Investment

[Mottie]

An ISA is just a tax shelter that you can have if you sign up to it.

Surely by your own reasoning you mean a 'tax dodge'?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

If you're buying physical gold then build a hidden safe into the house somewhere, and don't tell anyone you know that you have any or where it is. You hopefully don't need to fear your friends, but it's their friends, their dodgy son or whatever that's the problem.

You won't be covered on insurance, and having stuff worth many £1000s that would fit in a pocket could encourage the wrong kind of visitors.

 

[Ihavenojob]

A good investment (if you are able to do so) would be solar panels and batteries.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

A good investment (if you are able to do so) would be solar panels and batteries.

I have solar panels, they're amazing things and I will add more shortly. But I can't justify buying batteries.

We're currently buying at 19p per unit and can sell the surplus at 13p. It would take a lot of 6p's to cover the £1000s involved in buying batteries. Plus you lose a percentage as heat from charging and discharging, and they wear out. Hopefully they won't burn your house down these days, but it's not risk-free.

Over time it's likely that the amount paid for the surplus will reduce, in which case there may be a case for buying batteries. But at the moment I can't make it make sense.

We have a heat pump for heating and work from home so couldn't get a varied time of day price, as we'd end up using peak rate for the heating which would soon wipe out any savings. Plus it's a load of stress and hassle worrying about when you're allowed to put the washing machine on etc.

 

[Highway Man]

I bet you wouldn't. An ISA is just a tax shelter that you can have if you sign up to it.

If you are afraid of investing, you can have a tax-free Savings Account ISA.

If you know that investments in the stock market, as a whole, have grown faster than inflation for 200 years, and despite troughs and peaks, there has never been a ten-year period when it ended lower than it started, then you would choose a Stocks and Shares ISA. An easy option is an index tracker with low charges. You don't need to make changes or decisions, it runs itself. You can leave profits and dividends inside to roll up and accumulate, or you can turn on the tax-free income tap when the time comes to spend some.

Opinions differ on choosing an all-world index, a European one, or a UK one.

"All world" actually means "mostly American" because the size of the US market dwarfs the others.

Some people think that the US market is in an AI bubble, which will burst, and some people think that the damage caused by Trump is causing lasting damage to the economy.

Me and Lena got asked by the bank if we would like to make an appointment to see an advisor, we agreed and went along to an apointment. Waste of time all the advisor did was show us a load of investments and isas, I asked which was the best and which would suit us better. The reply was we cannot advise you to which is better for you as we are not allowed to. What a complete waste of time, every time I asked about the investments I got the same answer and that is a bank financial advisor who is not allowed to advise?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Nobody can. If you're asking if you'll make more in shares vs a savings account then they'd need to have crystal balls to tell you the answer you're looking for!

If you want to take risks then you need to take your own risks based on your own decisions. Anything other than a savings account is a gamble.

They can advise on the tax situation, as that is a known thing that won't change.

 

[Highway Man]

Nobody can. If you're asking if you'll make more in shares vs a savings account then they'd need to have crystal balls to tell you the answer you're looking for!

If you want to take risks then you need to take your own risks based on your own decisions. Anything other than a savings account is a gamble.

They can advise on the tax situation, as that is a known thing that won't change.

I was asking them specifically which type was best for my circumstance, I have plenty of spare cash we do not need to access at the moment so I considered it a normal question to an advisor who is paid to be an advisor or have I got this wrong?

 

[JohnD]

The problem is nobody can tell you if it’s a good investment, you can just look at the market performance and make a choice.

I remember some on here were laughing at TSLA and NVDA and saying how over priced they were.

I can remember someone in April 2025 commenting that TSLA had dropped from their December peak.

Peak 479.86 17/12/24
Trough 227.50 21/4/25

 

[JohnD]

Me and Lena got asked by the bank if we would like to make an appointment to see an advisor, we agreed and went along to an apointment. Waste of time all the advisor did was show us a load of investments and isas, I asked which was the best and which would suit us better. The reply was we cannot advise you to which is better for you as we are not allowed to. What a complete waste of time, every time I asked about the investments I got the same answer and that is a bank financial advisor who is not allowed to advise?

The person you were talking to was not qualified and authorised to give advice by the FCA

The ones who are, seldom give their time for free.

FCA Firm Checker

FCA Firm Checker Use this service to check a financial firm: is authorised by us has our permission to provide the services you want Learn what information you won't find on this tool. Check a firm

www.fca.org.uk

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Even then, if you're asking whether you'd be guaranteed to make a ton of money by investing in Doodah Plc then they can't/won't answer that.

They can advise on the facts and the risks, they can't decide for you or take away the risk.

 

[JohnD]

Nobody can

But you can ask "of these two possibilities, which charges me 2.5% of my money per year, and which charges me 0.1%"


And "which of these two possibilities spreads the investment over all 100 members of the FTSE100"

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Advisors are often over-rated and usually have vested interests in some way or other re products.

 

[Highway Man]

Have I got this right. I have been looking at gold coins, soveriegns some from South Africa as well as Canadian ones. Now I will simplify this so as to avoid confusion. Let us say I bought 5k worth of gold coins from wherever. My total investment is 5k. If I wanted to sell these very coins within a few months or so, does it mean I sell them for less to a dealer for say 4K in which case I have lost 1k. So do I then have to wait until the price of gold goes up to say 6k value so that when I sell them I get my original 5k back ? Meaning I can only ever hope to get my initial investment back if the price of gold goes up?

 

[motorbiking]

I can remember someone in April 2025 commenting that TSLA had dropped from their December peak.

Peak 479.86 17/12/24
Trough 227.50 21/4/25

Still can't get it right can you


Not to mention the old

Look on the bright side, the shares are only down 45% year to date.

The rubes are still buying them.

which turned into

45% from their December peak.

The rubes are still buying them.

Those "Rubes" did rather the well, ignoring your wisdom - up 58%

 

[JohnD]

Depending, of course, when they bought and when they sold.

Funnily enough, they hit another peak last December

16/12/2025 489.88

And another trough

29/7/2026 298.32

Only about a 35% drop

Great for people who like a roller-coaster ride

It's only about 20% down now

(Only?)