There are occasional posts regarding finance & investments and I thought about starting a specific Finance & Investment thread 2 or 3 years ago but didn't however it's never too late to start
I see this an an opportunity for people to share thoughts and tips on where may be a good place to invest and where you should perhaps be moving your money out of, some posters on other threads did seem to have quite a good and deep understanding of various investing aspects and it would be good to get their guidance
I've been investing for about 25 years though back then it was small change as I never had much money and not much of that was ever spare and then I got hammered by the dot com bubble bursting about 3 weeks after I got in
I picked up investing properly about 14 years ago once i'd paid my mortgage off early and suddenly had spare cash that i knew would get wasted unless I tied it up, I am fortunate that once i've hived it off into a stocks ISA fund then I class it as untouchable and effectively a tax free extension to my pension
As anyone who invests will know it can be a bumpy and at times a very bumpy ride like being on the Big one at Blackpool pleasure beach
It's certainly not for the feint hearted and you have to be prepared to hold your nerve when the markets are all heading downwards and not sell out.
Not an issue for me as i've always been a gambler and when I did a personal risk profile assessment it came back saying that i had almost no risk adversity
In the last 5 years 1st Covid sent the markets into a panic and then Ukraine did the same thing a couple of years later just as things were looking up again.
I was fortunate with my decision when covid hit to sell out of certain underperforming sectors like the UK which was still suppressed on the back of Brexit and buy into Global Tech which was an area I only had a small holding in but wanted to increase that, my investments went up by about 50% in 3 or 4 months as Tech boomed on the back of everyone working from home etc
The last couple of years have basically been shit due to Ukraine however things did start to show signs of picking up about 6 months ago or rather valuations continued to move sideways though I guess they were falling in real terms once high inflation is factored in.
I started to see some real signs of recovery 3 or 4 months ago where gains appeared to be held onto rather than going up 1 week and dropping back a week or so later, there had been 5 or 6 previous Bear market rallies which build your expectations before quickly pulling the rug from under you
The upturn does seem to be a bit broader across various sectors now but the real winners over the last few months and again at present is the Global Tech sector which is booming
From what i've read this sector performed badly for the 12 months prior as it's adversely affected by high and rising interest rates more than other sectors, now that inflation and interest rates appear to have peaked and are falling back then Tech valuations are on the up
So anyone got any tips / info / thoughts to share
Unsurprisingly my current tip would be to invest in Global Technology as I see this sector continuing to rise sharply for the next 1-2 years as interest rates continue to fall back
What I would also say is to invest in more than 1 fund as when I look at my Tech holdings they can perform quite differently when compared to each other so i look to average things out a bit
Also don't just invest in Tech as you need to have a broad and diversified portfolio just in case a sector takes a dive as you don't want all eggs in 1 basket no matter how tempting it is to go all in on whatever is making the most at the time
And this isn't just about investing spare money in a stocks ISA as most people will have a company pension scheme which is probably invested in whatever shitty / boring / mediocre returning funds the cautious pension people have decided is best for you
If you're able to choose your own funds then do some homework and start moving the money about so that you build a bigger pension pot, taking the time to read up on this stuff really is time well spent (A bit like researching a punt can pay dividends and avoid pitfalls)
Hell it may mean being able to retire a few years earlier than intended and then having both more time and more money to indulge in your favourite retirement hobbies, now I wonder what they might be then