Index funds

[SiCole]

Started looking into index funds and ETF's with a Lifetime and S&S ISA and would be good to see which funds people currently invest in  

[Anteater]

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.

Edited December 28, 2022 by Anteater

[ZRPMs]

Having a S & S ISA makes sense for mid to long term savings. Its a tax efficient vehicle. Check round for the fee's though. I believe Vanguard has been the industry leader for quite a long time on the fee's charged for their index funds and ETF's. However there are a few new guys out there now, InvestEngine springs to mind but there are others. I find my ISA a good place to build up some liquid funds. I have a regular amount go into it each month, then as its a long term saving vehicle for me, when I have some extra I put it into the fund or funds that have dropped in price a little. This helps keep a lower pound cost average. As the say " Your capital is at risk and may go down as well as increase " Its long term and any downward pressure that reduces the value of the fund will only get me when I sell the units. Hopefully and with a bit of good luck and fortune when I need the cash The fund will be well into the black.

As always do your own research when choosing any investments and make sure its right for you and your own personal circumstance's.