At first the investment world can appear to be a rather confusing array of widely differing opportunities and dangers, shrouded in an impenetrably thick cloak of jargon that seems almost designed to keep the novice at bay.

“…he who gathers money little by little makes it grow… the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty

One of our roles as an IFA is to enable you to choose the right investments out of the vast choice now available and to ensure that the investments chosen are the most suitable in the context of your objectives and financial circumstances.

Objectives

The key to making successful investment decisions is to fully understand what you are trying to achieve before launching in. We will help you establish these objectives and do so in the light of your circumstances and aspiration.

Risk and Reward

One of the basic elements of the discussion will be establishing your attitude to investment risk. (On the home page there is a risk questionnaire that will help you determine your true attitude to investment risk.) Of course everyone wants an investment that will provide fantastic returns without there ever being a danger of it falling in value. Sadly there is no such thing and many an unwary investor has been caught out by assuming otherwise.

Even a bank account carries some risk either of the collapse of the financial institution or of inflation being in excess of the net return and so eroding the real value of the investment (the buying power of the money invested).

Risk and reward also has a direct relationship to the time scale over which the investment is made. For example investing for say two years in stocks and shares would carry a high level of investment risk because, if the investment fell in value, the fund would have very little time to recover, in this case a cash based investment may be more appropriate.

However over a 20 year period you are likely to regret holding cash and so other non-cash investments are much more likely to provide real growth.

Another key to a successful investment strategy is diversification. Diversification needs to be not simply between different management styles or different shares but also between different asset types. Because each asset type reacts differently to the prevailing economic climate we can actually enhance the long term returns at the same time as reducing the risk by diversifying.