Do any of you play the stock market? ?

We have investment ISAs but I wouldn’t call that ‘playing the stock market’ and I certainly don’t regard it as a form of gambling - more about protecting our assets & providing part of our income.

It is intelligent informed gambling. I couldn’t begin to do it myself, but I pay someone to do it for me. I don’t think the results are very extreme either way.

DH has invested very successfully in the last few years. He has a specific area of interest after an OU course he did. He has long term investments and some money he invests on a short term basis, buying and selling usually within a few days.

We've had self invested shares for many years. Unfortunately dividends have been dramatically cut or non existent in the past year. It depends which companies you are invested in.

DH doesn't invest for the dividends for the capital growth.

*but for

We had an inheritance just over a year ago and an investment was offered to us as part of our inheritance. We decided to take it. I'd helped look after this person's finances and knew this investment had made a substantial amount over a 10 year period. There'd also been a bi monthly divided from it.

The investment is with a company that manage and invest in a wide range of assets including Equities, Fixed Income and Real Estate. It's continued to do well for us. In our first year it has gone up just over 10% + we've had the dividends.

These companies can't advise you on what to buy but they show you the performance of the funds they offer before you decide what you want to buy. Like other companies they grade the funds.

I go on line every day to check how they are doing. Martin Lewis offers good advice about this. There's no guarantees and he advises to expect to leave the investment for at least 5 years.

We have our own savings and these have always been earmarked for specific things. We decided to take a gamble. You're right in what you say Urm. Don’t play with what you can’t afford to lose.

I shan’t be doing it I can’t afford it, but I was curious about it. Thank you for answering.

For those who do invest I bet it brings a frisson of excitement now and again. A bit like ‘have I won anything this month on the premium bonds?’. I haven’t got any of those left anymore either.

Perhaps I’ll just place a bet on the Grand National later in the year!
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We also have investment ISA's and our pensions are managed by an investment company.

We had to complete a questionnaire to see whether or not we liked risk. We came out as cautious but only I think because there wasn't an extremely cautious or cowardly alternative!!

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I don't personally play the stock market. However, my savings are managed by a company who specialise in it and they seem to do quite well. Ups and downs of course but they're carefully managed to even out. I also had to do a questionnaire on my attitude to risk and say whether I wanted capital growth or income.

We can’t risk savings as we won’t be able to replace losses. However, when my grandson asked us a few years ago if we minded if he used the savings we had been putting away for him since he was quite young to be put into shares we encouraged him to do so. He is a very thoughtful young man and when he went to university to students financial economics we left it to him. I believe he is doing okay and my SIL has also been buying shares and I hear from my daughter about apparent ups and downs but overall sounds good. Being old fashioned and not prepared for risks I always wonder how safe these amounts of profit might last. I do think to put aside an amount you can afford to lose and then have a go is probably the best way forward.

Urmstongran

I shan’t be doing it I can’t afford it, but I was curious about it. Thank you for answering.

For those who do invest I bet it brings a frisson of excitement now and again. A bit like ‘have I won anything this month on the premium bonds?’. I haven’t got any of those left anymore either.

Perhaps I’ll just place a bet on the Grand National later in the year!
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The shares in which DH invests our money have days when they move a lot and he always disappears at about 5.30 to check how much we have made - our initial investment has gone up five fold. I say 'ours' - my input is asking how we are doing!!

He really enjoys studying anything and everything to do with his pet topic.

Yes, I used to dabble regularly. Nowadays I just study form daily on those shares I have retained. Good fun and gets the old heart racing when the volatility kicks in.

If you are going to “play the market” you need to know what you are doing and not buy whatever is “in fashion”, very often the opposite. To buy at a low point and sell at a high point, specializing in a certain area gives you an advantage, you can practice using company share prices, quoted in newspapers and see how you do.

I invest in premium bonds - entirely sufficient frisson for me.

OH had an interest in investments but we did not have the money to do this and I felt a bit squeamish about it anyway, not knowing what we might be propping up with our money. In the end we agreed a small sum that was his to "play" with. He never made any money on it.

I have some shares in the bank I used to work for. These shares resulted from a share scheme I was in at the time, whereby you saved a certain amount of money from your salary each month and then you could even take the money plus the interest after a certain time or use it to buy bank shares. I chose the shares as most of us bank employees did. I still have those shares, 25/30 years later. At the moment, their value is quite low, but I’ll hang onto them. Generally though, I wouldn’t get involved in stocks and shares as I’m far too cautious and DH even more so. I’m not advising against it - it just depends on your attitude to risk.

I invest in premium bonds - entirely sufficient frisson for me.

My feelings exactly Luckygirl

I'm a bit like Kitty Leicester's* husband in that I use the stock market to invest for capital growth. Instead of cash dividends take payment in shares to increase the size of my holdings. Over the years I have built a useful portfolio of mixed risk shares all held in a self managed ISA.

I have never invested more than I can afford to loose in high risk shares and I tend to sell the value of my initial investment once the price has doubled. That means that most of my capital invested in shares is pure growth. I track the prices daily and read the financial press avidly.

With savings rates so low it's hard to make money outpace inflation without being in the market. The key is not to gamble or play but to understand risk.

I suppose most private pensions are paid from investment in the stock market - not many people have inflation proof pensions these days.

I ve never had what I consider spare money because it has to be spare as it could go down
I too have no understanding of how it works and not having a particular mathematical brain couldn’t be bothered to find out I certainly wouldn’t have any cash to pay someone to do it for me I am so disinterested in wealth that the thought of looking through the papers every day would be torture

My daughters friends son in his early twenties is close to a millionaire through bitcoins he started when he was about 14 again I have zero interest and zero understanding so it’ll never be rich

I invested £2000 during the last lockdown, curiosity and something to do.

After 2 months I had made £234 but found it stressful as I did not really understand what I was doing.

In the 80's H and I invested in a company known as Hansen's for stocks and shares---excellent with good returns/ profits more often than not. After H's death in the 90's I pulled out.

The shares were spread about in different companies and it was interesting at the time to read in the Financial Times how these companies were doing---or not as the case may have been. Hansen's were a well tried and tested stock market company.

At the time, there'd been a goodly amount invested which was trust money left to the 4 children from Pa-in-law that would be encashed to them on the death of my H---which it was. I'd travelled to Oz that year with a large cheque for my D and I can remember her being thrilled, especially when it appeared double the amount commensurate to the Aussie Dollar in 1994.

You have to be so careful about high profit shares that are on offer as there's usually a catch. Your bank is the best place to discuss stocks and shares initially. I wanted a high-yield investment but the bank wasn't keen on my gambling scheme.

All I have now is an ISA---yielding coppers. At least the Yorkshire BS has increased its interest.