Sharesave or Share Incentive

[gasright]

Hi all

Been offered the share plans from BG and am very confused as to which one to go for

Could any of you lads offer some advice and some examples of your personal experiances with the plans.

I'm looking to use aroun £200 every month from my wages to go towards the plan that i choose.

thanks

 

[heatingman]

Do they still do the saving plan, agreed share price, save for 3 or 5 years +bonus's. cash or shares at end of term

 

[gasright]

they have the sharesave and the share incentive plan

 

[heatingman]

Go for the sharesave, try and forget about them, when the kids are big and ugly and want university and houses, they really come in handy. Sit on them as long term investment and you'll be ok. Contray to opinion BG/Centrica will not go bust/cease trading. They do trim the staff when slack (at the moment, office side) but your investment will be sound. I personally made a small fortune.

 

[gasright]

would it be cheeky to ask what sort of money you were paying into it each month? and what sort of money did you make?

Sod the kids i want to be driving a porsche one day

 

[heatingman]

Still got most of mine, including freebies given out when trades been good. Used to try to pay max amount allowed, was bl**dy hard at times, but it becomes a routine Mine are my pension along with houses + frozen staff pension. The secret is trying to forget about them, then it becomes a challange. Its great fun because you can sit in the cafe, read the share price, smirk and think, Bo**locks to this I'll retire next week. Never do though, just grin and go and earn a crust. I'll have to check the paperwork think first lot where less than a quid.

 

[weareleeds]

Why not do both with sips you can save up to £125/month which is tax free you get 1 free share for every 2 bought (up to 20/month) as you build up a pot of shares you will get the dividend every 6 months. With sharesave you opt to buy shares @ set price for either 3 or 5 years but it is not tax free & you don't get dividends until maturity

 

[gasright]

good idea,

then its the best of both worlds

was thinking of using £200 per month so £100 will go on each plan

 

[namsag]

Get as much into it as you can afford it is worth given up a few luxurys for a couple of years and reap the benefit .It is a no lose situation if the shares fall your money is always there with bonuses. No a few guys who have well over 200k from never selling any from day one. Mate has just turned 15k into 60k in 5 years not bad in anyones book.
I done it every year from 87 Best one ever had was when centrica was formed we got them for 46p when i took them out 3 years later they where 260p turned 7k into approx 43k.
Fill your boots

 

[gasright]

wow,

so would you reccomend that i save £100 into each plan or just go 1 plan.

Also do you reccomend the 3 or 5 year plans. bearing in mind that i'll be using whatever i make to buy a new car for the wife every few years

 

[namsag]

Cant say as the other schemes started after i left so have not really looked into them but do know mates still with the board all do both, mixture of 3 and 5 year spans gives you money just about every year after the first 5 which is handy for holidays cars etc.
But as shares hopefully rise every year get as much in as you can straight away then after maturity you can release around 10k every year.
Also if shares drop dramatically during plan take money out and reinvest in the next scheme at lower price.

 

[nickso]

wow,

so would you reccomend that i save £100 into each plan or just go 1 plan.

Also do you reccomend the 3 or 5 year plans. bearing in mind that i'll be using whatever i make to buy a new car for the wife every few years

sorry but the returns on this have slowed dramatically in later years. the last really good year was 2005. in order to make megabucks like namsag and his mates you would have to see substantial rises in the share price. the current share prices are likely to see a good return but nothing special. i havent bothered contributing since i returned for my second tour of duty as i value the money more in my isa's or pocket.

 

[Agile]

I dont know if this is still available but it was possible to do this king of share ourchase plan and lock it away in a tax freeish personal pension plan.

I met someone last week who had opted out of the BBC pension plan which was quite good at n/60 of final. He had transferred his contributions fund from BBC into smaller bank scheme and ended up with about 30% more than BBC would have paid and when he dies a surplus is returned to his heirs.

His situation is rather unique because he is effectively single as his partner died before he retired and quite a bit of the BBC scheme is earmarked for 33% widows pensions and they can live for a long time.

Tony

 

[namsag]

It`s all what if`s when buying shares but a company such as centrica which is coveted by some of the big players such as gazprom is not going to collapse. I understand you are being offered them at £2.55 which is a not bad discount on even todays troubled prices of £3.00.

Say you done £200 a month for 3 years that with end of term bonus would give you aprox 3000 shares which if they didn`t move in that time would give you around an £1800 quid profit on your £7200 total investment which is very good if they recover to the £4 they where not so long back it will give you just under £5k of a profit which is excellent .
And the beauty is you can never lose your original money.

 

[JohnD]

I've been in a few schemes, one of then gave me a free share for every one I bought, which seemed great until the share price halved which was a blow but luckily has recovered and is worth now 9 times what I paid for them (but sadly or not, I sold most of them years ago to fund a trip to Oz).

Another co went bankrupt and the shares obviously became worthless.

The third one is worth nearly 3 times what I paid for them ten years ago

I believe there is a concession to shift Employee Share Scheme shares into an ISA with some special deal (but I have not ever been in a position to do that)

In terms of risk:

try not to have too much tied to the fortunes of one company. My US colleagues had their pension fund mostly in the stock of the company, as well as their stock options and employee share purchase schemes. when the co went bust they lost their job, their pension and their savings wheras I just lost my job

So fine to invest enough to make a bit if the scheme is good, but don't have too much tied up in one company.

I think 10% of your "wealth" is enough, 20% is too much.