August 1, 2023

My Investments Update – August 2023

Nick Investing events, property, crowdfunding 4 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my July 2023 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll start as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).

As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £21,548. Last month it stood at £21,044 so that is a rise of £504.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,383 compared with £3,293 a month ago, an increase of £90. Here is a screen capture showing performance since the start of this year.

This has clearly been another good month for both my Nutmeg pots. Their total value has risen by £594 or 2.44% month on month. Since the start of 2023 the net value of my Nutmeg investments has grown by £2,010 or 8.78%. Compared with mid-October last year that’s an impressive rise of £3,118 or 14.29%.

Of course, all investing is (or should be) a long-term endeavour. Over a period of years stock market investments such as those used by Nutmeg typically produce better returns than cash accounts, often by substantial margins. But there are never any guarantees, and in in the short to medium term at least, losses are always possible.

Also, as you may know, both my Nutmeg pots have quite high risk levels (9/10 main, 5/5 Smart Alpha). If you haven’t yet seen it, you might like to check out my blog post in which I looked at the performance over time of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 . I was pretty amazed by the difference risk level makes, with higher-risk ports over almost any period of three or more years in the last ten generating significantly better overall returns. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) choosing a hyper-cautious low-risk level might not therefore be the smartest strategy. The one exception is if you plan to withdraw your money soon and don’t want to risk losing too much if there is a sudden downturn.

You can read my full Nutmeg review here (including a special offer at the end for PAS readers). If you are looking for a home for your annual ISA allowance, based on my overall experience over the last seven years, they are certainly worth considering. They offer self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) and Junior ISAs as well.

I also have investments with the property crowdlending platform Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching every week. I currently have £2,185 invested with them in 18 different projects paying interest rates typically around 7%. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

Last month a couple of my Kuflink loans were repaid, so I got my capital back with interest. I decided to withdraw about half of the proceeds to help pay for a couple of big purchases. The other half I reinvested in short-term loans on Kuflink’s secondary marketplace.

I heard this month that Kuflink are changing their terms and conditions. Specifically, from Monday 21st August there will be an initial minimum investment of £1,000 and a minimum investment per project of £500.

Kuflink say they are doing this to streamline their operation and minimize costs. I can understand their reasoning, though it does mean the option to ‘test the water’ with a small first investment has been removed. It will also make it harder for small investors (like myself) to build a well-diversified portfolio on a limited budget. As mentioned, my current portfolio of £2,185 comprises 18 different investments ranging from £50 to £200. Once the minimum £500 per project limit applies, the same amount of money would only stretch to four!

One possible way around this is to invest using Kuflink’s Auto/IFISA facility. Your money here is automatically invested across a basket of loans over a period from one to three years. The rates on offer from August 1 2023 are shown in the graphic below.

As you may gather, you can invest tax-free in a Kuflink Auto IFISA. Or if you have already used your annual iFISA allowance elsewhere, you can invest via a taxable Auto account.

You can read my full Kuflink review here. Note that I haven’t updated the information there about minimum investments as yet, but will do so shortly. You can of course still invest smaller amounts than £500 until the August 21st deadline.

Moving on, my Assetz Exchange investments continue to generate steady returns. Regular readers will know that this is a P2P property investment platform focusing on lower-risk properties (e.g. sheltered housing). I put an initial £100 into this in mid-February 2021 and another £400 in April. In June 2021 I added another £500, bringing my total investment up to £1,000.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £128.32 in revenue from rental income. As I said in last month’s update, capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 12 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 1 is breaking even, and the remaining 13 are showing losses. My portfolio is currently showing a net decrease in value of £17.46, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £110.86. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

Obviously the fall in capital value of my AE investments is slightly disappointing. But it’s important to bear in mind that unless and until I choose to sell the investments in question, it is largely theoretical. The rental income, on the other hand, is real money (which in my case I have chosen to reinvest in other AE projects to further diversify my portfolio).

I also spoke to the CEO of Assetz Exchange, Peter Read, recently. He made the point that capital values on the platform simply reflect the latest price at which shares in the property concerned have changed hands on their exchange. They do not represent objective or independent valuations of the properties. If you are investing long term with AE, the annual yield from rentals is really a much more important consideration.

Peter also made the point that the current high inflation rate has actually been beneficial for Assetz Exchange investors. That is because properties on the platform generally have an annual review when rentals are increased in line with inflation. That means from the end of the financial year in April, rentals have increased in most cases by around 10%. Assetz Exchange recently published a blog post about this which is worth a read.

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned (especially now that Kuflink have raised their minimum investment per project to £500). You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

My investment on Assetz Exchange is in the form of an IFISA so there won’t be any tax to pay on profits, dividends or capital gains. I’ve been impressed by my experiences with Assetz Exchange and the returns generated so far, and intend to continue investing with them. You can read my full review of Assetz Exchange here. You can also sign up for an account on Assetz Exchange directly via this link [affiliate].

Last year I set up an account with investment and trading platform eToro, using their popular ‘copy trader’ facility. I chose to invest $500 (then about £412) copying an experienced eToro trader called Aukie2008 (real name Mike Moest).

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen capture below, my original investment of $1,022.26 is today worth $1,208.40, an overall increase of $186.14 or 18.20%. in these turbulent times I am very happy with that.

In the last month my Tesla shares and my copy trading portfolio with Aukie2008 have both done well. I am also pleased that my investment in Oil Worldwide is back in profit again. This has happened since the Oil Worldwide portfolio was rebalanced by eToro – which is, of course, as I hoped

You can read my full review of eToro here. You may also like to check out my more in-depth look at eToro copy trading. I also discussed thematic investing with eToro using Smart Portfolios in this recent post. The latter also reveals why I took the somewhat contrarian step of choosing the oil industry for my first thematic investment.

eToro also recently introduced the eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself recently and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here.

I had two more articles published in July on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first was How to Make Money Selling Photos to Stock Photography Services. If you enjoy photography – even if only on your mobile phone – this is definitely an opportunity you should check out.

My other article was How to Find Out What Your State Pension Will Be. The state pension is a very important component of most people’s income in later life (including mine). In this article I discuss changes to the state pension age and explain how to check when you will become eligible and how much you are on track to receive. I also discuss what options you may have if your projected pension is less than you hoped.

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving. I particularly like the ‘Deals of the Week’ feature compiled by Jordon Cox (‘Britain’s Coupon Kid’) which lists all the best current money-saving offers for savvy shoppers. Check out the latest edition here 🙂

I also published several new posts on Pounds and Sense in July. One of these was Make a Sideline Income Renting Out Your Driveway. As I explain in the article, this is a money-making opportunity that – if you’re in a position to do it – can bring you a steady income for very little effort.

Also in July I published an article explaining why it was Time to Use or Exchange Your Old Non-Barcoded Postage Stamps. That deadline has now passed, but if you still have any ordinary non-barcoded stamps lying around, as the article explains, you can still exchange them using Royal Mail’s ‘Swap Out’ scheme.

Investing Basics for Beginners is a collaborative post with my friends at the European crowdlending platform Mintos. The article sets out some basic principles for anyone who may be considering investing for the first time (though it may also be of interest to more experienced investors).

Finally in July I published Five Things I Have Learned from my eToro Virtual Portfolio. Anyone with an eToro account gets a $100,000 virtual account to practise trading and investing with. I have found this interesting and enjoyable, not to mention educational. In the article I set out five lessons learned from my virtual account that have helped inform my real-life investing decisions. I am considering publishing a further update about my virtual portfolio and how it’s doing, if there is sufficient interest in this.

Lastly, I would mention that the opportunity to Get a Free ETF Share Worth up to £200 with Wealthyhood is still open. To remind you, Wealthyhood is a DIY wealth-building app aimed especially at people new to stock market investing. As from June 2023 they changed their fee structure to make it (even) more attractive to small investors. They have now increased the minimum investment to qualify for the free share offer from £20 to £50 – but on the plus side, they guarantee that your free ETF share will be worth at least £10.

That’s all for today. I hope you’re enjoying the summer, even though July has been a damp squib in Britain compared with June. If you’re looking for some ideas for short breaks, don’t forget to check out my blog post listing some of my favourite UK holiday destinations. Here’s hoping the warm, sunny weather makes a reappearance soon…

As always, if you have any comments or queries, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

Disclaimer: I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this blog post should be construed as personal financial advice. Everyone should do their own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.

Note also that posts may include affiliate links. If you click through and perform a qualifying transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or the terms you are offered, but it does help support me in publishing PAS and paying my bills. Thank you!

Cover image courtesy of BingAI.

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July 26, 2023

Make a Sideline Income Renting Out Your Driveway

Nick Making Money, Saving Money reviews, travel, motoring 1 Comment

Today I’m sharing a sideline money-making opportunity that – if you’re in a position to do it – can bring in a steady income for very little effort.

The shortage of parking spaces in many towns and cities has created an opportunity for anyone who has a driveway (or garage) they aren’t using all the time.

One of the best-known operators in this field is JustPark. Through their website and mobile app, they put drivers in touch with home-owners and businesses who have parking spaces (and/or EV charging spaces) available near their destination. They say they help over 10 million drivers a year find parking spaces at over 45,000 UK locations.

Listing your space is free and you can set your own price based on how long the driver wishes to stay. JustPark will suggest an appropriate price based on your location and the facilities you are offering, but you aren’t obliged to accept this.

JustPark charges space-owners a 3% fee on one-off bookings (so if you charge £10 they will take 30p, meaning you receive £9.70). For longer term or rolling bookings over two months, they charge space-owners a higher fee of 20% for the first month, with the fee reverting to the standard 3% after that.

JustPark also make money from drivers, adding up to 25% of the space-owner’s asking price to the fee charged. They say, however, that charges to drivers are still typically 30% lower than ad hoc street parking (if you can find it), which makes the service attractive to motorists as well.

One big attraction of JustPark is that they handle all the admin on your behalf. All payments are made via the website, and space-owners can withdraw earnings via PayPal or direct to their bank account. JustPark also ensure you still get paid even if the booker doesn’t turn up.

JustPark say that the money you earn from renting out your parking space is included in the property trading income allowance introduced by the government in April 2017 – so you can make up to £1,000 per year completely tax-free (and no need to declare it to the taxman).

All drivers using the service have to register on the site, so you know exactly who will be using your space on any given day. There is also a rating system so you can see any comments other users of the service have made about them. Space-owners are also rated by drivers, incidentally.

You can offer spaces by the day, week or month, and set any restrictions you wish on when your space is available. Anyone is welcome to advertise spaces on JustPark, but the locations in most demand are those near airports, stations and stadiums, and in major cities. According to one recent article in the Daily Mail, people in such areas are making more than £4,000 a year doing this. Even if that doesn’t apply to you, though, you can still earn from a few hundred pounds a year to £1000 or more by this means.

Obviously the pandemic and working from home reduced demand for parking spaces. But with life returning to normal now, demand for parking spaces is steadily increasing again.

Of course, if you don’t have a suitable space to offer, you won’t be able to benefit from this opportunity. You could still use JustPark to save money on your own parking costs, though. Either way, the service is well worth checking out 🙂

Another option for cheaper parking is Your Parking Space. Over 60s can get an exclusive 10% discount on this service through my friends at Over 60s Discounts.

Disclosure: As well as being a registered user of JustPark I am an affiliate for them and will therefore receive a small commission if you click through any of my links and sign up. This will not affect the money you earn through the site and/or any savings you make if you use them to find parking spaces.

Cover image by courtesy of BingAI.

This is a fully revised and updated version of my original article on this subject.

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July 21, 2023

Time to Use or Exchange Your Old Non-Barcoded Postage Stamps!

Nick Everything Else events, shopping 0 Comments

A quickie today to remind you that you have just 10 days left to use or exchange any remaining non-barcoded stamps you may have. The stamps concerned are the plain ones with the late Queen’s head on (all stamps with the new King’s head are barcoded).

Christmas stamps and other ‘special’ stamps with pictures on will continue to be valid for the foreseeable future, but it would still be a good idea to use them up now (or give them to a collector in the family!).

If you can’t use the stamps before the end of July, you can exchange them free of charge using Royal Mail’s Swap Out scheme. You will need to complete a Stamp Swap Out form for stamps worth up to £200, or a Bulk Stamp Swap Out form for stamps worth more than £200. Forms are available from post offices, though note that you cannot exchange the stamps themselves there.

An image from the Royal Mail website showing which stamps can and can’t be swapped is shown below.

The deadline for using plain non-barcoded stamps is 31 July 2023. If you use them after that date, the recipient will have to pay a fee (to be announced) on delivery. That’s assuming they are delivered at all, of course.

As well as post offices, you can print Swap Out forms from the Royal Mail website, or phone their customer services on 03457 740740 to request one. There is currently no deadline for the Swap Out scheme and it will continue after 31 July 2023, though again it may be best to do this sooner rather than later.

For more information on the Swap Out scheme – and barcoded stamps more generally – see Royal Mail’s Barcoded Stamps info page.

As always, if you have any comments or queries about this post (no pun intended!), please do leave them below.

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July 15, 2023

Investing Basics for Beginners

Nick Investing reviews, crowdfunding 0 Comments

Today I have a collaborative post for you in association with my friends at European crowdlending platform Mintos.

The article sets out some basic principles for anyone who may be considering investing for the first time.

Table of Contents

Introduction

if you’re looking to build long-term wealth and create the financial means to achieve life-long goals, investing can be the key to doing this. To get you started, we’ve put together an overview of what investing is, what people invest in, how people invest, and what you might need to start your investment journey.

Key takeaways

Investing can be an effective way to build long-term wealth and unlock financial freedom.
When you invest, you can expect to earn a profit on the money you have invested, otherwise known as an investment return.
Investment returns compound (grow bigger and bigger) each time you reinvest them, helping you achieve financial goals faster.
Investments are referred to as assets; they are grouped into asset classes, e.g. cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and alternatives.
Anyone can start investing, regardless of experience or financial situation. Even just a little money can go a long way.

What Is Investing?

Whether consciously or not, we invest our time and energy throughout our lives, whether it’s on getting a university degree or learning to cook a new recipe. Typically we do these things because we expect them to bring us value in future, e.g. landing our dream job after finishing university.

With investing money, the concept is similar – you put your money into something with the expectation that you’ll make a profit from this in the future.

The profit you earn from investments is commonly referred to as a return. This is often expressed as a percentage. For example, if you invest €1000 in something and at the end of the investment period, you get back €1100, then your profit would be €100, giving you a 10% return on your investment.

Why Do People Invest?

For many years people have used investing as a means to build their wealth. The reason long-term investing is so effective is because of compound growth. Investment returns compound (grow bigger and bigger) each time they are reinvested, helping you achieve your financial goals faster.

For example, if you invest €100 a month over the next 20 years at an 8% interest rate, each year your funds will grow at a faster pace (see chart below). The idea is that by the end of the investment period, you will have significantly more money than if you’d added the same amount to a savings account.

For many, investing provides the means to pay for education, home ownership, cars, travel, retirement, and so on. So people often look to investing because it can provide them with opportunities.

What Do People Usually Invest In?

When you own something of value that can be converted to money, it’s described as an asset. Assets can be liquid, meaning they can be quickly converted to money, or illiquid, where it’s more time-consuming and complex to turn them into money.

In the investment market, assets are categorized into asset classes. These are groups of assets with similar characteristics. Some examples of popular asset classes are:

Where to Start?

As you can see, there are many different ways of investing. How people choose often comes down to prior experience and financial objectives. Although the investment landscape may seem vast, there are options to suit everybody.

A great way to get started is to set investment goals. Once you have some clarity around your goals and budget, you can begin to research which assets or asset classes will suit your financial objectives and risk appetite.

Investment platforms that offer simple, automated investing strategies can be an easy place to begin. These strategies are built using expert analysis and data, reducing the need for prior expertise or in-depth research. An example here is Wealthyhood.

Investments in Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs (large investment portfolios investors can buy shares in) are also relatively straightforward. They’re managed by investment firms and require no work from an investor’s perspective. One example of a robo-adviser investment platform that uses ETFs is Nutmeg.

Or, if you’d like more control, you can research and make individual investment decisions yourself using brokers or self-investment platforms such as eToro.

Some investors only have one asset, such as a real estate (property) investment. Others own many different assets, forming what’s known as an investment portfolio.

When creating a portfolio, it’s important not to put all your eggs in one basket. It can be beneficial to invest smaller amounts across multiple assets, so your lower-risk investments balance the higher-risk ones – an investment strategy known as diversification. Doing this can increase the chances you’ll achieve the returns you expected while reducing the risk of significant losses.

Many investment platforms only require small amounts to get started. For example, on Mintos you can begin investing with just €50 (around £43). When you invest responsibly, even a little money can go a long way and bring you closer to achieving your financial goals.

As mentioned earlier, Mintos is a European crowdlending platform. Your money is invested in loans to businesses and private individuals arranged by MIntos’s partner lending companies from around the world.

As Mintos is a European operation, you will need to invest in euro and your returns will be paid in this currency. That obviously adds a layer of complication for UK residents, but there are various ways around this. If you have a UK bank account you will normally be able to make (and receive) payments in euro, but may be charged a transaction fee.

You could use your own bank to fund your account initially, but if you become a regular investor with Mintos you might want to use a service/account that charges lower fees. You could use a money transfer service such as Paysera or Wise (formally TransferWise). These will enable you to transfer funds between Mintos and your own bank account with (potentially) lower charges and a more favourable exchange rate.

Another option would be to open a euro account with a provider such as Starling. This will allow you to receive and make payments in both sterling and euro, again at a lower overall cost.

If you’d like to check out the options for inventors on Mintos – and learn more about how they operate and how risks are managed – please see this page of their website. Since 2015, investors with Mintos have earned a 9.54% net return per year on average. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of how any investment platform will do in future.

Special Bonus!

Until 30 August 2023, if you click through any link to Mintos in this article and invest €1000 or more, you will get a €50 instant bonus and a 1% bonus of your average investment in the first 90 days.

If you invest €5000, for example, in addition to the returns advertised, you will also receive a €50 instant bonus and a further 1% bonus of €50 after 90 days.

Thank you again to my friends at Mintos for their assistance with this article. If you have any comments or questions, as always, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post in association with Mintos. I am not a registered financial adviser and nothing in this article should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and if in any doubt seek advice from a registered financial adviser before proceeding. All investing carries a risk of loss.

This post includes affiliate links. If you click through and make an investment (or perform some other designated action) I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the product or service you receive or any charges you may pay. Note also that the special bonus referred to in this article is only available if you click through one of my links and will not apply if you go to the Mintos website directly.

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Five things I have learned from my virtual eToro portfolio

July 7, 2023

Five Things I Have Learned From My eToro Virtual Portfolio

Nick Investing reviews 0 Comments

In my post today I’m focusing on the trading and investment platform eToro. I originally reviewed eToro in this post.

eToro is a Israeli fintech company based in Cyprus. The company also has registered offices in the UK, US and Australia. It is a hugely popular platform with 25 million customers from over 140 countries across the world.

eToro is regulated and authorised in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). That means if eToro were to go bust any deposits with them up to £85,000 would be protected. Of course, the FSCS doesn’t protect you if you lose money simply due to your investments performing poorly.

eToro offers a wide range of investment products, from individual shares to cryptocurrencies, commodities to ETFs, currency pairs to copy trading, and thematic investing via smart portfolios. Today, though, I’m focusing on a feature that doesn’t require any outlay at all. This is the facility to operate a $100,000 virtual portfolio on the platform, to familiarise yourself with how it works and test out trading and investing strategies.

I have been an eToro investor for around a year now. I started with a virtual portfolio, but as regular readers will know I have also invested some real money. I do still use my virtual portfolio, however, and have learned a number of valuable lessons from it. So I thought today I’d set out some of these.

I’ll start by showing you some data on how my virtual portfolio has been performing. As I have quite a lot of different investments in this, I have taken two separate screen captures showing first the best performing and then the worst performing. As you will see, I am down a bit overall, but I’m not upset about that as obviously I have been experimenting to try to assess what works and what doesn’t.

Table of Contents

Best Performing Investments

Worst Performing Investments

Some Lessons Learned

I hope you found the screen captures of my virtual portfolio interesting. They include most of my current investments apart from one or two in the middle. I can’t discuss every investment in detail here, but as promised here are some of the lessons that I have drawn from my experiences to date.

Copy trading can be profitable

As you can see, the best performing investment in my virtual portfolio is copy trading Aukie2008 (Mike Moest). This has generated a profit of almost $1000 for me. Regular readers will know that I also invested some real money following this trader and have done well from this too.

I am obviously a fan of the copy trading feature on eToro, though naturally some traders do better than others. When I was starting out I also considered investing some real money following a trader called Nezatron (of course, I wasn’t the least bit influenced by the fact that she is an attractive blonde…). But as you can see above, the results she has achieved over the last year aren’t nearly as impressive.

Please read my blog post about copy trading on eToro for more information about this feature.

Trading in Commodities/CFDs really IS high risk

Another option for investors on eToro is commodities. These range from precious metals through to food products, including the famous (or infamous) pork bellies.

It’s important to understand that when trading in these markets, you are essentially betting on whether the price will go up or down in future. The mechanism for doing this is something called Contracts for Difference, or CFDs for.short.

CFDs are leveraged investment products. That means you can make a lot of money if they go the way you predict but also lose a lot if they go the opposite way.

In my virtual portfolio I have tried commodity trading three times. The first time was with Nickel and I made a big profit. The next was Gold, and I lost all the money I had made with Nickel and a bit besides. Finally, as you can see, I opened a ‘buy’ trade with the rare metal Palladium. This trade also went the wrong way, so I am currently sitting on a loss of almost $4000. Obviously I am glad that isn’t real money!

If you’re wondering why my Nickel and Gold trades aren’t showing in my screen captures, it’s because the stop-profit and stop-loss limits respectively were reached and the trades closed out. You are obliged to set stop profits and stop losses on the eToro platform, though you can of course adjust them subsequently if you wish..

To be fair to eToro, they have warnings across the site that trading with CFDs is extremely risky. But trying it myself (in virtual form) really has brought home to me the risk you are running, especially if you don’t fully understand what you’re doing. Indeed, if it wasn’t for my commodity-trading experiments, my virtual portfolio would be well in profit by now.

If, despite this, you still want to find out more about commodity trading using CFDs, the eToro website has a useful introductory guide here. As for me, I am not planning to try it again any time soon!

You can’t always trust ‘the wisdom of the crowd’

You might wonder how I chose which commodities to invest in. Well, eToro shows you what proportion of investors at any time are buying a particular commodity (i.e. forecasting its price will rise) and what proportion are selling (i.e. forecasting it will fall). Here is a screen capture illustrating this.

No doubt naïvely, I assumed that if a very high proportion of investors are ‘buying’ a particular commodity, doing likewise should be profitable. As mentioned, though, while that worked on the first occasion I tried it, it didn’t on the second or third. So while this information might be useful in some circumstances, my experiences indicate that it is definitely not to be relied upon.

Investing in renewables isn’t a one-way bet

You might also assume (as I did) that in the current climate crisis and manic quest to achieve Net Zero, investing in renewables ought to be a profitable strategy.

To test this, I invested in two eToro smart portfolios in this sector. One is called Renewable Energy and the other Golden Energy. As you can see from my earlier screen capture, both have performed poorly and are at the bottom of my list (just above Palladium). I am currently down about $1000 on each.

In a somewhat ironic twist, my investment in a smart portfolio called Oil Worldwide is actually showing a small profit. Regular readers will be aware that I also have some real money in Oil Worldwide.

I don’t really know why companies in the renewable energy sector should be under-performing (on eToro at any rate). But again it does make the point that what may appear to be ‘nailed-on’ profitable investments can still end up losing money. There is never any guarantee!

You can read my blog post here about smart portfolios, which allow you to invest thematically on eToro.

Health and AI are two sectors worth watching

As you can see, one of the best performing investments in my virtual portfolio was Diabetes-Med. This is a smart portfolio covering companies in the field of diabetes care, treatment and prevention. As someone who has previously been diagnosed prediabetic, I had a particular interest in this. And with diabetes on the rise across the world, it did seem to me it was a sector with good profit potential.

Another of my more profitable investments was Cancer-Med. Again I had personal reasons for wanting to invest in this, as my partner Jayne died from cancer and I have been treated for prostate cancer myself. Obviously a lot of research money goes into cancer, and successful treatments can prove extremely lucrative for the companies concerned.

AI, or artificial intelligence, is a major talking point at the moment. While some concerns have been expressed about its potential downsides, businesses are investing heavily in this field and the potential profits to be made appear huge. eToro doesn’t currently have an AI smart portfolio as such. You can, however, invest in four big tech companies (Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Google) via the Four Horsemen smart portfolio. All four of these companies are currently pouring vast amounts of money into AI research.

My investment in Four Horsemen has generated a decent (virtual) profit for me so far and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I may well be investing some real money in this smart portfolio before long.

Obviously if you wish you can also invest in any of these companies individually via eToro. But the Four Horsemen smart portfolio provides a convenient method for investing in all four, with the portfolio regularly rebalanced to ensure that investors’ funds are divided proportionately among them.

Final Thoughts

So those are five lessons I have learned from my eToro virtual portfolio. I don’t claim any of them are particularly earth-shattering or that they represent deep universal truths. But I have found all of them valuable in different ways and they will certainly inform my investing in future.

If you are interested in investing and/or trading, I do therefore recommend setting up an eToro virtual portfolio and trying different strategies with it. I shall continue to do so myself, alongside my real investments in eToro and elsewhere.

To remind you, you can read my article about setting up an eToro account – which automatically includes a $100,000 virtual portfolio – here. You can also read how my actual (real money) investments with eToro are performing in my monthly investment updates, of which this is the latest.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this article – or eToro more generally – please do post them below.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed. All investing carries a risk of loss.

Please note also that posts on Pounds and Sense may include affiliate links. If you click through these and make a purchase or investment, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect in any way the price you pay or the product/service you receive. In some instances bonuses and other promotional incentives may only be available if you click through my link.

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July 3, 2023

My Investments Update – July 2023

Nick Making Money, Saving Money, Investing events, travel 0 Comments

Here is my latest monthly update about my investments. You can read my June 2023 Investments Update here if you like

I’ll start as usual with my Nutmeg Stocks and Shares ISA. This is the largest investment I hold other than my Bestinvest SIPP (personal pension).

As the screenshot below for the year to date shows, my main Nutmeg portfolio is currently valued at £21,044. Last month it stood at £20,419 so that is a rise of £625.

Apart from my main portfolio, I also have a second, smaller pot using Nutmeg’s Smart Alpha option. This is now worth £3,293 compared with £3,175 a month ago, an increase of £118. Here is a screen capture showing performance since the start of this year.

This has clearly been a better month for both my Nutmeg pots. Their total value has risen by £743 or 3.15% month on month. Since the start of 2023 the net value of my Nutmeg investments has grown by £1,417 or 6.18%.

Also, as you may know, both my Nutmeg pots have quite high risk levels (9/10 main, 5/5 Smart Alpha). If you haven’t yet seen it, you might like to check out my blog post in which I looked at the performance over time of Nutmeg fully managed portfolios at every risk level from 1 to 10 . I was pretty amazed by the difference risk level makes, with higher-risk ports over almost any period of three or more years in the last ten generating significantly better overall returns. If you are investing for the long term (and you almost certainly should be) choosing a hyper-cautious low-risk level might not therefore be the smartest strategy. The one exception is if you plan to withdraw your money soon and don’t want to risk losing too much if there is a sudden downturn.

Since I opened my account, my AE portfolio has generated a respectable £124.53 in revenue from rental income. As I said in last month’s update, capital growth has slowed, though, in line with UK property values generally.

At the time of writing, 12 of ‘my’ properties are showing gains, 2 are breaking even, and the remaining 12 are showing losses. My portfolio is currently showing a net decrease in value of £15.53, meaning that overall (rental income minus capital value decrease) I am up by £109. That’s still a decent return on my £1,000 and does illustrate the value of P2P property investments for diversifying your portfolio. And it doesn’t hurt that with Assetz Exchange most projects are socially beneficial as well.

To control risk with all my property crowdfunding investments nowadays, I invest relatively modest amounts in individual projects. This is a particular attraction of AE as far as i am concerned. You can actually invest from as little as 80p per property if you really want to proceed cautiously.

Another property platform I have investments with is Kuflink. They continue to do well, with new projects launching every week. I currently have around £2,500 invested with them in 17 different projects. To date I have never lost any money with Kuflink, though some loan terms have been extended once or twice. On the plus side, when this happens additional interest is paid for the period in question.

My loans with Kuflink pay annual interest rates of 6 to 7.5 percent. These days I invest no more than £200 per loan (and often less). That is not because of any issues with Kuflink but more to do with losses of larger amounts on other P2P property platforms in the past. My days of putting four-figure sums into any single property investment are behind me now! Nowadays I mainly opt to reinvest the monthly repayments I receive from Kuflink, which has the effect of boosting the percentage rate of return on the projects in question

Obviously a possible drawback with Kuflink and similar platforms is that your money is tied up in bricks and mortar, so not as easily accessible as cash savings or even (to some extent) shares. They do, however, have a secondary market on which you can offer any loan part for sale (as long as the loan in question is performing and not in arrears). Clearly that does depend on someone else wanting to buy it, but my experience has been that any loan parts offered are typically snapped up very quickly. So if an urgent need arises, withdrawing your money (or part of it) is unlikely to be an issue.

You can read my full Kuflink review here. They offer a variety of investment options, including a tax-free IFISA paying up to 7% interest per year with built-in automatic diversification. Alternatively you can build your own IFISA, with most loans on the platform being IFISA-eligible.

Until 31 July 2023 Kuflink are offering enhanced promotional rates of up to 9.73% (gross annual interest equivalent rate) for their Auto-Invest products (IFISA-eligible). There is limited availability for this offer and it may be withdrawn any time before 31 July 2023 if the limit is reached. For more information, click here [affiliate link].

In January 2023 I added to this with another $500 investment in one of their thematic portfolios, Oil Worldwide. I also invested a small amount I had left over in Tesla shares.

As you can see from the screen capture below, my original investment of $1,022.26 is today worth $1,153.25, an overall increase of $130.99 or 12.81%. in these turbulent times I am very happy with that.

Since last month the price of my Tesla shares has risen substantially and my copy trading portfolio with Aukie2008 has also done well (though less spectacularly). My most recent investment in Oil Worldwide has risen a bit this month but it’s still slightly down on when I invested. The Oil Worldwide portfolio has just been rebalanced by eToro, so I am hoping for better things in the months ahead

eToro also recently introduced the eToro Money app. This allows you to deposit money to your eToro account without paying any currency conversion fees, saving you up to £5 for every £1,000 you deposit. You can also use the app to withdraw funds from your eToro account instantly to your bank account. I tried this myself recently and was impressed with how quickly and seamlessly it worked. You can read my blog post about eToro Money here.

I had two more articles published in June on the excellent Mouthy Money website. The first was 10 Great Ways to Save Money on Amazon. Amazon is Britain’s – and the world’s – favourite online store. Prices on Amazon are generally competitive, but over the years I’ve discovered a variety of ways to ensure you get the best value for money from them. So in this article I set out my top ten tips for saving money on Amazon

My other article was Do You Need a Personal Financial Adviser? In this article I discuss the different types of financial adviser and what they do. I also revealed why – despite being a money blogger and considering myself reasonably financially savvy – I have a personal financial adviser myself.

As I’ve said before, Mouthy Money is a great resource for anyone interested in money-making and money-saving I always look forward to reading the articles by my fellow contributors. Shoestring Jane is a particular favourite and I enjoyed reading her recent article concerning how you can Save Money by Reducing Food Waste.

I also published several new posts on Pounds and Sense in June. One of these was My Short Break in Bath. Bath is, of course, a historic city on the River Avon, about 12 miles from Bristol. I went there for three days in June, the first time I had been for over 30 years. In my post I discuss the self-catering apartment where I stayed and reveal some of the things I did and saw. I also share a few top tips for visitors to Bath. The cover image shows the famous Pulteney Bridge, one of Bath’s best-known landmarks.

Also in June I published a guest post titled How to Manage Your Time and Money in Retirement. This came from my friends at Equity Release Supermarket and I thought it was very informative. I also added some thoughts of my own, as you will see.

I also published a post based on a survey of Britons’ investing habits. This addressed questions such as what are the main barriers stopping people investing and where do people get their investment advice from. I thought the results were quite eye-opening. Take a look if you haven’t already.

Finally, I wanted to highlight that the free share offers described in last month’s update are both still open if you haven’t done them yet. The opportunity to Get a Free Share Worth up to £100 with Trading 212 was reopened after closing briefly. It is now on offer till 27 July 2023.

The opportunity to Get a Free ETF Share Worth up to £200 with Wealthyhood is also still open but the terms have changed slightly. To remind you, Wealthyhood is a DIY wealth-building app aimed especially at people who are new to stock market investing. As from 1 June 2023 they changed their fee structure to make it (even) more attractive to small investors. They have now increased the minimum investment to qualify for the free share offer from £20 to £50 – but on the plus side, they guarantee that your free ETF share will be worth at least £10.

That’s all for today. I hope you’re enjoying the summer months and taking the opportunity to get out and about in our beautiful country (or further afield).

As always, if you have any comments or queries, feel free to leave them below. I am always delighted to hear from PAS readers

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June 28, 2023

My Short Break in Bath

Nick Everything Else reviews, property, travel 6 Comments

I recently returned from a three-day break in the historic city of Bath. It was the first time in over 30 years I’d been to Bath, so it’s fair to say I was approaching it with fresh eyes!

I stayed in a one-bedroom self-catering apartment in a large multi-occupied property called Elmbrook. This was about twenty minutes’ walk from the centre of Bath. I arranged it through Booking.com. I’ll say a bit more about the apartment below.

For those who don’t know, Bath is on the River Avon, about 12 miles from Bristol. Here is a map of the area from Google Maps…

Table of Contents

Accommodation

As mentioned, I stayed in a self-catering apartment in a property called Elmbrook. This was on the Weston Road, a short but pleasant walk from the centre of Bath via the Royal Victoria Park and botanical gardens.

You can read more about where I stayed on this page of the Booking.com website (and see photos). One big attraction for me was that a reserved (and free) off-road parking space was available. In Bath – as in many popular tourist areas – finding somewhere to park can be tricky.

The apartment had a good-sized master bedroom with a comfortable double bed. It had a small but perfectly adequate bathroom with a modern power shower (though, somewhat ironically, no bath). The shower worked well and there was plenty of hot water.

The lounge was quite spacious. It was at the front of the house and had a small patio leading from it. Although I didn’t use the patio during my stay, the patio door provided a quick and convenient method for getting my luggage from and to the car! The lounge had a good-quality flat-screen TV and a DVD player with a small selection of DVDs.

The kitchen was at the back of the apartment and had all the facilities you would need or expect, including a modern electric oven and hob, microwave, toaster, fridge, sink, dishwasher, washing machine, and so forth.

The apartment had central heating on a thermostat, though as it was June I didn’t need this. It had free wifi which worked perfectly during my stay (not always the case in my experience). The location was quiet and peaceful, and I slept very well.

Finally I should say that communication from my Booking.com hosts (Nigel and Alison) was excellent. Nigel sent me detailed instructions about how to get there and how to get in (I used the key safe, though he offered to meet me in person if I preferred). They also left me a welcome letter and a basket of goodies, including a bottle of wine, muesli, milk, ground coffee, and so on. That was a kind gesture and obviously much appreciated.

Financials

As Pounds and Sense is primarily a money blog, I should say a few words about this.

I paid a total of £351 (including VAT) for my three-night visit, which works out to £117 a day. I thought that was very reasonable bearing in mind the high standard of the accommodation and the convenience of the location.

Obviously as it was self-catering no meals were included and neither was there a daily housekeeping visit. But on the plus side, I got a lot more space and facilities than I would have had at a hotel, and complete privacy throughout my stay. I’d have to admit that these days I prefer to go self-catering when possible, even if I do miss hotel breakfasts a bit!

Things to Do

I won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of everything I did on my visit. I will share some highlights and personal recommendations, though.

The first thing I did was book a ticket on the Hop On, Hop Off open-top sightseeing buses. My ticket cost me just under £20 after my over-60s discount and a small reduction for booking online. The most you will pay is £22.50, though.

A ticket allows you unlimited travel on two routes, the City Tour and the Skyline Tour. As you would expect, the City Tour takes you round all the main attractions in or near the centre, including the Royal Crescent, The Circus, Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths, Theatre Royal, and so on. You can listen to a commentary that tells you some interesting facts about Bath and its history. Earphones are provided for no extra charge, and you can choose from ten different languages (including English, naturally!). I found this a great way of getting my bearings.

The Skyline Tour takes you further afield, through some of the beautiful countryside surrounding Bath. It affords some wonderful views over the city, and you get to see a range of other interesting locations, including the university, the American museum and two National Trust parks and gardens. Again, an informative commentary is available. On both tours you can get on or off at any of the stops along the route. It’s worth noting that tickets are nominally valid for 24 hours, but I was told you can use them any time over a two-day period, which potentially makes them even better value. I definitely recommend doing this.

One ‘must see’ attraction in Bath is, of course, the stunning Roman Baths that gave the city its name (see cover photo). They aren’t especially cheap to visit (I paid the discounted price of £25 plus £5 for a guidebook), but are definitely worth it. Collect a free handset as you go in. You can then key in the code numbers displayed around the buildings to hear a commentary about what is on view in any particular area. There is loads to see, so I recommend allowing a couple of hours here at least.

Another top tip for visiting the Baths is to pre-book your ticket. I made the mistake of assuming I could just pay the admission fee and walk in, but that’s not generally the case. To manage numbers, visitors have to book a timed slot. I arrived at about midday but the earliest slot available then was 3.15. So I had to book using my mobile phone and come back later. It wasn’t a problem as there were plenty of other things I wanted to see and do – but if I was going again I’d definitely book my preferred day and time well in advance. Similar advice applies to other popular attractions in Bath, including the Jane Austen Centre and the No. 1 Royal Crescent Museum, incidentally.

Another place I especially enjoyed visiting was Bath Abbey. This church and one-time Benedictine monastery in the centre of Bath goes back to the 7th century, though it has been rebuilt several times since then. It is a fine example of Gothic Perpendicular architecture and particularly noted for its beautiful fan vaulting (see my photo below). There is an admission fee but it is relatively modest at about £6.50 (no over-60s discount, I’m afraid!).

I visited the Abbey with my old friend Jeff, who lives quite near Bath. We were lucky in that when we arrived a free tour of the Abbey was just about to begin, led by a knowledgeable voiunteer guide. We found this interesting and informative, especially when he explained about the Abbey’s new underfloor heating system, which is powered by heat from the spa water!

There are some lovely – though not especially old – stained glass windows in the Abbey, as the photo below shows. There are also some informative displays and exhibitions, along with a gift shop and (free) toilets.

Here are a few more quick hints and tips for visitors to Bath, based on my experience…

You can download an excellent free map of Bath from this website. I printed this out and found it invaluable for finding my way around.
Be sure to take a few 20p coins with you. Quite a few public conveniences require these 😮
Keep a close eye on your speed if driving around (or towards) Bath. Many of the roads have a low 20 mph limit.
There is also a low emission zone in Bath, though currently charges don’t apply to most private cars and motorbikes.
You can’t actually swim in the Roman Baths, as this is set up as a tourist attraction. There are, though, a few places you can swim in spa water, most notably the Thermae Bath Spa. Be aware this costs a minimum of £40 for a two-hour session.
As mentioned above, I highly recommend pre-booking visits to popular attractions. Not only will this guarantee admission at your preferred time, it may work out a bit cheaper as well.
But don’t miss out, either, on admiring the stunning Georgian architecture of Bath, including the famous Royal Crescent and arguably even more impressive Circus. This is something you can do for free 🙂
Something I didn’t do on this visit but would quite like to in future is a boat trip on the River Avon. There are various options here, including this one which combines a boat trip with a short walking tour.

Closing Thoughts

As you may gather, I enjoyed my short break in Bath, and am happy to recommend both the city and the accommodation where I stayed for a short break.

Bath is quite compact but there is plenty to see and do. As well as the historical sites, there are lots of charming cafes and coffee shops, and some highly regarded pubs and restaurants. But it can also be a great place to chill out, with lovely green spaces such as the Royal Victoria Park and adjacent botanical gardens (both free to visit). I shall definitely be returning again before too long!

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below. Also, if you have visited Bath yourself and have any additional tips or recommendations, I would love to hear them!

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June 12, 2023

Guest Post: How to Manage Your Time and Money in Retirement

Nick Pensions & Benefits, Everything Else property, guest post, retirement 0 Comments

Today I have a guest post that may be of interest to many readers of this blog.

It has recently been reported that nearly 100,000 retirees have returned to work due to the cost of living crisis and the realization that they need more money to live in reasonable comfort.

To help those in or nearing retirement, my friends at Equity Release Supermarket have set out some of their top tips for older people on how best to manage their finances, time, and boundaries with loved ones, to support their overall mental and physical well-being.

Many consider retirement to be the first time in their adult lives that they can relax and prioritize doing what they enjoy most.

This new-found freedom can be overwhelming, however, and establishing a new routine can take time. What’s more, as the cost of living crisis continues, those in and approaching retirement likely need to pay closer attention to their personal finances and outgoings.

Mark Gregory, Founder and CEO at Equity Release Supermarket, explains: “We speak to hundreds of over 55s each week and, for many people, the prospect of spending more time with loved ones and being able to offer support to their family is what they look forward to most. We also see how people want to use retirement as an opportunity to pursue budding interests or fulfil personal goals.

“As a result, it is important that those in and approaching this stage of their life manage both their time and money, helping to get the most from their retirement plan and budget.”

To help, the experts at Equity Release Supermarket have shared steps for retirees to keep on top of their time and finances to ultimately support their well-being and achieve their retirement goals.

Table of Contents

Set goals by creating a retirement plan

Whether retirement is a few years away or you’ve already stopped working, we recommend making a retirement plan.

Start by thinking about your long term goals, such as places you want to travel to or whether you’d be interested in learning a new skill in the future. Then, consider what day-to-day activities you enjoy doing, such as spending time with grandchildren or visiting friends, as well as tasks you want to tick off your to-do list. This could include anything from giving your garden a makeover to clearing out old items from the loft.

Mapping out your days, weeks, and even years with goals and activities that will bring you fulfilment will help you organize your priorities for retirement. You could write these goals down in a notepad or even create a vision board.

Regardless of your process, make sure your retirement plan is something you can physically refer to in the future, rather than just having all the ideas up in your head.

Check in with your budget

When it comes to planning your yearly budget, you will need to establish how much money you require for your outgoings and living costs, as well as any big expenses you have planned for retirement. This could be anything from a bucket-list travel destination to supporting a son or daughter in buying their first home.

If possible, you should also aim to create an emergency savings pot, to use for any unexpected expenses.

However, it is important to remember that just because you have set your budget, those figures are not set in stone.

There are many factors that can affect your outgoings, from the ongoing cost of living crisis to personal changes such as marriage, divorce, moving house/downsizing or serious illness. Be flexible with your budget and priorities to accommodate these changes and the impact they may have on your personal finances. You might find that you need to seek out other financial options or guidance to support both your retirement and your loved ones.

It’s also important to continually check whether the money you’ve set aside for big expenses is working for you and your well-being. You might realize that you want to spend more money on things you hadn’t planned for, such as renovating the house or going on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday – in which case, you will need to update your financial plan accordingly.

Communicate with loved ones

Although creating a clear plan for retirement is essential, you also need to be mindful that life does not follow a set path.

From your physical health and mobility to ticking off your travel plans, your goals and potential limitations in retirement will adjust over time – and that’s fine and to be expected.

As difficult as it may be to admit, it can become a burden to spend your free time exactly as planned or support loved ones as much as you hoped. In these instances, it is important to keep communicating with your loved ones and be honest with them, so they can offer you support too. This will help to alleviate any pressure you may be feeling and allow your family and friends to be more accommodating of your situation.

Take care of your physical and mental well-being

It is important to make time in retirement for activities that will aid your well-being, especially as loneliness and depression are increasingly prevalent in later life.

Without the daily company of colleagues, you need to ensure you still get chances to socialize and see friends. Whether it’s arranging a coffee catch-up or joining a new local club, there are plenty of ways to incorporate social activities into the week without spending too much money, seeing both old friends and making new ones.

You can also take up activities that will benefit your physical and mental health at the same time, such as walking or low-impact exercises such as Pilates or yoga.

Think about the future

Although retirement may have been the end goal for your working life, it doesn’t mean you should stop planning for the future.

For example, you can make financial decisions that will save time and money in the long run. This could include minimizing your monthly outgoings to pay off existing mortgages quicker, as well as potentially providing you and your loved ones with more freedom later down the line.

If you’re planning to leave an inheritance to your children or family members, it is also worth considering gifting this money instead. Money gifted through equity release [or otherwise] becomes exempt from inheritance tax, provided that the giver lives for seven years afterwards. This can be a useful strategy for those who want to offer more financial support to loved ones throughout retirement and see the positive impact of this themselves.

So there you have it, five tips for getting the most from retirement. For more information about finances in retirement, visit the Equity Release Supermarket website.

My thoughts

Thanks again to my friends at Equity Release Supermarket for a useful and thought-provoking article.

I do agree it’s important to cultivate a strong social network in retirement, both with existing friends and family and with new friends and connections.

Time and again, studies have found that older people are both mentally and physically healthier when they foster relationships with others and maintain strong social connections. By contrast, social isolation and loneliness in old age have been linked to higher risks of heart disease, obesity, depression, cognitive decline, and so on.

Staying connected is especially important if (like me) you live alone. Social groups such as U3A are inexpensive to join and offer a wide range of activities, from rambling to guitar-playing, bird-watching to music appreciation. It’s well worth checking if there is a U3A group in your area. I recently joined not one but two local U3A groups and plan to write a post about this soon.

it’s also important to pay careful attention to your finances in retirement. On the one hand, you need to watch your income and expenditure to ensure you don’t run out of money in old age. On the other hand, though, you don’t want to deprive yourself without good reason and end up leading an unnecessarily frugal existence in what should be your ‘golden years’.

If you’re unsure about your finances, it can be a good idea to have a chat with a professional financial adviser. You definitely don’t need to be super-wealthy for this. Take a look at my blog post 10 Reasons Over-50s May Need an Independent Financial Adviser for more information. Most advisers (including mine) will be happy to arrange an initial meeting free of charge and without obligation.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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June 7, 2023

New Survey Sheds Light on Britons’ Investing Habits

Nick Saving Money, Investing reviews, infographic, families 0 Comments

Today I am sharing some interesting data from my friends at HSBC regarding British people’s investing habits.

This information comes from a survey conducted last year by Sticky and Censuswide on behalf of HSBC. The survey was conducted online, with a total sample size of 2018 adults. It reveals how and why people in the UK are investing, and (very importantly) why many are not.

The research revealed that nearly two-thirds of people had some form of savings (64%), with more than one in three (36%) saying they had investments. Nearly half (47%) believed investing was a better way of achieving future financial goals in the current financial climate.

More than half of people (53%) who said they would like to invest but haven’t yet said they didn’t know how to begin. Just over 1 in 3 Brits are currently investing, so almost two-thirds are not.

Table of Contents

Saving vs Investing

Somewhat reassuringly, two-thirds of people in the survey said they currently have savings (64%) and just under three-quarters (72%) said they have enough money put away to cover three months’ living expenses despite increases in the cost of living.

The main reasons people have for saving and investing are summed up in the infographic below…

As you can see, nearly half of people in the HSBC survey (46%) didn’t have a particular goal for their saving or investing – but those who did have a target were much more likely to be saving for something long-term (37%) like a house deposit or their retirement than short-term goals like holidays or other large purchases (20%).

In general, of course, saving for short-term goals is best done through cash savings accounts – but for long-term goals, typically five years or more ahead, investing is likely to produce better overall returns.

Investment Choices

The infographic below shows the main ways people in the UK are currently investing.

As you can see, the most popular investment is stocks and shares (44%), followed by funds (25%), bonds (20%) and property (19%).

When people were asked how they’d decided to invest, the most common reason given for choosing stocks and shares was the expectation of good returns (34%). Bonds were most often seen as a “safe” investment (38%).

Meanwhile, the reason for choosing funds was more equally balanced between being seen as offering good returns (34%) and being “safe” (30%), with the same being true of property (39% good return, 35% “safe”).

Barriers to Investing

When people were asked why they hadn’t chosen to invest, the most common answer (45%) was thinking they didn’t have enough money to do so. But nearly a quarter (23%) said they didn’t know enough about how to invest, ahead of the one in five (21%) who said they would worry about losing all their money.

For those who said they were scared of losing money, the main driver of those worries was the fact that investments can go down as well as up (40%). But that was followed by concerns about the need for access to their cash – with 37% saying they might need their money at short notice, and another 30% stating that their financial situation meant they couldn’t lock away money for a long time.

Those who chose to invest in jewellery and alternatives (wine, art, whisky, etc) were the most likely to say they had done so because they had expertise in that area (25%).

Investment Knowledge

When it comes to detailed financial knowledge, more than one in three (34%) said they didn’t feel they had enough information about investing. And those who wanted more help with their financial planning were most likely to need information about where to invest (25%), followed by support on types of investments (22%), the cost of investing (20%), and which investments are more or less risky (20%).

People who said they already received some information on investing were most likely to get that from their family (17%), their bank (16%), friends (15%) and social media (15%) – all ahead of financial newspapers (13%) and financial blogs (11%).

Nearly a quarter (24%) said they’d like to receive more information about investing from their bank as the primary source of information, ahead of getting help from investors (16%), social media (13%), family (11%) and financial blogs (11%) or financial newspapers (11%).

My Thoughts

Many thanks to my friends from HSBC for allowing me to share and discuss their data and graphics.

I’m not surprised that many people are wary of investing, as the subject isn’t generally taught in schools and the huge number and variety of potential investments can be bewildering.

What I find a little more surprising (and concerning) is that many more people have investments in the form of stocks and shares (46%) rather than funds (25%). I suspect this may partly be to do with people having a few shares they acquired from the big privatizations of the past such as BT and British Gas. There may also be a number who have shares through employee share schemes. Nonetheless – as I said in this recent guest post for the popular Money Talk blog – as an investment individual shares are a lot more volatile and risky. If you are new to investing, I highly recommend starting off with a collective investment such as a tracker fund or robo-adviser platform (see below). This will give you much broader diversification, which helps mitigate the risks involved.

As I’ve said before, if you suddenly find yourself in possession of a large lump sum (perhaps through an inheritance) there is a strong case for seeking advice from a trained and experienced independent financial adviser. You might like to check out my blog post on why, despite being a money blogger and considering myself reasonably financially savvy, I still have an IFA myself.

If you just want to get started in investing, there are various low-cost and relatively low-risk options you could consider. Regular readers will know that I am a fan of the robo-adviser platform Nutmeg, with whom I have been investing since 2016. Even with the recent turmoil in the markets caused by the pandemic etc., I have made an overall return of 37 percent from my investments with them. You can read my in-depth review of Nutmeg here if you wish.

Another possibility might be the wealth-building platform Wealthyhood, which is aimed especially at novice investors. You can get started on this with as little as £20 – and right now they are offering a free ETF share worth up to £200 to new investors, which should get you off to a good start! You can see my blog post about Wealthyhood and their special offer here.

Of course, all investing carries a risk of loss, in the short- to medium-term especially. You should therefore always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing and seek professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as personal financial advice.

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June 4, 2023

UK Bloggers Father’s Day Giveaway!

Nick Everything Else events, competitions, families, shopping 1 Comment

Summer is here, so it’s time for another exciting giveaway on Pounds and Sense. This one is themed around Father’s Day, which this year is on Sunday June 18th.

I have clubbed together with some of my fellow UK bloggers to provide a bunch of great prizes guaranteed to put a grin on any dad’s face. And the best news is, it’s entirely free to enter! The giveaway is open now and will close at 11.45 pm on Sunday June 18th.

This event has (again) been organized by Rowena Becker, who blogs at My Balancing Act. No small amount of effort has been involved in arranging and co-ordinating it, so many thanks again to Rowena for her hard work and dedication.

Without further ado, then, I’ll hand you over to Rowena to introduce the giveaway…

Table of Contents

Father’s Day Giveaway

And we’re back! This time to spoil your dad. We have a number of incredible prizes that will make his day! This is not only a giveaway but a gift guide to help you get ideas and inspiration for gifts for your dad (or other special man in your life) this Father’s Day. And for more ideas and inspirations check out these blog posts, The Ultimate Father’s Day Gift Guide and Frugal Father’s Day.

The Prizes

Treat Him Experience Box from Buyagift

Give your dad a fun and unique gift with the Treat Him Experience Box from Buyagift!

Buyagift has hand-picked the finest selection of Tasty Treat, Driving Blast and Adrenaline Adventure experiences to create the perfect gift for any man. From zorbing to supercar driving, gourmet dining to overnight stays, our lucky winner can treat their dad to a wonderful experience he will never forget!

Hoover Cordless Vacuum Cleaner with ANTI-TWIST™ (Single Battery)

Make your dad’s life easier with this incredible prize! Not only will the Hoover Cordless Vacuum Cleaner with an anti-twist and single battery, make cleaning time quicker and easier, but it’s also a practical and useful present. With a Hoover, your dad can easily keep his home clean and tidy, without much effort. It’s a thoughtful way to make his daily routine easier and hassle-free. Plus, who doesn’t love a clean and fresh home? Our lucky winner can surprise their Dad with a Hoover, and watch him become the happiest dad with the cleanest house around!

Features:

- NEW ANTI-TWIST™ floorhead

- Up to 45 Minutes of Power

- Space-saving design and stands unaided for easy storage

- Converts instantly to a handheld with 2-in-1 dusting/upholstery tool

- Lightweight and easy to use

- Exclusive 3-year warranty with this product. Only available at Hoover Direct website, hooverdirect.co.uk

Opinel Complete Picnic+ Set

The Opinel Picnic+ set is the ideal gift for busy dads who need to eat their meals on the go.

The set comes with:

- A No. 08 knife

- Two inserts (a fork and a spoon) that attach to the No. 08 knife

- A microfibre towel case that is both a storage and cleaning device

The inserts are made of stainless steel, so they are nice and sturdy and hygienic (compatible with wooden handled N°08 knives, equipped with the Virobloc safety ring marketed since 2000). We have one picnic set for our lucky winner!

Silk Route Spice Company Grinders

This gift set is undoubtedly the perfect present for your resident chef or culinary friend, especially if they love French food as much as we do. The grinders contain carefully balanced mixtures of herbs and spices hand-selected by specialist chefs to impart a taste of France to any dish of your choosing, be it your homemade soupe a l’oignon or boeuf bourguignon.

The four mixes are: Herbs de Provence, Mustard & Garlic mix, Fine Herb Seasoning and French Quatre mix. Available from Amazon and donated by Dordogne Vie.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

The Bloggers

In order to bring you this incredible giveaway, some of the UK’s top bloggers got together and contributed. A massive thank you to our bloggers! Those taking part are:

How to Enter

You can enter the Giveaway by completing as many Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you like. All entries will be collected and one winner will be randomly chosen. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

UK entries only
The giveaway will run from 11:45am 4th June 2023 to 11.45pm 18th June 2023.
The winner will be notified by email from rowena@mybalancingact.co.uk
The winner will have 7 days to respond after which time we reserve the right to select an alternative winner.
This prize draw is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, BlogLovin or Pinterest.
Prize open to over-18s only. Age verification may be required to receive some prizes.
If any prizes are out of stock then we will do our best to find a suitable replacement but cannot guarantee it.
Anyone who unfollows before the giveaway ends or doesn’t complete the required entry action will be disqualified.
The prize is non-transferable, non-refundable, and cannot be exchanged for monetary value.
We may be using a parcel service or Royal Mail for some of the prizes and their standard compensation will apply in the event of loss or damage.
Some items may be sent directly by the supplier and we do not have responsibility if these go missing and we cannot replace them.
In the unlikely event one of the companies withdraws a prize, we cannot offer an alternative.
The winner’s name will be stated on some or all of our bloggers’ websites and announced on Twitter and other social media channels. It will also be displayed on the Rafflecopter form. By entering this prize draw you will be deemed to give your permission for this.
Please note the winner may have the same name as you, so if you see your name displayed, be aware that you are not the winner unless you have been notified by us.
The prizes won’t arrive in time for Father’s Day and there may be some delays in receiving prizes.

Good luck, and I hope a Pounds and Sense reader wins this fabulous prize bundle!

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