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How to Start Your Investment Journey · Merryn Talks Money

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
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Speaker 2: Welcome to MEREN Talk to Your Money. The personal finance
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Speaker 2: edison of MEREN talks money. In these weekly episodes, we
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Speaker 2: talk about the best strategies for making the most of
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Speaker 2: your money. I'm MEREN sum Stweb and with me senior
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Speaker 2: reporter and Money Distilled author John Steppack.
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Speaker 3: Hi, John, Hi Melton. It's not happy New Year anymore,
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Speaker 3: is it?
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Speaker 4: We did that last week, so it's just measurable in
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Speaker 4: your year.
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Speaker 2: I'm folding rather as we suspect it isn't it? Never mind,
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Speaker 2: More of that later. This is another one of those
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Speaker 2: episodes where we built but this is not God. This
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Speaker 2: is one of those episodes where we bring in an
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Speaker 2: expert voice to help us tackle the question of the
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Speaker 2: week as well. John and I know a lot. Amazingly,
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Speaker 2: we don't know everything. So with us today is Holly mackay,
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Speaker 2: Founder and see of Boring Money, a go to resource
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Speaker 2: to help normal people make smart investment decisions. Welcome Holly,
1:05
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us.
1:06
Speaker 1: Him aren good for you.
1:08
Speaker 2: Now we're asking a lot of you today. We've got
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Speaker 2: a lot of listener questions in on the same sort
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Speaker 2: of topics. Everyone wants to know how to get started
1:16
Speaker 2: on investing. What do I do to kick the journey off?
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Speaker 2: So we want to talk about things like what platforms
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Speaker 2: you'd recommend for beginners, what is it reasonable.
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Speaker 3: To pay, and how do you how do you choose?
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Speaker 2: How do you get started with choosing a platform and
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Speaker 2: then choosing the investments to put into whatever wrapper is
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Speaker 2: it is that you've chosen on the platform. So I'm
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Speaker 2: going to start with something so basic that you're going
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Speaker 2: to think it's ridiculous, but it's still important. What Holly
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Speaker 2: is an investment platform?
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Speaker 1: No, it's a good question, Baron. I mean, I think
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Speaker 1: of it like it's a combo between a department store
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Speaker 1: and a storage deposit unit. So it's somewhere you go
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Speaker 1: to buy your investments, and then once you've bought them,
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Speaker 1: is someone that actually keeps them for you and does
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Speaker 1: all all the admin, gives you that website you can
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Speaker 1: log onto. So really, the investment platform, it's just a
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Speaker 1: word right that says it's where you go and buy
2:10
Speaker 1: and hold investments in twenty twenty five.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so that's what you would do if you're doing
2:16
Speaker 2: it DIY, And then if you were to use a
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Speaker 2: Wealth Manager or an IFA, etc. You would go through them,
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Speaker 2: but they would be using their own.
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Speaker 1: Platform exactly exactly the sort of tech that they all use.
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Speaker 1: But I think what's really interesting, particularly for people not
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Speaker 1: using an advisor, is the massive growth we've seen of
2:35
Speaker 1: these platforms. And I was looking today actually at some
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Speaker 1: stats they've grown seventy eight percent over the last five years.
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Speaker 1: Everyone's sort of holding their money and buying sort of
2:45
Speaker 1: things this way. So it's really the go to for
2:48
Speaker 1: DIY investors in particular.
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Speaker 3: And most people will know the big names.
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Speaker 2: They'll have heard of Huggridge, Landsdown, they'll have heard of
2:54
Speaker 2: Interactive Investor, They'll have heard of Aja Bell.
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Speaker 3: But there are many more.
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Speaker 2: And if we're looking at the universe that an ordinary
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Speaker 2: person coming to this fresh might choose from, how many
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Speaker 2: are they choosing from? How many reputable, profitable brands are
3:09
Speaker 2: there that you would say we could go to.
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Speaker 1: So there are some reputable ones that probably aren't profitable today,
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Speaker 1: but kind of those that I think are worthy of
3:17
Speaker 1: consideration is about sort of thirty five to forty in
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Speaker 1: the market. I've got test account. O.
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Speaker 3: God, oh that's more than I thought of. It is terrible.
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Speaker 1: Oh, my phone is like my sort of search unit.
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Speaker 1: I have about thirty two accounts. I think test accounts
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Speaker 1: sort of out there with with DIY investment platforms, which
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Speaker 1: makes my sort of annual tax return quite interesting.
3:40
Speaker 2: God, I bet I'd like to back off, by the way,
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Speaker 2: from saying it's terrible. It's not terrible. It's wonderful. We
3:44
Speaker 2: love competition, We adore competition. The more competition the better,
3:47
Speaker 2: but it does make it hard to.
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Speaker 3: Choose, so it does.
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Speaker 2: What are the criteria? So we're coming at this. We've
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Speaker 2: got we've we've we've done a bit of googling. We've
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Speaker 2: got a list of thirty five. What criteria are we
3:57
Speaker 2: looking for?
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Speaker 1: I think they're in. The very first thing people need
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Speaker 1: to be honest with themselves about is how confident are
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Speaker 1: they and how much choice do they actually want? Because
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Speaker 1: for many people, out of their choices a nightmare. It's
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Speaker 1: actually complicated. It does your head and you've got other
4:13
Speaker 1: things you'd rather focus on. So I think really people
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Speaker 1: should answer initially, how interested in this am am? I?
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Speaker 1: Do I want to learn? Do I want to check in?
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Speaker 1: Do I want to choose? Or does that sound like
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Speaker 1: hell on earth to me? Because the answer to that
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Speaker 1: question will pretty much split the type of option you
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Speaker 1: have into two. If you're the sort of person that says, oh, no,
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Speaker 1: too much chores, I haven't got time. I've got other
4:40
Speaker 1: fish to fry. You want someone that can pretty much
4:44
Speaker 1: do it all for you and manage it for you,
4:46
Speaker 1: and that might point you to something that we call
4:49
Speaker 1: a robo advisor, so more on them later. If you're
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Speaker 1: someone that says, actually, no, you know, I am interested
4:55
Speaker 1: in this stuff.
4:56
Speaker 3: I want to.
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Speaker 1: Build a portfolio. I want to choose between some shares
4:59
Speaker 1: and some whatever it might be, then you'll be in
5:02
Speaker 1: the market for a more traditional type platform. So for me,
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Speaker 1: that's the very sort of first question. People should ask
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Speaker 1: how much choice door I want? How competent do I feel?
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Speaker 2: Okay, well, why don't we start right there. Let's assume
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Speaker 2: that we are the person who wants to invest, knows
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Speaker 2: they should invest, but really doesn't want to get to involve.
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Speaker 2: Let's talk about robo advisors first. So these are platforms
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Speaker 2: that will effectively make the decisions for you. You input
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Speaker 2: your your information, input what you perceive is your risk
5:31
Speaker 2: levels perhaps, and then it'll create a portfolio for you
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Speaker 2: and you don't need to do anything except for top
5:36
Speaker 2: that portfolio up on a monthly or an annual basis,
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Speaker 2: whatever suits you use, is that.
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Speaker 1: That's exactly right. My kind of thing of it, My
5:42
Speaker 1: analogy is it's like someone that might say I want
5:46
Speaker 1: to eat, but I'm rubbish at cooking as well, buy
5:49
Speaker 1: a ready meal please, So for me, they're the ready
5:52
Speaker 1: meal of the investment world. You can go, as you say,
5:55
Speaker 1: to a website, you can answer some pretty straightforward questions
5:59
Speaker 1: about your atta to money, your time frames, etc. And
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Speaker 1: they'll spit out a sort of suggestion view. You can
6:05
Speaker 1: set it up and off you go. So you know
6:07
Speaker 1: some of the biggest names in that space where we
6:09
Speaker 1: have groups such as Nutmeg, there's money Box people might
6:14
Speaker 1: have heard, or in the pensions world, you've got Pensions Be.
6:17
Speaker 1: So there are I would say about ten sort of
6:21
Speaker 1: to fifteen incredible players in this space now for people
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Speaker 1: to look at. I think what's great about these options
6:28
Speaker 1: as well is that you can set them up to
6:30
Speaker 1: accept direct debits as well, so you really can set
6:34
Speaker 1: and forget and really only have to check in every
6:37
Speaker 1: sort of six to twelve months and try and set
6:41
Speaker 1: up these direct debits so you're chipping in little and
6:43
Speaker 1: often you're not just buying everything at one point in
6:47
Speaker 1: the market. You're kind of drip feeding into markets. So
6:50
Speaker 1: there is and and the tech has got so much
6:53
Speaker 1: better around these options too, and the apps are pretty good,
6:56
Speaker 1: so people can can check in with their investments as
6:59
Speaker 1: list or as often as they want.
7:02
Speaker 3: And what would you expect that to cost? What do
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Speaker 3: you pay for that?
7:05
Speaker 2: And is there a difference in how you might choose
7:08
Speaker 2: based on how much money you have? I mean, let's
7:11
Speaker 2: say you're starting with five hundred pounds and putting in
7:13
Speaker 2: one hundred a month.
7:14
Speaker 3: Is there when you might.
7:15
Speaker 2: Choose that is different to when you would choose if
7:17
Speaker 2: you were, for example, putting in ten thousand pounds and
7:20
Speaker 2: then adding two thousand pounds a yew?
7:21
Speaker 3: How does it work? What would you expect to pay.
7:23
Speaker 1: In terms of this sort of first question? What should
7:25
Speaker 1: people pay? Roughly? I think for this option which is
7:29
Speaker 1: all in so it includes admin, includes all the investments,
7:33
Speaker 1: it's anywhere between about zero point seventy five and one
7:37
Speaker 1: percent a year. So to translate that into pound terms,
7:40
Speaker 1: it's about seventy five pounds to one hundred pounds a
7:44
Speaker 1: year for every ten thousand pounds you have to invest. Now,
7:50
Speaker 1: one way they do differ is in investment performance, because
7:53
Speaker 1: of course there's team sitting there running the money, and
7:56
Speaker 1: we track at boring money. We track on a coarty
7:59
Speaker 1: basis performance and we can see there is great difference
8:05
Speaker 1: between these groups in how well they're doing based on
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Speaker 1: what they're picking and based on what they're doing under
8:12
Speaker 1: the bonnet. So one thing people should look at is
8:16
Speaker 1: the performance over time. Now, as you'll know, kind of
8:21
Speaker 1: looking at this over a relatively short term can be misleading,
8:25
Speaker 1: particularly if we look back at twenty twenty four, where
8:28
Speaker 1: to be honest, anyone that through darted or board and
8:32
Speaker 1: landed anywhere near the S and P five hundred will
8:35
Speaker 1: have done pretty well. But people should look at performance,
8:39
Speaker 1: and we do sort of track that and make that
8:41
Speaker 1: available on our website.
8:44
Speaker 3: Okay, we're not going to let you just skip over that.
8:46
Speaker 3: We want to know. We want to know who's doing
8:50
Speaker 3: the best over the last five years or so. Who
8:53
Speaker 3: are there? Who are the couple that stand out?
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Speaker 1: Do you think, as I sort of said before, it
8:57
Speaker 1: depends how spicy you want your your investments. So there's
9:00
Speaker 1: different what they call risk profiles for those people that
9:04
Speaker 1: were saying, look, this is long term money, I can
9:06
Speaker 1: ride out some ups and downs. You'll typically put in something.
9:09
Speaker 1: They've all got really silly names like Ambitious or a
9:12
Speaker 1: grill or adventurers, but that just means you're all in
9:16
Speaker 1: the sort of shares rather than anything more more cash.
9:19
Speaker 1: Like now, if we look at that risk profile, actually
9:23
Speaker 1: groups that have done well, and that'springked mind, are HSBC,
9:27
Speaker 1: in Pact, money Box, aj BELL have done well because
9:32
Speaker 1: they've typically common denominator tended to have more money allocated
9:38
Speaker 1: to the US than to other markets, and that's typically
9:43
Speaker 1: been mods driven returns. But also if we look back
9:47
Speaker 1: over the last few years, you'll recall, you know, the
9:51
Speaker 1: hiatus we had with Liz Truss is not so many
9:55
Speaker 1: mini budget when the bond markets sort of behave really
9:59
Speaker 1: abnormally and did weird things. What actually happened then is
10:04
Speaker 1: that the so called low risk stuff did really badly
10:10
Speaker 1: because bonds didn't behave as they were supposed to. They
10:13
Speaker 1: weren't being the safe, goody goodies in the portfolios, so
10:16
Speaker 1: they had a bit of a hiatus. And what that
10:20
Speaker 1: meant is that some people who picked a low risk
10:23
Speaker 1: option got a really nasty shock. And luckily some of
10:27
Speaker 1: the banks and banks hate risk, so there's loads of
10:31
Speaker 1: compliance people that are running around in banks going don't
10:34
Speaker 1: do anything naughty, don't do anything risky, so they're lower
10:37
Speaker 1: risk portfolios ten to sort of load up on the
10:41
Speaker 1: things that went really nuts during Liz Trust's mini budget,
10:45
Speaker 1: like government bonds and things. So you've actually had a
10:49
Speaker 1: period where groups that were very, very cautious didn't do
10:54
Speaker 1: particularly well. So some of the banks in particular have
10:57
Speaker 1: had sort of bad performance periods over the last two years.
11:03
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope that answers your question. There are
11:05
Speaker 1: some groups that do better.
11:07
Speaker 4: Something you just said Erelow I think is also really interesting,
11:10
Speaker 4: the point about the slightly I guess intellectually mechanical way
11:17
Speaker 4: that the risk set up is put together so that
11:20
Speaker 4: boinds are saying as low risk and shares are saying
11:24
Speaker 4: as high risk, and that is historically a reasonable assumption,
11:29
Speaker 4: but sometimes things do go pair shaped and at the
11:33
Speaker 4: moment also we've also kind of left a forty year
11:37
Speaker 4: bond bull market and actually now boinds are causing quite
11:40
Speaker 4: a lot of trouble in markets generally. I know that
11:45
Speaker 4: obviously this is a podcast for beginners. But I think
11:48
Speaker 4: is that maybe a reason for people to also just
11:50
Speaker 4: be a little bit cautious whenever and to understand that
11:54
Speaker 4: these definitions are are don't necessarily mean you can't lose
11:57
Speaker 4: money even if you are invested in the low risk
12:00
Speaker 4: say the things.
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Speaker 1: I might be a bit controversial here for DILI investors
12:06
Speaker 1: who pick a low risk option, it is often because
12:12
Speaker 1: people have just got the hebgb's about investing, rather than
12:17
Speaker 1: people sort of taking a measured view on volatility. And actually,
12:22
Speaker 1: I think for anyone with a timeframe of less than
12:25
Speaker 1: three years, if you look at where interest rates are today,
12:31
Speaker 1: I can't think why you'd invest in a low risk
12:33
Speaker 1: sort of I SUP portfolio rather than in a really
12:36
Speaker 1: decent pain cash kind of basis. You can still get
12:39
Speaker 1: you four point seventy five percent istion the sort of
12:42
Speaker 1: top paying easy access accounts. That's pretty good, right. So
12:47
Speaker 1: for me, especially given the volatility of recent years, I
12:52
Speaker 1: personally question why you're a beginner and you're looking to
12:57
Speaker 1: make your money work hard, but you've got that time
12:59
Speaker 1: frame of two to three years. Interest rates are so
13:03
Speaker 1: high at the moment relatively speaking, and looking at the
13:07
Speaker 1: hiatus that we've had in their bomb markets and sort
13:10
Speaker 1: of inflation still uncertain for me. I think robo advisors
13:15
Speaker 1: and these ready made options really come into their own
13:19
Speaker 1: for people with time frames of five years or more,
13:22
Speaker 1: in which case we should be looking at at least
13:25
Speaker 1: you know, if there's five options, at least actions three,
13:27
Speaker 1: four or five.
13:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, So basically it comes don't risk actually been in
13:31
Speaker 4: a functioning time frame rather than your own level of
13:36
Speaker 4: fear or not about investing.
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Speaker 2: Is there is there one of the robo advisors in
13:41
Speaker 2: your mind that stands out as having the correct mix
13:46
Speaker 2: of low fees and good performance and not asking you
13:49
Speaker 2: to actively recommend one in particular, But is there one
13:52
Speaker 2: that over the last say, five to seven years, has
13:55
Speaker 2: shown that that mix.
13:57
Speaker 1: Here's an interesting point. I think the row advisors got
14:01
Speaker 1: all the press. It sort of came to sort of fame,
14:04
Speaker 1: well fame in my world.
14:06
Speaker 5: We're all these, you know, for being the disruptors. They've
14:10
Speaker 5: got better apps, they slicker, they're shiny, and they're better
14:14
Speaker 5: to use. But if you're after a low cost there.
14:18
Speaker 1: Are other ways, and we can come on to talk
14:20
Speaker 1: about this that will be lower costs. If you look
14:23
Speaker 1: at the robo advisors, They are not the cheapest way
14:26
Speaker 1: to get that ready meal. You're actually better off buying
14:31
Speaker 1: what it's called a multi asset fund from a big
14:34
Speaker 1: name like a Vanguard or a black Rock on one
14:37
Speaker 1: of the traditional platforms and having it there. That will
14:40
Speaker 1: cost you probably half or sort of two thirds of
14:45
Speaker 1: what you would pay a robo advisor. So actually, a
14:48
Speaker 1: really important point here is it comes down to what
14:51
Speaker 1: do people value. Some people might say, actually, I like
14:55
Speaker 1: the idea of an app, I like the idea of
14:56
Speaker 1: getting good articles. I like the idea of being in touch.
15:00
Speaker 1: Mind paying a wee bit more for that. But if
15:03
Speaker 1: you're someone that wants rock bottom, listen to the next
15:07
Speaker 1: bit of the podcast when we talk about the auditional platforms,
15:10
Speaker 1: because they might be a bit less sexy, you know,
15:13
Speaker 1: in their sort of tech and how they sort of
15:15
Speaker 1: deliver stuff to you, but they will be cheaper than
15:19
Speaker 1: a robo advisor. If we had to look at.
15:22
Speaker 3: The robo advisors.
15:23
Speaker 1: To your question, we're just in the middle of doing
15:27
Speaker 1: our annual kind of best buys and sort of digging
15:29
Speaker 1: around behind the scenes. If you bount with monso you know,
15:33
Speaker 1: their ux and their sort of solution is pretty good,
15:38
Speaker 1: not mega being around for the longest they remain competitive.
15:42
Speaker 1: They remain good. If you have pensions you want to consolidate,
15:46
Speaker 1: pension b are good. But they are not the cheapest
15:49
Speaker 1: you know there, And so I think it's up to
15:52
Speaker 1: people to be clear on what they want. How much
15:55
Speaker 1: do they want the app and the service and all
15:57
Speaker 1: of the bells and whistles, or how much do they
15:59
Speaker 1: want them lowest cost?
16:01
Speaker 3: Okay, brilliant, thank you.
16:03
Speaker 2: Right, let's move on then to the traditional platforms or
16:05
Speaker 2: the platforms that might be more more DIY.
16:09
Speaker 1: So I think with these platforms, cost is a really
16:12
Speaker 1: sort of fundamental part of it. Comparing cost is not straightforward. Now,
16:19
Speaker 1: some of your listeners will have heard of Hard Greaves Landsdown.
16:21
Speaker 1: They're the biggest platform in the UK by some way.
16:26
Speaker 1: They are renowned for being pretty expensive. They cost zero
16:30
Speaker 1: point four five percent for funds that you hold on
16:34
Speaker 1: that platform. However, and here's the cat if you only
16:39
Speaker 1: hold shares or exchange traded funds or investment trusts, there's
16:44
Speaker 1: a cap on an ISA there of forty five pounds
16:47
Speaker 1: a year. So actually, this platform, which kind of has
16:51
Speaker 1: a reputation for being expensive, if you only use exchange
16:55
Speaker 1: traded funds and shares, for example, they are fantastic value.
17:00
Speaker 1: So I think what, unfortunately I for your list as
17:03
Speaker 1: they need to do is be quite specific when looking
17:06
Speaker 1: at the costs about what sort of investments they've got
17:11
Speaker 1: in this platform, how often they're likely to trade, because
17:15
Speaker 1: some platforms will charge about ten quid a trade, others
17:19
Speaker 1: might charge nearer a pound if you do it as
17:22
Speaker 1: part of a regular investing program. So people need to
17:26
Speaker 1: kind of be quite specific about what their portfolio looks
17:30
Speaker 1: like and go and work out the fees. This is
17:34
Speaker 1: of course a very boring headbanging exercise to do. Or
17:37
Speaker 1: do have a price calculator on our website that we've
17:42
Speaker 1: built for people which will give them you can put
17:45
Speaker 1: in how much you've got and we'll sort of tell
17:47
Speaker 1: you what the fees and charges will be.
17:49
Speaker 2: Do you need to pay to use that calculator, Harlie, No,
17:52
Speaker 2: you don't do.
17:53
Speaker 4: Any of them stand out in terms of like I
17:56
Speaker 4: suppose if you're it's that I can a base platform
18:00
Speaker 4: for someone who actually does quite a lot of shit
18:03
Speaker 4: trade and on this aide, but has a kind of
18:07
Speaker 4: bored in portfolio setting there.
18:09
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean I think with this you can just
18:11
Speaker 1: sort of throw scenarios at me because it is of course,
18:14
Speaker 1: it depends what range of stuff you want to trade.
18:19
Speaker 1: So if you want to read quite a broad range
18:22
Speaker 1: of things and you want to include, say, for example,
18:25
Speaker 1: international shares, then something like an interactive or an aj
18:30
Speaker 1: bell are pretty good options. Also, Saxo have have some
18:36
Speaker 1: new sort of starter deals with people who want to
18:39
Speaker 1: trade sort of US equities, which is quite interesting. At
18:45
Speaker 1: the other end of the spectrum, if you have people
18:46
Speaker 1: sort of starting out with an ISA, don't particularly have
18:50
Speaker 1: sort of large amounts, want to learn, want a decent
18:53
Speaker 1: app Trading to one two doesn't charge people for holding
18:59
Speaker 1: an ISO, so that can be interesting. As I mentioned,
19:03
Speaker 1: if you have just exchange traded funds or shares or
19:07
Speaker 1: investment trusts and you've got quite a large portfolio, I
19:12
Speaker 1: actually think the hard Greaves landsdown are brilliant value. You know,
19:15
Speaker 1: they are expensive if you have funds in your portfolio,
19:21
Speaker 1: as I've sort of mentioned, but if you've just got
19:23
Speaker 1: those what's called listed securities, they're fantastic value. And their service,
19:30
Speaker 1: for example, is typically good. When you phone someone up,
19:34
Speaker 1: you get through quite quickly and you speak to a
19:37
Speaker 1: sort of you know, typically polite young growd from brittel
19:40
Speaker 1: Uni who seems to know what they're on about, and
19:43
Speaker 1: you know, so it's really worse. I think people being
19:46
Speaker 1: clear on do I want the lowest charges, how much
19:50
Speaker 1: do I want a human being to talk to, or
19:53
Speaker 1: how much do I want to sort of a nice app?
19:56
Speaker 1: Those are the things that I think will drive people's decisions.
20:00
Speaker 2: A lot of our listeners will be investment trust investors,
20:02
Speaker 2: so higris Land would make sense for LAMB. The only
20:05
Speaker 2: thing I find with their website is it can be
20:07
Speaker 2: quite difficult to analyze your portfolio.
20:09
Speaker 1: I find not too bad for research. What I find
20:13
Speaker 1: behind the scenes more and is it quite often will
20:15
Speaker 1: break down. These platforms can look really shiny, can't they
20:18
Speaker 1: When you go onto the public site and it all
20:21
Speaker 1: looks lovely. Then sometimes you become a customer and you
20:24
Speaker 1: get into their secure site and you feel that you've
20:27
Speaker 1: stepped into a different world. I often there's a disconnect
20:31
Speaker 1: between wanting to find out about stuff and research it
20:35
Speaker 1: and do something I e.
20:37
Speaker 3: Buy it.
20:38
Speaker 1: I personally find har Grease relatively good there. I think
20:44
Speaker 1: Aged Bell are also strong on that. I think interactive
20:48
Speaker 1: investor have got a lot better, really interesting insights, not
20:54
Speaker 1: just for investment trusts and shares, but also for funds.
20:59
Speaker 1: So I still find those guys are typically better than
21:02
Speaker 1: some of the newer.
21:05
Speaker 3: Kind of wanna be you.
21:06
Speaker 1: Know, a competitors, sort of a rising up through the
21:09
Speaker 1: ranks in terms of research.
21:11
Speaker 2: And I suppose the other thing we should say about
21:13
Speaker 2: these big platforms particularly relevant at the moment with and
21:17
Speaker 2: again we'll have a podcast later in the week about
21:19
Speaker 2: investment trusts and the saber activist intrusion into the gentle
21:23
Speaker 2: world of UK investment trust But one of the interesting
21:26
Speaker 2: things about the platforms is how they've worked very hard
21:29
Speaker 2: to make it easy for you to vote on your shares,
21:31
Speaker 2: and we think that's quite important.
21:33
Speaker 3: The easier it did, the better.
21:35
Speaker 1: It is, Merron. I mean, there's still a really long
21:38
Speaker 1: way to go in terms of the tech, isn't there.
21:40
Speaker 1: It's still now as easy and whereas it should be.
21:45
Speaker 1: But I think that's a really good example of sometimes
21:48
Speaker 1: how big and boring can be better. And I've talked
21:52
Speaker 1: a lot about the apps and some of the sort
21:54
Speaker 1: of shiny stuff that the newer guys have, but you know,
21:58
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, I'll give you another really tiny which
22:01
Speaker 1: definitely fills into sort of fits into the boring camp.
22:04
Speaker 1: But just as an example with the thirty two test
22:08
Speaker 1: accounts of God the bigger guys, if you need to
22:13
Speaker 1: find something like so, for example, your tax certificate when
22:16
Speaker 1: you're coming to do your self assessment, Oh my god,
22:18
Speaker 1: it's January, and why haven't I done it?
22:20
Speaker 3: And I was supposed to do earlier today.
22:24
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a lovely opportunity for John to tell
22:28
Speaker 2: me again that he finished his tax return in November.
22:30
Speaker 3: John, would you just like to tell me that again.
22:33
Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to tell you that, but
22:34
Speaker 4: I haven't done it.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember, listen as well, remember you telling me
22:41
Speaker 2: you've done your tax.
22:42
Speaker 3: For this was? This was last year?
22:48
Speaker 5: No.
22:49
Speaker 4: I got last years done in April, and I felt
22:51
Speaker 4: so proude of myself. I was like, the new tax
22:54
Speaker 4: should just started and that nued to get myself assessment
22:56
Speaker 4: for men for the previous year. But no, I feel.
23:01
Speaker 1: John, Actually, I'm sorry, I seen doing it in April.
23:05
Speaker 1: It's not organized. I think it's so that it's Actually
23:08
Speaker 1: that's a bit boring, John, embarrassing John.
23:12
Speaker 4: It is, okay, it is, I mean, I didn't actually
23:15
Speaker 4: have a very complicated texture to on that yet. I
23:18
Speaker 4: don't have a complicated when.
23:19
Speaker 2: Any complicated years tell us more right, anyway, we're going
23:25
Speaker 2: off topic again. Everybody, get going with your tax return.
23:28
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what we will do next week. We'll
23:30
Speaker 2: do a last minute tax return pod.
23:32
Speaker 3: How about that?
23:33
Speaker 2: John, Well, there were last minute things that things that
23:34
Speaker 2: get it done quickly. I have no idea what those are,
23:36
Speaker 2: but hopefully I'll find out over the next week.
23:38
Speaker 3: While I complete mind.
23:39
Speaker 4: We should do Earl's Live for the audience.
23:42
Speaker 3: It's not even funny.
23:46
Speaker 2: An American politicians, honestly, anyway, Reality off topic, Off topic, Holly,
23:56
Speaker 2: is there anything else that we should talk about with that?
24:00
Speaker 1: For me, one of the things that people should look
24:02
Speaker 1: at is a lot of the platforms have got better
24:04
Speaker 1: at regular investing. So I think this is something that
24:08
Speaker 1: people should have a look at. If you typically, if
24:11
Speaker 1: you set it up to repeat something, to do a trade,
24:14
Speaker 1: for example, every month, you'll pay lower trading fees. It's
24:19
Speaker 1: about sort of setting up those good habits. It's January,
24:21
Speaker 1: so you may as well sort of talk about that.
24:24
Speaker 1: So I think that's something people should investigate. What I
24:27
Speaker 1: would say as well, if people are listening who have
24:30
Speaker 1: had a platform for a week while, do check out
24:33
Speaker 1: the fees because things are moving, things are changing, and
24:36
Speaker 1: there's constant sort of downward pressure. So a platform that
24:40
Speaker 1: might have been competitive three or four years ago may
24:43
Speaker 1: well not be competitive today, I think for people, particularly
24:49
Speaker 1: as we move into twenty twenty five and what will
24:51
Speaker 1: be I think a very uncertain sort of market for
24:54
Speaker 1: investments difficult to call. Diversification for me remains the name
24:59
Speaker 1: of the game, and interestingly, I think more people should
25:04
Speaker 1: look at the ready made options or should consider these
25:07
Speaker 1: multi asset funds at least as a core part of
25:09
Speaker 1: their portfolio because that diversification and the avoiding all that
25:15
Speaker 1: concentration risk, I think is something that's really key. So
25:18
Speaker 1: little and often regular investing, check the fees and make
25:22
Speaker 1: sure you've at least got a part of your portfolio
25:25
Speaker 1: from my point of view, well diversified in an easy
25:29
Speaker 1: sort of managed option.
25:31
Speaker 3: Brilliant Holly, Thank you so much, John. Is there anything
25:34
Speaker 3: you think we've missed?
25:35
Speaker 4: The only one thing I would ask Coley's view is
25:38
Speaker 4: how much people should think about FSCs protection when that
25:42
Speaker 4: can sudden know wait to block at it choose and
25:46
Speaker 4: if you've got a lot of money, who should you
25:49
Speaker 4: think about maybe having more than one ale?
25:51
Speaker 1: Well, really the main thing people need to look at
25:54
Speaker 1: is the custodium because if the platform and John the
25:58
Speaker 1: majority of them do reputable what is called custodian in place,
26:03
Speaker 1: your money is completely ring fenced from all platforms money.
26:07
Speaker 1: So in the event that anything does go wrong, your
26:10
Speaker 1: money is ring fenced and protected. So it's not about
26:14
Speaker 1: looking for any upper monetary value. It's about saying, is
26:17
Speaker 1: there a decent custodian There is my money kept separate
26:21
Speaker 1: from the operating sort of fonds of the platform, And
26:25
Speaker 1: if it is, you actually don't need to spread your
26:28
Speaker 1: money around. So this is a sort of misconception we
26:31
Speaker 1: see that actually means people have two or three platforms
26:35
Speaker 1: sometimes when in fact they don't need to because their
26:39
Speaker 1: money is separated and in the event that anything went wrong.
26:45
Speaker 1: One thing I would say, though, is that that peace
26:47
Speaker 1: of mind that many people is the most important. I
26:51
Speaker 1: remember years ago John talking to Gorham who used to
26:56
Speaker 1: run hard landsdown, and he said to me that the
26:59
Speaker 1: number one concern our customers have is security as their assets,
27:04
Speaker 1: like where are they where are they held and from
27:07
Speaker 1: many people. We've talked Maren, You've asked me about fees,
27:10
Speaker 1: We've talked about apps, we've talked about all of that.
27:12
Speaker 1: For a lot of people, that peace of mind is
27:15
Speaker 1: so fundamentally important that that will be the primary driver
27:20
Speaker 1: of why they might pick a bank, or why they
27:23
Speaker 1: might look for a footzy one hundred or whatever it
27:25
Speaker 1: might be. So that's another thing I think people should
27:28
Speaker 1: think about. But with a decent custodian in place, people's
27:32
Speaker 1: money is ring fenced and should be safe.
27:36
Speaker 3: Brilliant.
27:37
Speaker 2: Thank you, Holly, Thanks for listening to this week's Maren
27:42
Speaker 2: Talk to Your Money. If you like us a rink
27:44
Speaker 2: review and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, or to
27:46
Speaker 2: be sure of following me in John on X or Twitter,
27:49
Speaker 2: I'm at Maren sw and John is John Underscore Stepec.
27:53
Speaker 3: Holly are you on Twitter for X?
27:55
Speaker 1: I'm afraid I've given up to it. I'm an Instagram
27:57
Speaker 1: girl now, Maren when I can be bothered to brush
28:00
Speaker 1: my hair.
28:01
Speaker 2: And you can find Holly on Instagram at Boring Money Holly.
28:05
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by some Saudi production support and
28:08
Speaker 2: sound designed by Moses and Questions and comments on This
28:11
Speaker 2: show and all our shows are always welcome. Our show
28:14
Speaker 2: email is merin Money at Bloomberg dot net