If you need any more participants then I'm happy to participate. out of interest what is the exit strategy/procedure?

Vaguely apropos, a podcast.

http://hearstartup.com/

Brooks wrote:

Vaguely apropos, a podcast.

http://hearstartup.com/

Will listen tonight.

Still vote we do whatever Nexx says. Unless he says not to do it at all, the bore. 

He knows his stuff. And he's well good at strategy games.

n0face wrote:

Any recommended reading for beginners? I need to bone up on terminology.

SG put some good stuff in the OP...

Nexx wrote:

Work won't let me provide advisory services for online ponzi schemes... I'd say just have fun with it.  None of you want to be locking your money away for 3 to 5 years so its probably a bit pointless investing in trackers, etfs etc and it would be a bit boring to manage as a group too.  I'd suggest just coming up with a best ideas portfolio of around 4 or 5 stocks and reviewing it as a group every now and then.  I'd be happy to plug your equity portfolio into a model at work (or you could let me know how much you want allocated to fixed income, alternatives etc) to simulate what your returns would have been if you had properly diversified.

This sounds fun and disposable and risky and potentially rewarding.

However I don't think (and he can speak for himself but) it's SG's aim with this - it's just to show that even small investments in simple shit like tracker funds, over the long term, will net you pretty great returns and hopefully get us all thinking about our retirement.

There's no reason to think we won't all be here in 5 years, and if we've managed a return of say 5%/6% annual net that's a fuck load more than a cash ISA.

Having said all that, I think there's scope to do something like Nexx says, perhaps a separate "high risk" fund?

Funkstain wrote:

it's just to show that even small investments in simple shit like tracker funds, over the long term, will net you pretty great returns and hopefully get us all thinking about our retirement.

That's the bit you need to be careful about though.  If you're serious about leaving it for 3 to 5 years then yeah a tracker is a great investment, especially over something like a cash ISA.  But there's a pretty good chance that broad equity exposure over the short term isn't going to be a great investment.  The end of quantitative easing, rising interest rates and some key elections next year are going to make it a pretty challenging year for equity markets that could just as easily put some of you off investing if you were expecting shorter term gains.

As dull as it sounds it may be worth setting out some parameters before you begin.  Stuff like time scale, return objective, how you actually decide what to invest in etc.

Na mate, everyone knows water is the new oil.

I think we should keep this investment portfolio going until either:-
a)Last Guardian is released, or
b)Half-Life 3 is released

Nexx wrote:

Funkstain wrote:

it's just to show that even small investments in simple shit like tracker funds, over the long term, will net you pretty great returns and hopefully get us all thinking about our retirement.

That's the bit you need to be careful about though.  

No. It really isn't.

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Nexx wrote:

Funkstain wrote:

it's just to show that even small investments in simple shit like tracker funds, over the long term, will net you pretty great returns and hopefully get us all thinking about our retirement.

That's the bit you need to be careful about though.  

No. It really isn't.

 

You don't need to be careful about making sure everyone has the same time scale and return expectations as you do? Ok.

I'm not trying to shit on your idea, I think getting people thinking about investing is a great idea but you need to approach is properly.  If you had invested in the FTSE 100 at the start of 2011 you wouldn't have made any profits at all until 2013.  Making sure that people are aware that there are risks involved with investing is important, especially in the context of retirement planning.  Making statements that imply that you're guaranteed to make a return without properly conveying the risks isn't going to be beneficial to anyone.

Nexx wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Nexx wrote:

Funkstain wrote:

it's just to show that even small investments in simple shit like tracker funds, over the long term, will net you pretty great returns and hopefully get us all thinking about our retirement.

That's the bit you need to be careful about though.  

No. It really isn't.

 

You don't need to be careful about making sure everyone has the same time scale and return expectations as you do? Ok.

I'm not trying to shit on your idea, I think getting people thinking about investing is a great idea but you need to approach is properly.  If you had invested in the FTSE 100 at the start of 2011 you wouldn't have made any profits at all until 2013.  Making sure that people are aware that there are risks involved with investing is important, especially in the context of retirement planning.  Making statements that imply that you're guaranteed to make a return without properly conveying the risks isn't going to be beneficial to anyone.

I have a habit of ignoring people who say shit like "key elections". Can't help it. I once told Fred Goodwin to fuck off. Anyhoo. I digress. Chip in to learn about finance.

A general election seems pretty key to me.

Don't think so, no money has been sent yet and don't think it would be a problem to have more in the pot

Ah man, this does interest me greatly.

A company I work for recently went onto the stock market, we were invited to purchase shares but despite reading tons on the subject, I was still none the wiser, and parting with £500 with the slight risk of never seeing it again was too much to risk. 

I've got no idea how this will work, but colour me interested.