Curls wrote:I've no idea to be honest. I was just going to browse the net and see what reccommended, its all a very new concept to me and so different to my normal tatics of saving.
I don't necessarily need the money so I could invest for 5 years, I'd prefer an account where I have the ability to withdraw sooner though.
Stay away from shares. For now anyway if that's your outlook. Honestly, if you don't know what you're doing and will follow a recommendation all you will do is lose money more times than not.
I worked at a stockbrokers for 11 years. Sure I saw people make money but many people lost. Think about it logically - if someone has tipped a stock online or in the press, that will usually move the price up. As more and more people follow that tip then the price is likely to rise. The tipster sees his investment gain. If you come along a while later and buy, then sure, you may see it rise in value. But all the short term investors who bought before you may well start selling to take their profits. This forces the price down. You could be left high and dry wondering whether to sell earlier than you wanted to.
If you are going to invest in a company you need to investigate it properly. What profits are they making? Are those profits increasing year on year and expected to continue to do so? Do they have a dominant product that is likely to remain so? Maybe they are expanding into new territories. Is the Exec Mgmt a well thought of group who know what they're doing? Etc
You could pretend to invest. i.e. pick a share and imagine you've bought £1k's worth. Then track its performance over the next few weeks and monitor for announcements and results. Don't fret that you could have made £200 profit or whatever if the price rises as until you're in the position of owning shares and sitting on any sort of minor profit (or loss) you won't appreciate the "should I sell now or hold on?" pressure.
I don't mean to sound condescending and hope you understand why I've said the above. Shares are long term investments and self selection can be very risky. You could consider buying into a unit trust which invests in a multitude of different shares. That protects you more from a bad stock but of course is likely to return less than investing in a single stock if that stock was a high flier
Good luck. If you do invest then only invest what you can afford to lose.