FQ. Saving/ Investing. UK ISA (tax free) account - Stocks / Investment.
Aim: to save money when there is almost no interest in bank saving accounts.
I opened an account around April. Eventually now I decided to have a serious look.
Just a personal experience. (See below for other background.)
Problem to solve:
- To choose quality funds +/ equities +/ trusts to help me increase my savings
- while trying to choose more sustainable investment and ideally not into weapons or tobacco, etc. Not too keen on chemicals or pollution-causing industries. Ideally environmental friendly, and, or, ethical.
- To know the real situation of lossing or earning / lost or profit
My Solutions:
Tools: MorningStar. Trustnet.
Originally I checked with Martin Lewis Money and chose Cavendish. But later Fidelity bought Cavendish. Anyway for the time being I use Fidelity.
Originally I use MorningStar - tools.
📐Screeners function & 📐Investment Compare function.
Then sort long term performance, ranking "10 years" high to low.
I jotted down my observation in a notebook.
Only simple notes on the performance.
Later I added more info when I jotted down notes.
Recently, I also use Trustnet which has interactive lists after a flexible search. The interface and page layout is reasonable with colour-coded graphs.
Here, I use Japan funds as an example. (Too many UK funds or US funds to list. You can choose other regions or themes)
Problem to solve 3- tools in Fidelity & MorningStar do not show the real situation.
They do not cover all the fees I have paid for each funds/ equity/ trust. (as I was doing the minimum amount, buying equity and trust will have to pay a relatively high fee each time)
My solution 3.
I have to use a spreadsheet to input my entries by hand,
recalculate the real cost including the fees.
Then, copy & paste market value to minus the real cost to find out the answer.
Problem to solve 4
Need automation of the tasks.
Solution?
Please kindly offer some good suggestions.
Using MacBook Pro "Numbers" for Mac.
No plan to use MS Office or Google Sheet at the moment.
Background:
Last year, I also try to warm up playing a timed online simulation game Telegraph Fantasy Fund of London stock market. In between April and February, I infrequently & irregularly bought something to test the water.
(Over a decade ago, I also tried the Investopedia investment game but that is USA investment.)
Some years ago, First State was good. But then it was split, companies and personnel changed.
Up to September it is relatively free to buy funds at the platform , and lower cost to buy stock/trust if bought via monthly saving plan. So I hope to get things establish before that.
Next blog entries : my second part of this research about Japan funds
Diversify! Put 10% in the most risky segment (Bitcoin) then go in 10% segments down the lowest risk, a money market fund. I currently like General Electric and Exxon Mobil as long term plays.
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