Looking at how to get started with investments there are various ways. The best route will depend on how much you want to invest, your confidence level and your risk appetite.
There are of course other options such as getting involved with smaller firms not on stock exchanges, however the risk/reward of small businesses is a lot higher. That is not something we would look into as financial advisers however.
Here we will take a look at some of the more common options that we can help with.
Self investing
There are sites such as Trading212 for example. If you are looking to just do a small amount of trading to have a bit of a dabble, this could be the ideal way to get started.
The risk will be greater as you have nobody on your side to help. But likewise the risk is probably quite low as the amount you are investing is minimal.
Back in 2024, I started to put a little bit into my Trading212 account. In general I have seen a positive return. At the time of writing this article, I am 34% up. One of my investments is 120% up! I have a few at 65-75% and some at around 30% up. The monetary amounts are not significant as like I mentioned I have just been having a dabble to get used to the system. As the saying goes, never invest more than you are prepared to lose…
This is why it is important to stress the word dabble – I have 2 investments I made where one lost 100% and another where I lost 89%, I have others which are currently down, but at least those businesses are still trading and so could recover in time. Lessons learnt here, in that the 2 that went under were on the FTSE250 (not the FTSE100) which shows why risk factors are important.
But we have to remember at the time of writing, this is what is known as a bear market. It is difficult to make a loss in a bear market so long as you get out in time. But clearly as you can see from my dabble, that does not mean losses are not possible during the good times – they are.
This is why I say it is worth only looking at self investing if it is a dabble and you are prepared to lose anything you invest.
Using a financial adviser
Generally speaking an adviser comes in when you are looking to up the amount you invest. This is where it become a little more serious in terms of losses and gains.
You will likely want the additional protection a financial adviser gives you. You will likely appreciate them tailoring their advice to your risk appetite.
Our research will be thorough, it will be documented and then it will be reviewed and tailored over time depending on how the markets are performing, your requirements and so on.