Investing

Author
Discussion

john75

Original Poster:

5,303 posts

254 months

Wednesday 16th March 2005
quotequote all
Just wondered what people throught were good investments.

Been reading a few books on the subject of late and one about Warren Buffett inspired this posting.

superlightr

12,900 posts

270 months

Wednesday 16th March 2005
quotequote all
commercial premises.

seth223uk

6 posts

236 months

Thursday 17th March 2005
quotequote all
index tracker in ISA wrapper to lock onto the long term growth of the stock market.

M & G Acc tracker and the Abbey FTSE 100 one are among the best with a TER of 0.35%

Use your 3k ISA mini for shares for this and then put anything else you may have into a cash ISA search www.fool.co.uk for the top deals.

Over and above 6k a year i havent explored as im not loaded but for over that id consider NS & I investments and maybe look into a speculative active fund for the long term.

Thats what you call a diversified portfolio! Everyone is different though depends on your attitude to risk and how if you want growth or income etc and your timescale for investing. Remember equity investments need like 15 year timespans to do well.

The stock market averages 11% not taking into account inflation which would be 7% and has outperformed cash and property for like 98% of the years from 1918 onwards. A hundred quid invested in the 1920s would be like a few thousand if it was in a bank account but like 70k if it was in equities and 20 odd in bonds.

Quite a bit of waffle but its a start to the discussion.

mike

Rich25

282 posts

249 months

Friday 18th March 2005
quotequote all
Nuts to ISAs, need to look at VCTs - 40% tax relief on any level contribs up to £250k, regardless of tax status! Your IFA wont tell you about them though as they pay 2p commission.

seth223uk

6 posts

236 months

Friday 18th March 2005
quotequote all
These VCTs? How do they work? Are they wrappers like ISAs or what?

simpo two

87,113 posts

272 months

Friday 18th March 2005
quotequote all
seth223uk said:
These VCTs? How do they work? Are they wrappers like ISAs or what?

High risk. The benefit is the 40% tax relief - which means you can lose 40% and walk out quits...

neilcharlton

92 posts

260 months

Sunday 20th March 2005
quotequote all
Invest in house prices going down , using covered warrents for Goldman Sachs or SG .

bjwoods

5,017 posts

291 months

Monday 21st March 2005
quotequote all
As with evrything as soon as you generalise a sector or type product as a good investment. People jump on a bandwagon, and completely forgetto choose the BEST from that sector or type of product...

as example

Commercial property yes - good retail premises, owned outright, in a good area, growing city, have local knowledge, good tenant lined up, huge nonrefundable deposit,to secure, etc, etc,etc.

Commercial property no - bought as a hands off investment, from a investor club, in florida, huge managemnt fees, poor area for type of premises, built on spec, with dozens of other identical type units hitting the market, just prior to hurricane that destroyed the area/economy for a few years, big mortgage, no cash to cover.

Too extremes above - but any investment type will have good and bad choice. 2 above are REAL, 1st was pretty luccky owned for years (good but boring return)then area gets regenerated and v good coroprate comes along. secon was a freind of my parents good advice from FSA son-in-law (who also invested) oh dear.

B

bjwoods

5,017 posts

291 months

Monday 21st March 2005
quotequote all
Added to add.

IF you have a mortgage on your house (Not talking a bout property investment here - ie you allready have this)

Overpay the mortgage, depends on the rate, BUT THIS IS As A GUARANTEED RETURN you can get , in my case 5.5% NET of tax, 8 ish plus GROSS return. WITH NO RISK (Relatively to any other investment- Couple of provisos don't have 100% mortgage not moving for a year or so)

IT is very BORING to do this, but it is a REAL guaranteed rate of return, AND I would challenge ANY financial adviser to offer a better place for your money, whilst anyone has a mortgage.

B

>> Edited by bjwoods on Monday 21st March 13:00

KingRichard

10,146 posts

239 months

Tuesday 22nd March 2005
quotequote all
neilcharlton said:
Invest in house prices going down , using covered warrents for Goldman Sachs or SG .


Can you do that? thought you could only short on the stock market? care to explain this to me? I can see how to make a bucket of cash in a rising market, but not in a falling property market.

This is really interesting

lambojim

691 posts

246 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2005
quotequote all
As you say you can short stocks in the hope of buying them back later, cheaper. You can take a short contract out on UK (or even specific London boroughs), so ysay the average price of a semi in Ken& Chelsea is £600,000, the spread might be 598-601 - you sell at 598 and every thousand the av. price as published by Halifax etc falls, you make whatever you bet per point.

Put a stop loss on by the way!

srebbe64

13,021 posts

244 months

Wednesday 23rd March 2005
quotequote all
john75 said:
Just wondered what people throught were good investments.

Been reading a few books on the subject of late and one about Warren Buffett inspired this posting.


It depends how much you're talking about?
Personally, I invest in failing business - that have potential. I turn them round then sell them. It's very Tax efficient, and you can sell them for considerably more than you paid for them. However, there's a degree of "high risk / high return". I also tend to invest in commercial premises. Generally, you can get an 8%-10% return plus you've got an asset that is unlikely to lose value.

thepeoplespal

1,674 posts

284 months

Friday 25th March 2005
quotequote all
bjwoods said:
Added to add.

IF you have a mortgage on your house (Not talking a bout property investment here - ie you allready have this)

Overpay the mortgage, depends on the rate, BUT THIS IS As A GUARANTEED RETURN you can get , in my case 5.5% NET of tax, 8 ish plus GROSS return. WITH NO RISK (Relatively to any other investment- Couple of provisos don't have 100% mortgage not moving for a year or so)

IT is very BORING to do this, but it is a REAL guaranteed rate of return, AND I would challenge ANY financial adviser to offer a better place for your money, whilst anyone has a mortgage.

B

>> Edited by bjwoods on Monday 21st March 13:00


And if you have a bank account style mortgage you can also have instant access to any overpayments, without penalty. Its a complete no-brainer, 8% odd with instant access to your money at any time.

The only reason it is not recommended by financial advisors is the lack of commission for them.