ISA

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

so do you still think your stocks and shares ISA was a good idea?....might be if you buy now...

[Brian Reay]

Certainly a good time to buy.

There are always slumps, even big ones. You only really lose money if you consolidate the loss by selling.

Those who have ISAs which reinvest dividends could do nicely if their investments happed to pay dividends in the slump and the DRIP system runs as smoothly as normal. The problem hasn?t been around long enough to impact performance so payout will be based on pre panic numbers. But share prices are down so you get more.

Remember the earlier ?crashes?? There are still plenty of people who managed to become PEP/ISA millionaires by prudent saving. ;-) There was another article about it in the Telegraph in the last week or so.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Investments are for the long term I was told. Most of this current problem is the OPEC crew once again falling out. They seem to act like a bunch of unruly children. Brian

[John_j]

We'll see...

You also lose money when the operation goes bust as some of the airlines are absolutely guaranteed to do.

But don?t if they stop paying dividends.

It never does.

Bullshit.

Only if they survive.

[alan_m]

That's what I was thinking.

[Brian Reay]

It is no different to any other fall. It isn?t the first and it won?t be the last. The trick is to make the most of it.

House prices may even take a hit, a good time to buy investment properties or another holiday place.

[alan_m]

If you had held ISAs based on the top UK 100 companies for the last 5 or

10 years your investment would have risen well above inflation and with the recent dramatic falls you would probably still be better than breaking even.

I doubt if either Saudi or Russia can sustain an oil price war for any length of time without a serious impact on their own economies. It's likely to be settled some time soon (months rather than years).

On the other hand... with world Governments indicating zero carbon by

2030 to 2050 and hence no markets for the oil that Russia and Saudi want to sell perhaps both countries need to sell as much as they can at any price before demand finally dries up.

The stock market low may be sometime in the near future but unless you got out of the market weeks ago IMO it's the wrong time to panic now that the horse has bolted.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Do you really believe that zero carbon without losing 97% of urban populations and reverting to the stone age, is possible?

Even WITH nuclear power instead of renewable shit?

Haven't you managed to recognise virtue signalling bullshit when you see it, by now?

[Jethro_uk]

And with each dollar fall, another greenie unicorn dies ....

[Jethro_uk]

I took out a S&S ISA in late 2000 for 10 years. There were 2 crashes before it matured with a grand yield of just over 1%.

Would have been better in a regular savings account.

[Brian Reay]

There are always regional variations and variation within regions. We were over in Robbie Burns area last year (around June from memory) and, as usual, we looked at local prices. The general area was much cheaper than the South East but within the area prices varied a lot. They do in the south of course as well.

On the same trip, we stopped of in Derbyshire- we wanted to see a NT place in Bolsver and I was interested in an estate there, originally built for local workers. Again we looked at local prices. Some houses were on sale for less than a large motorhome. A flat in the south would cost more. Some lovely countryside etc within a short distance etc but, sadly, the towns are run down. Thank Scargill and his cronies.

The thing with house prices is not to think of your main house as an investment. Even ones you by for renting or holiday homes you need to look at them not in terms of price but income or pleasure (for holiday homes). That aside, unless you buy and sell in the short term or have a mortgage, the chances of losing money due to price falls is tiny.

[John Rumm]

Whereas if you invest in some other product that in turn invests in the stock market (i.e. most of em, at least in part), what do you call that? An indirect gamble?

What alternative do you suggest? Had they just been using a savings account they would likely have had even less in the first place.

Long term the stock market out performs most other investments so long as you spread your risk.

[newshound]

Yup. Good timing helps, just thinking about whether to invest some more in S&S ISA, or wait a week or two.

[F]

It, and the PEP before it, certainly have been. Present circumstances are a buying opportunity.

[F]

Not probably, am.

Been through 'corrections' before and the market has come back, as it will this time.

[John Rumm]

If its the kind where you can lob money in, then use that as and when to actually buy shares / units etc, then you could spread it over a period of a couple of weeks.

[Andrew]

The facts are quite clear and have been bourne out by any number of graphs. If you leave money in a cash deposit then you are taking the biggest gamble of all, in that inflation over time will just slowly erode it. The period from 1973 to 1978 was an extreme period but even the 1980's saw inflation ranging from 7 to 10 %.

Prior to 2009, depositors could rely on the BoE adopting their standard method of setting bank base rate at inflation plus 1%. The labour government in the 70's kept interest rates down to about 7% while inflation was 25% for about 4 years. Since 2009 the inflation+1% rule has been abandoned, forcing many more people into equity income funds.

Cash is king for specific short-ish periods only.

Even after the correction last week, anyone who moved their cash savings into equities or equity-based funds in 2009/2010 or even in late 2011 after most of the 3-year fixed term 7% bonds expired, will still be above water based on the FSTE100 level alone, and dividends on top.

Take WH Smith as an example. In 2009 the WHS share price was about £3.50. By jan 31 2020 they were up to £26 and paying out huge dividends from their captive, lucrative travel outlets. Now they are down to £16, which is still 5 times what they were 11 years ago, plus dividends.

Most of the 7.7% fall on Monday 9th was because Russia and Saudi are at war (or in league) trying to crash the oil price and force the US shale producers out of business. They tried it in

2015/2016 and failed then too. The big oil companies are the largest part of the ftse100, hence the falls.

The real worry for the next 12-18 months is how many zombie companies, just about surviving because of ultra low interest rates, will go belly up when their business runs out of customers (and cash) as the world decides to self-isolate (or die). If a great many people over 70 pop their clogs, what effect will this have on the cruise, hotel and hospitality businesses plus knock on effect on airlines ?.

[Andrew]

1.26 in Sussex

[Andrew]

Provided you don't mind North American shale producers delaying or cancelling their orders from Weir pumps of Glasgow causing the inevitable job losses. Ditto cheap coal meaning countries like Bangladesh building a huge new coal-fired power station and telling Aggreko of Glasgow to leave.

In 1986 Oil dropped to $10 and almost overnight all the American expats in the Aberdeen area packed up and went home. Local property prices collapsed, while in the South of England we were at the start of a massive house price boom.

[Andrew]

A stocks and shares ISA does not 'mature'. You pay in your money and invest in funds, shares directly or investment trusts of your own choice.

It sounds to me like you put money into one of those nasty 'structured product' type of scams. The fact that it was hidden inside a Stocks and Shares ISA is just a smokescreen.

If you started in 2000 then the FTSE was at an extreme level becase of the DOTCOM tulip mania. A really BAD time to buy a 'structured product' based on the level of the FTSE100.

Plus it probably had a fixed maturity date, which is bad news if that happens to coincided with a correction. These awful 'investments' are only based on the level of the FTSE, you don't even get any dividends from the underlying companies. The institution you bought it from kept those.

As a matter of interest, what was it called, and who did you buy it from. No doubt a building society or high street bank left their fingermarks all over it.