I want to start investing to save for the future after University, but I am unsure on how to do so. What should I start investing in? Should I create a general savings account or an individual savings account, or both?
Not many people will answer due to financial advice blah blah. An ISA has tax benefits, Google it and you can research it and decide which is best for you.
Great question, and one a lot of people will be grappling with. We can’t advise you what to do but we can explain the difference between these options.
A General Investment Account offers no tax benefits, but it is also extremely flexible. All the money you have in your GIA can be taken at whenever you want.
Within an ISA your income and capital gains will not be taxed, but you can only put £20k into an ISA each year and if you take out any money you will lose the portion of the allowance that you have withdrawn (unless it is a flexible ISA, in which case you need to deposit the amount before the end of the tax year to maintain your allowance).
In terms of what to invest into - this is the exact use-case we have built Stratiphy for - to help you set up your investing preferences and then let your strategy build and manage your portfolio on your behalf using tried and tested investment management techniques. We already have a great product up and running, and over the next few weeks and months we’ll be enriching it with more features, better design, more investment options and more strategy tools.
If you’d like some help getting started get in touch and we’ll be very happy to walk you through the app on a call: hello@stratiphy.io.