# Shares



## sladey (Jul 28, 2012)

Hi

Do any of you have any shares?

Was thinking of putting a little bit into some but not sure how/where to start?

I don't want to go crazy, but fancy having a go


----------



## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

I have a few 1000 shares , worth enough for a MK7 GTI when they become available, however I can tell you that some of those shares are worth 1/5 of what I paid for them, investments can go down as well as up, so don't put all your eggs in one basket and don't expect ot be working on the London Stock exchange too quickly


----------



## Guest (Aug 14, 2012)

It's a turbulent time for shares, what sort of amount are you talking.


----------



## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

sladey said:


> Hi
> 
> Do any of you have any shares?
> 
> ...


http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=137909

:thumb:


----------



## Will_G (Jan 23, 2012)

I have a stocks n shares ISA with Skandia which is managed through my IFA but I also have a dabble fund which I use to buy and sell shares using selftrade. I'm obviously looking to make money out of the dabble fund however it doesnt always work like that. If you havent already used your ISA allowance I'd look to get shares in there and save yourself a bit of tax


----------



## staffordian (May 2, 2012)

At last, something I know a little bit about!

Firstly, you need to decide why you want to buy shares.

Do you see yourself buying and selling reguarly, on your way to making a fortune?

If so remember this. The only way to make a small fortune out of share trading is to start with a large fortune. :lol:

You will not regularly stay ahead of the game as you don't have the advantages that the professionals have, and even they get it wrong a fair bit of the time!

Your best bet would be to consider shares as a riskier way of getting more of a return than you would in a bank or building society.

To do this, look for a range of say a dozen (as an absolute minimum) shares from the top (FTSE100) companies, which pay reasonably good dividends, and invest (say) £1,000 in each company.

In this way you can get a return of around 5% and if you are a basic rate tax-payer, you get this in full, no tax to pay.

Have a google for "high yield portfolios" and you'll find loads of advice.

I'd suggest opening an online broking account (eg Halifax Sharedealing is one of many). Dealing costs are around £12 per purchase, though however you buy shares you have to pay a one-off tax of 0.5% on the value of shares bought.

The plan is to buy and forget, and when the dividends amount to say £500 use this money to buy more shares, so compounding your return.

This is not risk free - as you'll know, shares can rise and fall alarmingly, so if you think you may need the money at short notice, this is not for you, as you may find the price has fallen when you want to sell.

But by and large, the dividends will roll in reasonably consistently, either twice or four times a year, depending on the company policy. And generally, dividends tend to increase year on year too, but again, no guarantees, of course.

Buying at least a dozen, and ideally twice this number, of companies, reduces the effect on your wealth of one company having a disaster, slashing it's dividend (like BP a year or two ago) or at worst, going bust, leaving your shares in this company worth precisely zero.

And the icing on the cake is that with any luck, as well as getting an increasing income from the portfolio's dividends, the shares may well rise too, increasing the capital value of your original investment.

Finally, don't take this as gospel. Do your own research and decide if this sort of strategy is for you - not everyone can sleep easy at night knowing that the value of their investment has fallen by a four figure sum overnight.

I can, as I know it will rise by a similar amount another day, and if I've no intention of selling, it doesn't matter. In fact a lower share price allows me to buy more shares when I next invest my accumulated dividends.

Good luck!

:thumb:


----------

