New investor

[Fluke]

In this post corona world if you were a new investor and you had 20k to invest in one or more low cost tracker funds/ETFs, which one(s) would you choose and why? You intend to hold for the foreseeable and maybe top up from time to time. You had no other investments, a bit of reserve cash and income from employment.

Secondly would you have a preference of platform?

[Degsy67]

Depends on the number of years I was investing for and how close to retirement.

Immediate thoughts are VWRL or HMWO (All world trackers) on either iWeb Share Dealing or AJ Bell YouInvest.

Others may point you to Vanguard life strategy where you need to select your risk tolerance to decide asset allocation - eg 80/20, 60/40 etc.

Degsy

[todthedog]

My thoughts would be
iwebb for a platform £25 to start then £5 a trade no platform fees.

VWRL VANGUARD FUNDS PLC FTSE ALL-WORLD UCITS ETF

3424 holdings world wide complete equity diversification

Vanguard Global Bond Index hedged GBP isin IE00B50W2R13

From Morningstar '
The global multisector nature of Vanguard Bond Index Hedged is designed to make it work as the central--perhaps the only--developed-markets fixed-income element in a portfolio.

CGT Capital Gearing Trust
A very conservative investment trust that has produced consistent results over a 40 year period. A multi asset portfolio in its own right.

I like the two Vanguard funds in preference to Vanguard Life Strategy as they do not have a UK bias. However you would not go far wrong with VLS in your preferred risk flavour.

Good luck.

[Aminatidi]

I tend to think in building blocks.

Ones I doubt you can go too far wrong with:

* LifeStrategy
* VWRL
* Capital Gearing Trust/CG Absolute Return
* Personal Assets Trust/Troy Trojan

I'd perhaps focus on the cash reserves before going too heavy on equities.

[Fluke]

Interesting, from my own research I had VLS and VWRL on my list which are mentioned in all 3 replies so far. I should point out it is not for myself but for someone who finds the wall of information a bit overwhelming. They are adamant they want to invest the money in a reasonably low risk way and are comfortable with the risks and their cash reserves etc.

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

I was also wondering if post corona crash whether anyone might suggest staying away from anything they previously held in high regard.

[Aminatidi]

Interesting, from my own research I had VLS and VWRL on my list which are mentioned in all 3 replies so far. I should point out it is not for myself but for someone who finds the wall of information a bit overwhelming. They are adamant they want to invest the money in a reasonably low risk way and are comfortable with the risks and their cash reserves etc.

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

I was also wondering if post corona crash whether anyone might suggest staying away from anything they previously held in high regard.

I see them as two options that you can't really go wrong with and which you should always be there or there about with.

Especially if it's for a friend or relative.

I went through a similar exercise for my mum earlier this year and suggested she use Vanguard LifeStrategy.

I see it as a degree of "protection" if things go south from feeling guilt for suggesting specific active funds I guess.

[swill453]

If you're looking at VWRL and want least faff, consider VWRP which is the accumulation version of the same thing. No dividend reinvestment to worry about.

Scott.

[mc2fool]

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

It's IWeb and, no. It's a one-off £25 first-account opening fee, £5 a trade (inc. funds), and no platform fees, annual fees, inactivity fees, etc; zero.

https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/sha ... g-home.asp

If you're looking at VWRL and want least faff, consider VWRP which is the accumulation version of the same thing. No dividend reinvestment to worry about.

But be aware that there's extra bookkeeping-for-CGT faff with accumulation versions if held outside of a tax shelter.

[swill453]

But be aware that there's extra bookkeeping-for-CGT faff with accumulation versions if held outside of a tax shelter.

You're right I should have mentioned that. In a SIPP or ISA where you just want to buy and forget, it makes sense.

Scott.

[johnsm13]

How does IWeb handle regular investments? I can't seem to find anything about this on its site.

[Fluke]

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

It's IWeb and, no. It's a one-off £25 first-account opening fee, £5 a trade (inc. funds), and no platform fees, annual fees, inactivity fees, etc; zero.

https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/sha ... g-home.asp

If you're looking at VWRL and want least faff, consider VWRP which is the accumulation version of the same thing. No dividend reinvestment to worry about.

But be aware that there's extra bookkeeping-for-CGT faff with accumulation versions if held outside of a tax shelter.

No it's all inside an ISA. Thanks for the clarification on iWeb.

[Fluke]

I see them as two options that you can't really go wrong with and which you should always be there or there about with.

Especially if it's for a friend or relative.

I went through a similar exercise for my mum earlier this year and suggested she use Vanguard LifeStrategy.

I see it as a degree of "protection" if things go south from feeling guilt for suggesting specific active funds I guess.

Yes it is for a relative and I would hate it to work out badly for her even though she is aware it's not a recommendation and that there is risk involved.

[GeoffF100]

How does IWeb handle regular investments? I can't seem to find anything about this on its site.

You manually transfer in money and place a buy order every year, quarter, month or whatever you choose.

[stevensfo]

How does IWeb handle regular investments? I can't seem to find anything about this on its site.

You manually transfer in money and place a buy order every year, quarter, month or whatever you choose.

iWeb is part of Halifax Sharedealing, so I guess it works in the same way. Halifax is actually very good at this.

Also, don't forget that they are all part of Lloyds!!!

Steve

[BrummieDave]

How does IWeb handle regular investments? I can't seem to find anything about this on its site.

You manually transfer in money and place a buy order every year, quarter, month or whatever you choose.

iWeb is part of Halifax Sharedealing, so I guess it works in the same way. Halifax is actually very good at this.

Also, don't forget that they are all part of Lloyds!!!

Steve

And if you set up a regular monthly payment with a value equal to the total amount you have to invest (ie all in the first month), you only pay the monthly investment fee, far less that the fee for a one off payment (£2.50 rather than £12.50 I think). Possibly not in the true spirit of fairness, and may not work now, but it certainly used to work like that!

[mc2fool]

How does IWeb handle regular investments? I can't seem to find anything about this on its site.

You manually transfer in money and place a buy order every year, quarter, month or whatever you choose.

iWeb is part of Halifax Sharedealing, so I guess it works in the same way. Halifax is actually very good at this.

Nope. The lack of a regular investment feature is one of the very few (only?) differences between the IWeb and HSDL offerings (aside from pricing differences).

IWeb used to have the same regular investment functionality as HSDL but IWeb dropped it when they lowered the dealing commission to a fiver. As Geoff says, now you have to DIY.

[GeoffF100]

The lack of a regular investment feature is one of the very few (only?) differences between the IWeb and HSDL offerings (aside from pricing differences).

There are other minor differences. Halifax has cheap dealing days, whereas iWeb does not. I also seem to remember a post that said that there was a difference in what was allowed for joint accounts and powers of attorney. I do not remember the details though. Someone posted that the Lloyds branded account offered marginally different facilities to both Halifax and iWeb. Fiver to trade, trade when you want, and no frills seems to suit a majority of people here though.

[Mememe]

Interesting, from my own research I had VLS and VWRL on my list which are mentioned in all 3 replies so far. I should point out it is not for myself but for someone who finds the wall of information a bit overwhelming. They are adamant they want to invest the money in a reasonably low risk way and are comfortable with the risks and their cash reserves etc.

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

I was also wondering if post corona crash whether anyone might suggest staying away from anything they previously held in high regard.

Depends what their idea of ‘low risk’ actually means. What most people on here are suggesting are purely equity based investments. That’s fine as long as ‘low risk’ means being willing to accept 50% falls in market crashes. I’m not sure that your bog standard guy on the street would regard that as low risk

[GeoffF100]

Interesting, from my own research I had VLS and VWRL on my list which are mentioned in all 3 replies so far. I should point out it is not for myself but for someone who finds the wall of information a bit overwhelming. They are adamant they want to invest the money in a reasonably low risk way and are comfortable with the risks and their cash reserves etc.

Wouldn't iWebb charge an additional platform fee for Vanguard products?

I was also wondering if post corona crash whether anyone might suggest staying away from anything they previously held in high regard.

Depends what their idea of ‘low risk’ actually means. What most people on here are suggesting are purely equity based investments. That’s fine as long as ‘low risk’ means being willing to accept 50% falls in market crashes. I’m not sure that your bog standard guy on the street would regard that as low risk

75% fall in the 1970s.

[Fluke]

Depends what their idea of ‘low risk’ actually means. What most people on here are suggesting are purely equity based investments.

Not all, the Life Strategy funds for example are a mixture of equities and bonds which you can adjust according to your risk profile - 80/20, 60/40 etc

That’s fine as long as ‘low risk’ means being willing to accept 50% falls in market crashes. I’m not sure that your bog standard guy on the street would regard that as low risk

Unlikely though for any of the funds suggested here, take for example VWRL mentioned in a few posts, from its high point in Dec-19 to it's low point in March it fell just under 22% before recovering sharply, it's now down just over 9% from its December high. And that following one of the biggest crashes in a long time.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/inve ... stributing

Granted it didn't set the world on fire for the 5 years shown in the graph but it protected your money and grew a bit which is what you want out of an index fund isn't it. Seems pretty low risk to me.