When the boys were born we opened a ‘Child Trust Fund’ for them, basically a savings account that earns tax free interest and the balance is locked away until they’re 18. When V was born just before Christmas I started looking for something similar but I found they are no longer available and I couldn’t find a good alternative. All the children’s savings accounts had such a tiny rate of interest we might as well just keep it in a piggy bank.
I toyed with the idea of investing it instead but, although I like to consider myself fairly financially aware, the more I read about various shares and funds the more confused I got. They just didn’t seem to be aimed at ‘normal people’ and in the end I just gave up, hoping I’d have better luck once my baby brain subsided.
This week however an email dropped into my inbox about Nutmeg, an ‘intelligent, fully-managed portfolio’, and when I had a look at their site it suddenly all made a lot more sense.
After looking at so many rather turgid investment company sites it was a relief to find everything displayed in a rather more user friendly, visual layout. It allows you to put in how much you have to invest and whether you’d like to save a further amount monthly before using a slider to select a level of risk. You can then see all the details about the type portfolio recommended for that level of risk, how the investments are split, how volatile they tend to be etc as well as a prediction of likely performance over time. If you don’t like what you see you can move the slider up and down to a different type of portfolio until you are happy with the result.
Another thing that appeals about Nutmeg is that you only need an initial lump sum of £1000 which is a lot less than many of the funds I’ve seen before. They handle pensions and ISAs as well as savings, there is no tie in period and their fees are a maximum of 1% (less the more you invest).
Having an investment in today’s world is extremely necessary as this helps one to save and increase their finances for their future. The investment could be on home, shares or even stocks are rewarding if a person knows how to invest and where to invest in the right time. You can see here to find out a VA home loan advice and find out how they can help you invest in your future.
One must be extremely careful while investing as it is an extremely good idea theoretically but if a person tries to do this practically with minimal knowledge about how it works then it can turn into a catastrophe.
Of course, I’m no financial adviser and everyone’s situation is different but if, like me, you’ve found investments a bit daunting it could be worth heading over to Nutmeg to see if it might suit your needs. Their FAQ section is particularly helpful.
ooh I have been writing about this too ……i would live to make some investments but am barely paying the bills this month!! still one day soon…..