Anteater

It's the "Lose weight, get fit and give all your money to Lawrence" plan.

I'm not a financial advisor and even if I was I wouldn't be giving you financial advice on a forum. This is my personal approach to index investing...
In case you're not aware of it: https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/ and https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/
If you haven't worked out what sort of balance you want in your portfolio (or want to know more about constructing a portfolio generally), I recommend the book "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale.
I have a number of different funds in different vehicles depending on availability, etc. Generally what I'm trying to do is to:
- choose an appropriate equity/bond split (say, 80/20 inside pensions/SIPPs and a little more conservative, maybe 70/30 in ISAs);
- have the bond part split equally into index-linked gilts and short-term gilts (but in some cases can't really do that so have general short-term bonds);
- have the equity part more-or-less be market-weighted global equities.
I don't really care about ETFs vs OEICs. I pick funds by checking the options (for the type of fund) from the Monevator page and see which are available. (In some cases I might have to mess around a little more, eg having a UK fund and an ex-UK fund if there isn't a good option for all-world.)
An easier option would be to pick a fund with an appropriate equity/bond mix from the range of Vanguard Lifestrategy (but these have something of a UK home bias last time I checked) or BlackRock Consensus funds. These might not be quite as "tuned" as you'd like for your own personal preferences but they make it a little harder to make serious mistakes.

I'm not a financial advisor and even if I was I wouldn't be giving you financial advice on a forum. This is my personal approach to index investing...
In case you're not aware of it: https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/ and https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/
If you haven't worked out what sort of balance you want in your portfolio (or want to know more about constructing a portfolio generally), I recommend the book "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale.
I have a number of different funds in different vehicles depending on availability, etc. Generally what I'm trying to do is to:
- choose an appropriate equity/bond split (say, 80/20 inside pensions/SIPPs and a little more conservative, maybe 70/30 in ISAs);
- have the bond part split equally into index-linked gilts and short-term gilts (but in some cases can't really do that so have general short-term bonds);
- have the equity part more-or-less be market-weighted global equities.
I don't really care about ETFs vs OEICs. I pick funds by checking the options (for the type of fund) from the Monevator page and see which are available. (In some cases I might have to mess around a little more, eg having a UK fund and an ex-UK fund if there isn't a good option for all-world.)
An easier option would be to pick a fund with an appropriate equity/bond mix from the range of Vanguard Lifestrategy (but these have something of a UK home bias last time I checked) or BlackRock Consensus funds. These might not be quite as "tuned" as you'd like for your own personal preferences but they make it a little harder to make serious mistakes.

It's the "Lose weight, get fit and give all your money to Lawrence" plan.

I'm not a financial advisor and even if I was I wouldn't be giving you financial advice on a forum. This is my personal approach to index investing...
In case you're not aware of it: https://monevator.com/low-cost-index-trackers/ and https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/
If you haven't worked out what sort of balance you want in your portfolio (or want to know more about constructing a portfolio generally), I recommend the book "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale.
I have a number of different funds in different vehicles depending on availability, etc. Generally what I'm trying to do is to:
- choose an appropriate equity/bond split (say, 80/20 inside pensions/SIPPs and a little more conservative, maybe 70/30 in ISAs);
- have the bond part split equally into index-linked gilts and short-term gilts (but in some cases can't really do that so have general short-term bonds);
- have the equity part more-or-less be market-weighted global equities.
I don't really care about ETFs vs OEICs. I pick funds by checking the options (for the type of fund) from the Monevator page and see which are available. (In some cases I might have to mess around a little more, eg having a UK fund and an ex-UK fund if there isn't a good option for all-world.)
An easier option would be to pick a fund with an appropriate equity/bond mix from the range of Vanguard Lifestrategy (but these have something of a UK home bias last time I checked) or BlackRock Consensus funds. These might not be quite as "tuned" as you'd like for your own personal preferences but they make it a little harder to make serious mistakes.

When are the new coins with Charles 3RD being released? Brits, sovereigns etc.....
Not seen a lot on BBP or Royal Mint sites, just a few commemorative coins. 
Speaking of which, are people buying these?
https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/proof-sets/proof-sovereigns/queen-elizabeth-ii-memorial-sovereign-2022-gold-proof-coin/
Thats all, cheers AaaGee

Also trying to do this. Also been thinking about how to publicise the possible consequences of society going cashless (which won't be seen until we really are cashless). Anyone good at video animation?

Will do more to spend cash. Its too easy to just use a contactless card.
3k budget on PMs this year. Would like to double that but im being realistic. Less silver, more gold.
Find a job that i enjoy.
Keep a roof over my head.
More goals than resolutions.
 
AaaGee

Well another year draws to its end. I found myself wondering what have I manged to achieve this year? To be fair not a lot. My biggest achievement was to pay off the mortgage. Just under 15 years early. Just goes to show the power of making over payments. Start with what you can and build up the over payment.
Having given it only a little bit of thought I've come up with the following
!, Use cash only when in person, small attempt to halt the march to a cashless society.
2, Use my full ISA allowance for savings. I tend to use this as retirement savings. If needed I can access it now instead of having it locked away until I'm 57 or even 58 by the time I get there.
3, It would be nice to get either a gold ounce a month or a sovereign a week. I intend on using what I would have been paying the mortgage with. 
4, I would like a few kilo bars of silver
5, Try to find a half decent van instead of the pile of scrap I'm driving at the moment. Its got to be costing me a sovereign a month in bl@#&y repairs
Anyhow. I'm not sure how this will align with everyone else's goals. not withstanding trying to remain healthy and happy. 
I would like to wish everyone wonderful New Year, Healthy, Happy and prosperous. I've only been on the forum for less than a fortnight but I've been made welcome, made a deal and gained quite a bit of information. I may even expand my bullion collection in to some proofs. Many thanks to all

My New years resolution is. When in person, always use cash. Use it or loose it. My small attempt to halt the ever approaching cashless society. Apparently, 6 out of 10 transactions is now done cashless.  

I’ll go check out on Thursday, I lived in Bristol for ten years and didn’t even know they existed. 

It is actually an image. webp is an image format which is supposedly the hot new thing but isn't actually all that well supported yet. Here it is as a .gif...

Prices have definitely softened in the past few months, I also purchased a 2013 Britannia set for only 5% above spot.
 

I was delighted to buy this 2014 Britannia Premium set at Auction for only 7% above spot including buyers premium and shipping.
 
 

I’m going to go try and check out the Nottingham one out between Christmas and New Year I think.

Yeah I was disappointed, would be happy to be wrong but I’m sure the old boy told me that, unless he just didn’t want me as a returning customer 🤣

Must have been an old link I found, bummer

Only thing I can add is I know saltford coins is now online only, nice old couple run it and they have a table at the London coin fair ☺️

After a sniff around their website I would surmise they are a bullion operation a la bullionbypost etc as opposed to a coin shop in the traditional sense. Odd not to have live pricing if this is the case though, but then the website itself is very basic especially if it's a part of a larger corporate operation. If you're their anyway drop in to suss it out for fun?
A quick search brought up the name Saltford Coins which looks more like a coin shop. It was a brief glance so not sure if they sell bullion metal too. I'd have a good hunt around online for addresses and phone numbers, some places won't have a presence online as such so won't be immediately obvious.

Why not phone them first and enquire about the price of coins / bars that you're interested in.
That way, at least you'll know what the premium they charge and decide whether it is worth a visit.

Never used unfortunately, not that I could 😕 
Why have a website with no pricing? Suppose its a big surprise until you land at the shop 😆 

You've been waiting 130 years for your Christmas pud?

You've been waiting 130 years for your Christmas pud?

I can’t speak from experience as I’ve never been to them, but, I think they’re part of something bigger.
I knew I recognised a couple of the videos they have on their website.. It’s the same as the Nottingham one.
https://nottinghambullion.co.uk

You've been waiting 130 years for your Christmas pud?