New ISA year starts today: invest now or hold off?

[sniff diesel]

With the new ISA allowances available today, who’s investing and where to?
I had planned to start a new stocks and shares ISA this tax year, should be a good time to invest right? But there’s something in me that keeps saying no and to stick with a fixed return of 4-4.5%
These “once in a lifetime” global events seem to happening far too often for my liking.

[The Leaper]

sniff diesel said:

With the new ISA allowances available today, who’s investing and where to?
I had planned to start a new stocks and shares ISA this tax year, should be a good time to invest right? But there’s something in me that keeps saying no and to stick with a fixed return of 4-4.5%
These “once in a lifetime” global events seem to happening far too often for my liking.

Wife and I are in a similar situation: ready to go but now with what kind of ISA? We were thinking of an S&S ISA each on a relatively cautious managed fund strategy (if it can be called that !) but the very recent markets turmoil is making us hold off. Also, It would be nice to take the opportunity to set up theses S&S ISAs later and buy at the market bottom whenever that may be.

Rachel from Accounts has stated that the cash ISA facility is now under review, so maybe we should set up cash ISAs at the max for a final year while we can.

We are both in our early 80s with many, mostly cash, ISAs between us.

R.

[Truckosaurus]

Depends on when you think you might want/need to take the money back out again.

(I'm still sticking my pay day lump sum into my ISA, as I'm not planning on taking it out for at least 5+ years)

If/when that value of each unit in the investment pot goes back to what it was last month then my fortune is made!

(I am not a financial advisor and a good rule of thumb is to do the opposite of whatever I do).

[trickywoo]

You could easily miss a 10% day jump with the crazy orange man in charge.

That said the volatility is crazy at the moment. It would be a brave person to pile in now.

[130R]

If you will need the money in the next 1-2-3 years I would be very cautious about S&S right now. If you won't then I would pile in, but dollar-cost averaging is probably smart.

[Mabbs9]

trickywoo said:

You could easily miss a 10% day jump with the crazy orange man in charge.

That said the volatility is crazy at the moment. It would be a brave person to pile in now.

I've piled in.

[davek_964]

I'll be paying into my cash ISA. The S&S one can stay as it is (which is probably a fraction of what it was a month ago)

The Leaper said:

Rachel from Accounts has stated that the cash ISA facility is now under review, so maybe we should set up cash ISAs at the max for a final year while we can.

When did she do this? I wasn't aware - not that it surprises me. By this time next year, she'll announce that "having savings" is under review.........

[The Leaper]

davek_964 said:

When did she do this? I wasn't aware - not that it surprises me.

Last week...reported everywhere in the media. Speculation is that the £20,000 max will be substantially reduced to maybe £4,000 for cash ISAs from 2026 tax year. Where have you been?

R.

[davek_964]

The Leaper said:

davek_964 said:

When did she do this? I wasn't aware - not that it surprises me.

Last week...reported everywhere in the media. Speculation is that the £20,000 max will be substantially reduced to maybe £4,000 for cash ISAs from 2026 tax year. Where have you been?

R.

I watch the news quite often actually, and just hadn't seen it reported.

[gmaz]

I usually transfer £4K into my son's AJ Bell S&S Lifetime ISA on the 6th April each year, but I'm holding off at the moment until there is some kind of stability.

[duckson]

gmaz said:

I usually transfer £4K into my son's AJ Bell S&S Lifetime ISA on the 6th April each year, but I'm holding off at the moment until there is some kind of stability.

Ditto with my daughters Lifetime ISA with AJBell, although you can put money in and leave it in cash for now but it makes sub 2% and she’s getting more with it left in the Chip Cash ISA so will hold fire for now.

My sons LISA just has him DCAing every month so will just let that carry on.

[okgo]

I was going to average in over a period but prefer sometimes to just forget about it. So did 2xISA into all cap, may prove to go lower, but I’m not sure I’ll look back and remember in 15 years time.

[Sheepshanks]

davek_964 said:

The Leaper said:

davek_964 said:

When did she do this? I wasn't aware - not that it surprises me.

Last week...reported everywhere in the media. Speculation is that the £20,000 max will be substantially reduced to maybe £4,000 for cash ISAs from 2026 tax year. Where have you been?

R.

I watch the news quite often actually, and just hadn't seen it reported.

It was one of things that was widely talked about and trailed in the media before the Spring Statement to the extent that it became a foregone conclusion it was going to happen - and then suddenly it went away.

It’s still supposed to be going to happen but I wonder if the current turmoil might cause a longer term rethink - voters used to savings accounts aren’t going to be happy if they feel “forced” into S&S ISA’s and then promptly find themselves 10% down.

[Funk]

T212's Cash ISA is flexible so if you wanted to max that out you could always remove the money and put it into an S&S ISA instead (whether with T212 or elsewhere).

I've chucked as much in as I can now (£14k) and will put the remaining £6k allowance in at the end of the month when I get paid - with the volatility going on at the moment I'm happy to take a guaranteed safe 4.5% return for the time being. If things settle down somewhat later this year I might move some of if to the S&S ISA.

[davek_964]

Sheepshanks said:

davek_964 said:

The Leaper said:

davek_964 said:

When did she do this? I wasn't aware - not that it surprises me.

Last week...reported everywhere in the media. Speculation is that the £20,000 max will be substantially reduced to maybe £4,000 for cash ISAs from 2026 tax year. Where have you been?

R.

I watch the news quite often actually, and just hadn't seen it reported.

It was one of things that was widely talked about and trailed in the media before the Spring Statement to the extent that it became a foregone conclusion it was going to happen - and then suddenly it went away.

It’s still supposed to be going to happen but I wonder if the current turmoil might cause a longer term rethink - voters used to savings accounts aren’t going to be happy if they feel “forced” into S&S ISA’s and then promptly find themselves 10% down.

Yes - I was aware that it was talked about before the budget, and didn't happen. And although I suspected it would happen at some point, I wasn't aware that she'd made any statement about intent since then, particularly not with actual figures.

I would also like to think that the current volatility might be taken into account - but I also think that she is utterly incompetent, so I doubt it.

[AllyM]

I’ve put half my allowance in today (VWRP) and will hold the other £10k off and hope for a further dip. I just have a feeling that an Iran conflict is near and will do more damage yet to markets.

[Sheepshanks]

davek_964 said:

Yes - I was aware that it was talked about before the budget, and didn't happen. And although I suspected it would happen at some point, I wasn't aware that she'd made any statement about intent since then, particularly not with actual figures.

She talked about it last week when in front of a Commons Committee - although I think some commentators read more into what she said than what she actually said. But then they're more experienced at understanding the nuances of such statements.

[ro250]

AllyM said:

I’ve put half my allowance in today (VWRP) and will hold the other £10k off and hope for a further dip. I just have a feeling that an Iran conflict is near and will do more damage yet to markets.

I only started around last Nov using my S&S ISA and VWRP. So had a few months of thinking 'this investing thing is easy!' to seeing myself at -12% as of today.

I have kept putting in my monthly amount and think I'll continue. I don't think the markets will suddenly recover but this ISA is for 8-10 years so would expect a global fund of this size to recover at some point.

I read some horror stories of people withdrawing at huge losses during the pandemic and that turned out to be a bad move.

[johnnyBv8]

I’d asked a similar question a couple of days ago but it went unanswered- whether it was better to lock in a cash ISA whilst you can, given that there’s a lot of noise about them being withdrawn (but probably not retrospectively). Initially I was planning to transfer an existing ETF into a 2025 S&S ISA, but maybe better in the longer term to grab a cash ISA this year.

[YouWhat]

johnnyBv8 said:

I’d asked a similar question a couple of days ago but it went unanswered- whether it was better to lock in a cash ISA whilst you can, given that there’s a lot of noise about them being withdrawn (but probably not retrospectively). Initially I was planning to transfer an existing ETF into a 2025 S&S ISA, but maybe better in the longer term to grab a cash ISA this year.

I goes unanswered because NO ONE knows the answer, if you lock you’re money in for 5 years plus, then S&S will PROBABLY win, less than 5 years nobody knows.