Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
A request for financial advice:
For the majority of my career, I've made such a small pittance in Western terms that I had no strong impetus or incentive to save any of it.
While the UK is certainly not as wealthy as the US, and doctor's wages are comparatively meager (and have been devalued considerably by inflation), I have a respectable sum already in my bank account. Part of this is that I simply don't have a life outside of work, and couldn't spend the money if I wanted to.
I'd like to invest the majority of it, around 10k GBP. My risk appetite is decent, but I also think the market is more efficient than I am in most regards (when I had forewarning that Nvidia would skyrocket, I didn't have any money to bet with). I don't want to see it get eaten away by inflation.
I believe the default course of action would be to buy index or mutual funds. I've been eyeing the S&P500.
I do intend to hold on to a few thousand GBP for expenses like buying a second hand car, expensive exams and the like. In the longer term, I'd need ~40k for a mortgage, assuming I choose to continue working and training in the NHS when my contract is up.
More specifically, the default course of action is to implement a glide path, starting with a high proportion of stock funds and a low proportion of bond funds when you're young, and gradually transitioning to a high proportion of bond funds and a low proportion of stock funds when you're old. Vanguard provides Target Retirement 20XX funds that implement glide paths automatically, both in the US and in the UKGBNI. Alternatively, you can just manually allocate your savings between a stock fund and a bond fund.
I agree that's sensible in a vacuum, but I sincerely doubt I'll be growing old and retiring the old-fashioned way. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is in that regard.
(I really should opt out of the NHS pension, like hell that's going to be relevant in the thirty or so years till I could plausibly retire)
If it's 2030 and AI progress seems stalled at levels not significantly more advanced than it stands today, I could be persuaded otherwise. But for now, I'm more concerned with preparing for a singularity (with a decent risk appetite as I have little to lose) as opposed to saving for retirement.
Pick out some tech stocks you like. Nvidia or ARM or whatever you believe in. Make a thesis.
Index funds are boring, guaranteed mediocrity and it is very possible to beat them. I beat the NASDAQ by 78% over the last two years and probably much more over a longer period (the chart my bank gives me stops in September 2023), mostly thanks to being early on NVIDIA and crypto last cycle. It's not impossible to make those calls and beat index funds. You don't need to read reports, outsmarting the giga-quants at hedge funds isn't about doing more work or being smarter than them, it's just about deducing the right thesis from having the right vibes. The numbers are already priced in, vibes are where the alpha is.
Of course I've made lots of mistakes and lost lots of money in various errors. That is inevitable if you make aggressive moves and control your own money. I encourage against using leverage. I encourage patience. But risks are needed to earn rewards.
Heavily seconded. My best gains have been in stocks from companies whose business I have known and occasionally patronised over a half-decade.
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