That tracker is crazy. It’s up 16% at the moment. Can someone lend me £100k to put in??

Because it tells you when you click the performance button on the Fidelity website.

Just to be clear Dino I’m talking about my personal “up”. I bought in I think when it was really low. Obviously any ongoing investment isn’t going to get as much of a gain but I believe it is still up 2.5% on yesterday.

Up 11%!

If there could be a big crash before I put more in tommorow that would be nice.

Awww, where am I gonna buy pangolin and bat soup now?

cockbeard wrote:

Awww, where am I gonna buy pangolin and bat soup now?

Dino might have some. He’s been hoarding them to rid the world of such disgusting things. Beak into his house.

hylian_elf wrote:

Dude.  It’s Saturday tomorrow. Markets are closed.

If I'm working tomorrow, the market should!

That gives Trump 2 days to do something insane then. Plenty of time.

hylian_elf wrote:

cockbeard wrote:

Awww, where am I gonna buy pangolin and bat soup now?

Dino might have some. He’s been hoarding them to rid the world of such disgusting things. Beak into his house.

Alas eating my stock of pangolin and bats hadnt yielded any superpowers, yet.

Right, so it's been about 6 weeks since I made the OP and depending on when you jumped in most will have seen a handsome return already, which is both good and bad news. Some very late investors may have seen a slight loss.

So the reasons it's bad in our case are twofold. 

Firstly, it's may give a false sense of expectation for some of you. Yes I know that you know this is a "set and forget" operation, but it's natural to get excited when we're off to such a good start and to check the balance all the time. This is fine. As the weeks and months and years pass you'll do this less and less and trust it will look after itself in the long term. You'll only need to really make significant changes as you're nearing pension age.

Secondly, it's doing a little too well and is not reflecting the true economic situation. This means it's probably going to act a little wildly for a bit and that can come as a shock. I don't think we'll see any cliff edges but it's probably going to get choppy. Probably. The truth is nobody knows. Will the markets slide to reflect economic reality? Will the markets actually go up more as positive vaccine news filters through? *shrugs*

I personally think, for no particular reason, the reality will start hitting home the longer this crisis goes on for and I can't see it ending anytime soon. Even if a vaccine wre to come out next week the sheer amount of unemployment will keep spending down a maybe a year or longer. If there's a second peak in Winter things could actually start tanking very quickly. But that's one opinion amongst many.

The important thing is to leave it alone and keep putting in on a monthly basis (if you can afford to), no matter what the markets are doing. If they're going up that's grand (but you're getting less bang for your buck), and if they're sliding that's bad (but you're buying in at a cheaper rate every month). This is the luxury that time affords us. Don't be tempted to stop paying in for a few months and start when things are more certain. It won't end well and trying to time the markets is foolish. Also, if you do this you're now an active investor (as opposed to passive) which means it's going to get stressful and frankly, who can be arsed with all that worry? Leave it be and stay happy. One less screen to stare at.

I could advise putting most of your monthly savings cash into the stocks ISA but keeping some aside in a cash ISA - to build up and chuck into the stocks ISA when there's another crash, but I don't advise that either. That again would make you an active investor trying to time the markets, which I've said a million times in not that good an idea. Remember that timing is not that important anyway. Yes it's lovely to buy low (and we have), but it's dividends not market swings that'll make money for us, and money sitting around in cash is money that's not earning dividends.

Remember the link in the OP:

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/diyinvesting/article-8101459/The-FTSE-100-15-20-years-invest-long-term.html

I know I'm repeating myself a lot in this thread and most know that the sensible course is set and forget, but I feel a certain sense of responsibility and to keep reminding people not to panic, not to worry, and that we'll see good times and bad, but it's going to significantly alter your life for the better if you set it up and stop worrying about it.

speaking of worrying about us...so i made a bit of a booboo with mine it seems.
basically, in trying to decide which funds to go for, i ended up splitting across a couple. most of the (relatively small amount) of money went in a more sensible one (i think the same as Dante), but i also stuck about £100 in a more high risk one.
the good news is it's currently up 20%
the bad news is that it doesn't seem to be an accumulator fund!

obviously in all the excitement (and despite setting the various filters to accumulation funds) i've ended up with a different thing.

Should i just sell while it's up, and put the funds in an acc tracker?
https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/etf/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=0P000131W8
that's the thing. the numbers seem good to my completely untrained eye, just not sure what i'm meant to do with it if it won't magically grow on it's own!

Ta.

Could you clarify one other thing please? I tried to look into dividends the other day and read something that made me think....do you only get a dividend if you have at least 1 full share in a fund? or could that be a rule on some platforms/funds?
or if you've only bought 0.1 worth of a share, will you get 0.1 of the dividend?

Just the main fund i invested in is about £450-500 per 1 share, so i've only got a part of a share there.

As an aside, despite the depressing current situation I'm enjoying all the shitty companies doing especially badly. Arms companies are seeing a massive drop in profits, mainly thanks to the falling oil price, which is also pleasing because fuck Saudi and Western defence contracts. Tech and renewables are thriving and large meat producers are having a wonderfully bad time, as are cars, planes and general pollution stuff. Also, people moaning about the welfare state can officially go and fuck themselves.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/mses-academy-money/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab

The Open University has joined forces with MoneySavingExpert (MSE) to produce this new free course to give you the skills and knowledge to master your finances. The course was written by The OU, with MSE providing support and guidance.

Packed with videos, audios, quizzes and activities, the course covers all the key aspects of personal finance in six sessions of study that each take around two hours to complete.

The course starts by looking at how to be savvy when spending money and at the behavioural and marketing pressures that try to influence what consumers buy.

It then looks at budgeting and the impact of tax on household finances.

Borrowing money is something virtually all households are familiar with but it can cause financial problems. The course explains how to borrow money sensibly if necessary, whether it’s a loan to buy a car or a mortgage to buy your home.

Do you want to save or invest money? The course looks at simple savings accounts but also investments such as shares, commodities or property. It explains what is involved and the risks you expose yourself to as you look for a higher return on your money.

The course finishes by getting to grips with the complexities of pensions. It will help you to think about your options when retiring, such as how much your state pension will amount to, supplementing this with an occupational or personal pension, and what you can do if your pension provision falls short of what you need.

They're fine but don't pay much. Very safe though and better than sticking it in a savings account. Tracker far better long term.

This was an interesting read.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-should-no-longer-bet-on-warren-buffett-2019-03-01

"...Many people, myself included, think an S&P 500 index fund is inadequate to capture the market’s full potential return, because it doesn’t include small- or midcap stocks, which historically outperform the large-cap names in the S&P. A representative ETF that covers the whole U.S. stock market, Vanguard Total Market Index has put both Berkshire and the S&P to shame: Since March 2009, it has risen by about 420%, including dividends. Game, set, and match.

That’s why we shouldn’t be surprised by Buffett’s own favorable comments about index funds. “If my [initial] $114.75 had been invested in a no-fee S&P 500 index fund [in 1942], and all dividends had been reinvested, my stake would have grown to be worth (pre-taxes) $606,811 on January 31, 2019,” he wrote in the annual letter. “That is a gain of 5,288 for 1.” He said on CNBC that $10,000 invested in an index fund in 1942 (34 years before the first one opened, but never mind) would be worth $51 million today.

“Consistently buy an S&P 500 low-cost index fund,” he said last year. “I think it’s the thing that makes the most sense practically all of the time...”