douglas chadwickIt’s frightening how much of people’s savings is just lying around doing nothing. Why is this frightening? Because if you want a comfortable retirement for you and your family, you should make sure that your money is actively working for you – consider DIY investing, don’t leave it ‘sitting under the mattress’.

 

 

According to figures from HM Revenue & Customs, £270 billion is currently held in cash ISAs; with today’s low interest rates, this money is earning virtually nothing and, in many cases, is actually losing value.

Research by broker Hargreaves Lansdown has shown that there’s a further £400 billion lying around in underperforming ‘dinosaur’ investments such as with-profits funds.

‘£400 billion lying around in underperforming ‘dinosaur’ investments such as with-profits funds’

This is such a huge waste – if your money is in a Cash ISA or an underperformer, consider how much this is costing you over the long term. It could be tens of thousands of pounds. You have done the difficult bit, which is to save this nest-egg and place it in an ISA protecting it from future tax demands. Sadly, you have then sat on your hands and not done the easy bit, which is to make it grow in a safe and sensible fashion, while allowing compound interest to be left to work its magic.

Let’s say you have £25,000 in savings. Just look at the difference in returns over the next five to twenty years, depending on whether you put that money in a Cash ISA or invest it conservatively in the stock market.

A Cash ISA might give you 1.5% interest; a conservative stock market investment could give you a 7% return, and in this example, I’ve then deducted £300 a year for costs. Here’s the startling difference in results:

 

SDI 1017 1

 

As you can see, even after just five years the stock market strategy is ahead by over £6,000. And if you keep the stock market strategy going for 20 years, you could be up over £50,000 and your savings pot could be more than double the amount you would have made from a cash ISA; that’s an enormous difference.

 

Industry not your friend

 

Please bear in mind, however, that the financial services industry is not really motivated to help you out.

Why? Because its members still charge their fees, whether your wealth increases or not. Your savings pot is your baby and no-one else’s, and it’s in your hands to turn the situation around.

Many people quite wrongly see stock market investing in the same negative light as betting on a horse race. They are put off by the perception that the risks are high and the chances of winning are low. But that does not have to be the case.

 

diy investing

 

As the graph shows, the cautious Saltydog Tugboat portfolio has by and large avoided the five major stock market falls over the past six years, and yet still produces an average annual return of more than 7%.

Not everybody will have the ability or temperament to run their own investment portfolio, but there are many who could if they tried.

Today, DIY investing is possible for anybody with a computer and access to the internet; the arrival of fund supermarkets has made it cheap, quick and easy.

‘your savings pot could be more than double the amount you would have made from a cash ISA’

To be a successful momentum investor, following strong performance, you need continuous up-to-date accurate information, and it is vital that decisions should not be based on rumour, speculation and hearsay.

The Saltydog Investor was developed to assist people in making these initial steps. We are enthusiastic advocates of active fund momentum investing, and issue weekly unbiased performance numbers to use for decision-making.

We invest in funds, and advocate that investment decisions should be based on selecting the Investment Association sector first and the fund second. When a sector is performing well, like a rising tide it will float all the funds in that sector. A momentum strategy has energy and strength to produce the growth that we are looking to achieve.

 

diy investing

 

Saltydog Investor is the UK`s first fund performance data monthly subscription newsletter which provides a weekly electronic fund performance data feed, aimed at the D.I.Y. investor. It provides listings of the top ten percentage of performing funds, sorted by sector and volatility, in an easy to understand, accessible format. Saltydog Investor is designed to encourage and enable lay investors to manage their own investments. www.saltydoginvestor.com or visit our partner page here

 

 

Focus on Funds Magazine – Passionate about active investment management.
Click the image to view Issue 3

focus on funds





Leave a Reply