term – but you need to manage your risk appropriately to prevent your house deposit dropping 30% etc.

i think youre saying then that a S&S LISA would be a good investment for retirement then, but not a house purchase, that right? so if he went for a LISA, decide one way or the other whether its for a house or retirement and choose either the S&S or cash LISA depending on his decision?
if he decided retirement, would a LISA be a better choice than a personal pension/SIPP?

I’m not sure the market is as developed for S&S LISA’s as it is for ISA’s and Pensions etc. It’s something I’ve never looked into but my limited understanding is that there are far less options for investment platforms.

as a financial doofus, i dont really understand that, sorry. he already has a small S&S ISA which i talked him into, but why are there not the same options for investment with a LISA? arent they the same thing but with different 'rules' (the same companies are still out there to invest in?), so essentially he could still invest in the same spread of markets within a LISA as his ISA?

thanks, and apologies for maybe confusing you. ive just read it back and i realise i havent really articulated myself very well. thinking about it i think you maybe mean that with pensions/SIPPs/ISAs, vanguard, fidelity, HL etc will all provide these, and the accompanying vast array of choices. but they maybe dont provide LISA's, and the companies that do wont provide the same spread of markets. have i got that right?

would it still be a case of investing say £4000 into the LISA, government tops it up to £5000, then you buy S&S? and if the shares rise then all that gain would be theirs?

That's how it works, yeah. You put in £4k, government puts in £1k. You invest the £5k as you please.

how would that work tho if he was daft and drew it out for something else and forfeited the government percentage? would they just force the sale of x000’s worth of shares?

It doesn't work that way, you sell shares for £1000, and withdraw it. Government takes £250, you're left with £750. i.e. They take their cut from the amount you withdraw.

i think youre saying then that a S&S LISA would be a good investment for retirement then, but not a house purchase, that right? so if he went for a LISA, decide one way or the other whether its for a house or retirement and choose either the S&S or cash LISA depending on his decision?
if he decided retirement, would a LISA be a better choice than a personal pension/SIPP?

I think what I’m saying is the key to successful investing is a long term mindset. Markets can and do fluctuate (sometimes a lot!) over the short term. So if your son has a very fixed or near term need for the funds, equities may not be suitable. Having said that, since 2008 equities have been a good place to be, so it’s sometimes difficult to remember the pain of big equity drawdowns! (But have provided good gains!)

The difference between using a LISA or pension for retirement will depend largely on your sons marginal tax rate (higher rate tax payer etc) as to which is more lucrative. As a lower rate tax payer I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between a LISA / SIPP (annual contribution limits far lower on a LISA)
1st rule of retirement saving - is he maximising his employers contribution?

My comment re: market availability was aimed at the platform itself, not the investments themselves. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Vanguard, I-web etc don’t offer LISA’s.

The Financial Times do a personal finance podcast which covered LISA’s a few months back - might be worth searching for.

HTH.

I have a s and s Lisa with hl. You have to put your 4k in, then they tip up the extra 2 or 3 days later, which is a bit annoying as you have to go back in and reinvest it (the original order can only be for the 4k, not the 5).

I agree with the earlier caution on shares for short term, but with interest rates where they are its still the way I would personally invest. Just make sure they're in a diverse enough set of funds/trackers to minimise the impact of single share changes..

INRAT

If you have an employer provide pension scheme then put in as much as you need to to maximise their contribution.
Check the investments in that pension often you can choose funds etc. I did this with my current one and made over 20% pa over the default.

If you can wait until you are 55 for the money invest in a SIPP (assuming it is worth it in charges) lots of platforms check which one is cost effective for the amount you are investing and amount of trades etc (I use III) then invest and you will get 20% tax back. if you are a high earner you can claim another 20% from HMRC and its easy to do.

In terms of investments you pays your money etc and IANAFA but Fundsmith have been a very good and consistent fund for me and I started when it opened in 2010. I have several other funds (very few individual shares) and some have shone bright but Fundsmith has reliably grown and I have been very happy with it. I also like the idea of "buying good companies then doing nothing" Also the usual advice, its time in the market not timing the market. By all means work your cash but generally leave it alone and dont try to buy and sell etc it never works!

YOLO into the coinbase IPO tomorrow.

If anyone wants a foolproof investment strategy, I can simply post the shares and funds that I bought and all you have to do is buy something - anything - else.

No idea on S@S but when I worked in Alesund about 10+ years ago I met a teacher who'd retired to Norway on British pension and it was topped up from UK I think to meet Norwegian standards which are obviously a lot better. Worth a look to see if it can be done, that would be a great investment. He may of course just been telling me fibs.

As a lower rate tax payer I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between a LISA / SIPP (annual contribution limits far lower on a LISA)
1st rule of retirement saving – is he maximising his employers contribution?

he doesnt have one, hes a self-employed painter/decorator, subbing for someone, so has to sort all that out himself.
could you also explain the 'annual contribution limits far lower on a LISA' comment please? is there a minimum contribution per year that needs to be made into LISA/SIPPs?

thank you.

Lol at finbar. Am quite tempted by coinbase ipo. I think investing in an exchange might make sense as they take a slice irrespective of people buying or selling.

could you also explain the ‘annual contribution limits far lower on a LISA’ comment please? is there a minimum contribution per year that needs to be made into LISA/SIPPs?

the opposite I think. You can chuck up to £40k/year (pre-tax) into a pension and only £4k/year (post-tax) into a lisa.

L-ISA you can put £4,000 a tax-year in, and if you max it to that 4k, the gov will top it up to £5k.

I'm with the Nottingham building society. Was v easy to open up. It's 0.8% interest, and they report monthly to GOV for the topup. So if I put £1k in, about a month later £250 gets added

I'm using it as a house deposit, probably to be utilised in ~2023

It’s 0.8% interest, and they report monthly to GOV for the topup. So if I put £1k in, about a month later £250 gets added

so in effect, as the 0.8% is (probably) lower than inflation, you would actually be worse off if it wasnt for the government addition, yep?

As a few of you have alluded to, S&S for long term only then, so would it be reasonable to give him the advice to save for a house deposit with a cash LISA (moneybox maybe?), and if he wants to save for retirement then a SIPP (more choices of investment than a S&S LISA)?

thanks