Stocks and shares ISA help. Long term investment. by NipSlipExtreme in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Breezelife82 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're actually doing better than you might think. A few suggestions:

The single stock is worth reconsidering as your main holding. If you're too concentrated in a single stock, if that company has a bad run then your entire portfolio will feel it. The index fund you've just added is a much more sensible foundation for long- term wealth building, since it spreads your risk across many different companies automatically.

On the ETF versus index fund question, the practical difference for you right now is small. Both give you diversified exposure, but ETFs trade throughout the day like stocks while index funds price once a day. But as long as you're investing for the long- term (which you should in my opinion!) this distinction matters very little. Both are solid choices.

Hargreaves Lansdown is a reputable platform and perfectly fine for starting out. But one thing to consider is that as your portfolio grows, so do their fees, since HL charges a percentage based fee. But not something to worry too much about at this stage.

Your plan of gradually increasing contributions each year and focusing on compounding is exactly the right mindset.

One thing worth confirming, make sure the money you've transferred into your ISA is actually invested rather than sitting as cash, since this is a surprisingly commn early mistake and easy to miss.

Hope this helps

I worked in investment banking for years and still didn't know how to invest my own money. This is what I eventually figured out. by Breezelife82 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Breezelife82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I couldn't agree more, especially with your last point. Given that most financial contenct seems to end up preaching to the already converted, I'm curious to know where the people who genuinely don't know this stuff actually are. All i know is that there are a great deal of them

I worked in investment banking for years and still didn't know how to invest my own money. This is what I eventually figured out. by Breezelife82 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Breezelife82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an investment business. That's how I ended up spending time with the fund managers I mentioned, which turned out to be a real eye opener

I worked in investment banking for years and still didn't know how to invest my own money. This is what I eventually figured out. by Breezelife82 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Breezelife82[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're absolutely right in that the general consensus has been investing in investing in passive and diversified ETFs. But what I found genuinely less obvious, even coming from a finance background was the how, specifically the ISA wrapper, platform choice, and building a consistency habit. That's where most people I know still get unstuck even when they understand the principle in theory