Thanks to the power of compounding, doing this vastly increases your chances of becoming financially independent earlier in life and/or securing a more comfortable retirement.

The only catch is, you need to get your spending under control first. So here are four ways of doing just that. 

1. Practice patience

Instead of buying something impulsively, why not just make a note to consider purchasing it after a set period instead? This could be a month, a week, or even just 24 hours. If you’re shopping online, set up a wishlist and come back to it later.

This simple action isn’t intended to cut out all the joy in your life. But it does allow you to recognise your spending ‘triggers’ and the breathing space to consider whether you really want, or need, a product.

It also gives you the time to check whether you might be able to get a better price for that ‘special’ something elsewhere. Or perhaps a friend might already have what you want and would be prepared to let you borrow it. They may even want you to take it off their hands for free!

2. Ditch the plastic

Thanks to credit cards and innovations such as Apple Pay, we’re using less cash than we used to. Being able to ‘tap and go’ without having to look through your wallet for notes/change is, of course, very convenient. But it also has the potential of making living below your means that little more difficult, because you’re less likely to track your outgoings. Studies have consistently shown that people become more conservative with their spending when they use real money rather than cards.

The key here is having a plan and sticking to it. Consider your weekly food shop. Why not decide on what meals you will cook in advance, withdraw a set amount from your bank account and then use this (and only this) for your groceries? If you feel comfortable doing so, leave your cards and phone at home. 

3. Pay yourself first

One of the best ways to ensure you’ve got money to invest is to transfer said money over to your Stocks and Shares ISA, or SIPP, as soon as your monthly salary hits your bank account. Better still, set up a direct debit so the process is automated.

In addition to now having cash to put to work in the market, this means you’ll have less to spend from the off (although this does involve you also abiding by the points above). Just to make sure, think about ditching any overdraft facility your bank may offer too.

Another option

If you’ve tried all of the above, have cut back where you can, and still have no money left over, a final option is to find ways of earning more, be it through a promotion or a second income stream. The latter could take many forms. Tutoring someone else on a subject you enjoy, or selling things online are just two examples.

The obvious drawback here, however, is that you need to be even more disciplined to refrain from spending this extra income.

The post 3 ways to stop spending all you earn appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Paul Summers has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Here are five things you can do today to help kickstart your savings in 2019.

Open a LISA

If you are under the age of 40, the best thing you can do for your finances is to open a lifetime ISA, or LISA for short.

Introduced a few years ago, LISAs have been designed to help you save by combining the tax effectiveness of an ISA, with the added bonus of a government top up. For every £1 you contribute, the government will add a 25% bonus. So, if you put away £1,000, the government will top this up to £1,250. You can then save or invest these funds however you see fit. 

Invest for yield 

The great thing about LISAs and standard ISAs is that any interest or dividends received are tax-free so you can invest in dividend-paying stocks and funds without having to worry about any additional tax obligations. 

My favourite method of investing for income is buying index tracker funds. These funds track indexes such as the FTSE 100 or FTSE All Share and cost almost nothing (most tracker funds today charge less than 0.1% per annum in management fees). 

The FTSE 100 supports an average dividend yield of 4.7% and the FTSE All Share yields 4.1%. These funds can help you build a well-diversified income stream at the click of a button. 

Peer-to-peer 

Another strategy you can use to boost your income in 2019 is to place some money in peer-to-peer investments. 

Investing in peer-to-peer loans can give you a double-digit return on your savings, but the returns aren’t guaranteed, and you could end up losing some or all of your capital. 

If you do want to use this approach, I highly recommend devoting just a small portion of your portfolio to these assets and diversify your peer-to-peer loan portfolio so one or two failures will not lead to disaster.

Search for savings 

Another strategy you can use to boost your savings income is to look around for the best interest rates on the market today. Some banks offer regular (monthly) savings accounts with interest rates in the mid-single digits.

These can be helpful if you can save a certain amount every month and can lock your money away for 12 months. 

If you can’t, then Goldman Sachs’ Marcus account offers the highest interest rate of any flexible savings account around today. An interest rate of 1.5% is on offer for new savers, although this includes a 0.15% introductory bonus rate. After a year the rate drops to a still-attractive 1.35%. 

Points win prizes 

My fifth and final tip is to make the most of credit card and savings account bonuses available today. 

I use Santander’s 1|2|3 current account, which costs £5 a month but more than pays for itself with the cash bonuses I receive on household bills. Santander’s credit cards also offer cashback for shopping at certain retailers. 

Although small in themselves, these amounts add up over the long term. If you want to make a little extra cash, it’s certainly worth investigating bonus offers, in my opinion.

The post 5 things you can do to kickstart your savings in 2019 appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Rupert Hargreaves owns no share mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

With that in mind, here are three of the most common, devastating financial mistakes you can make… with some tips on how you can avoid making them ever again.

Lack of a budget

By far the most common money mistake is overspending. It might seem silly, but a simple budget can have a tremendous impact on your financial situation. Even if you only write down what’s coming in and what’s going out, it will help you get a grip on your finances, and limit overspending.

Budgeting is also imperative for saving for the future. A great way to make sure that you’re saving and not spending is to put a little money away every month before you start spending. Or, to put it another way, spend what’s left after saving. This will ensure money is always being set aside.

Credit card conundrum

Credit cards can be a useful product for managing your finances, if you’re able to pay off the balance every month. The average annual credit card interest rate is nearly 30%, which means even a small debt could spiral out of control quickly. The best way to stop this happening is to avoid credit cards altogether or, if you do use them, pay off the balance in full every month.

If you have any outstanding debt, it’s generally advisable to pay this off before you starting saving. It doesn’t make sense financially to be paying interest on debt if you can afford to pay it off.

Make your money work for you

Budget issues and debt are the most common financial mistakes, but a close third is poor returns.

A strict savings plan is all well and good, but if this money isn’t working for you, you could be missing out on a significant income stream. According to pensions provider Royal London, £100bn of cash is languishing in low-interest cash ISAs today, which shows just how much of a problem this issue is.

There are many different ways to get your money working harder, including investing. Investing might seem like a daunting prospect, but it really doesn’t require much extra effort on your part. Today, there are hundreds of different investment products on the market with the goal of streamlining the investment process, making it easier for novices to get into the market.

And the extra returns available more than make up for the limited amount of extra work required.

Indeed, according to my figures over the past decade, the FTSE 250 has produced an average annual return of around 8%. Over the same period, the average interest rate on offer from most cash savings accounts has been less than 1%. A small investment of £1,000, earning 8% a year, would grow to be worth £2,200 after a decade of growth. Meanwhile, the same starting investment making 1% per annum would grow to be worth just £1,100.

These figures clearly show that the best way to get your money working is to invest in the stock market.

The post Are you making these three devastating financial mistakes? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Rupert Hargreaves owns no share mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Why retire early?

People have many different reasons for wanting to retire early, but the one I hear most often is the desire to quit their job. Sure, many of us hate our jobs, but why not consider a change in career direction?

While I know that not everyone can afford to do so immediately, and changing careers may require retraining or picking up new skills, there could be many options available that you may not have already considered. It’s a good idea to access your situation carefully, looking at how you can adjust your work/life balance and discussing with your employer about potential options to making your workplace more enjoyable.

In the end, you don’t have to stay in a place you simply feel is not a good fit. I’m sure there are lots of skills that you will have acquired that are transferable into whatever you want to do next.

Phased retirement may be a better option for some. This is where you reduce your working hours gradually, without quitting your job altogether. Your employer may not be keen for you to do this, but you could always look for part-time work.

Do you have enough savings?

Early retirement means your savings and investments will have to last for more years, meaning you’ll either have to make do with less money each month, or you’ll have to save more (potentially, much more) in each of your working years.

Leaving the workforce at an earlier age means that you’ll have less years to contribute to your pension pot. This means you’ll need to save more in each year to build up the same level of savings that you would otherwise have been able to do with later retirement. But given that you’re also drawing down funds from your savings and investments at an earlier age, you’ll also need a bigger pension pot to maintain your desired level of income in each year of retirement.

What’s more, beware of unexpected expenses, and set aside some money for unforeseen financial costs. Many people also underestimate their life expectancy, potentially leaving their financial security at risk in later life.

State Pension

Remember, you’ll probably won’t get the State Pension until the age of 66 or later, depending on when you were born. You’ll also need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension, which you may not achieve with early retirement. And in any case, the maximum amount that you can get from the State Pension is just £164.35 a week, or £8,546 a year — a figure that won’t go very far with even a basic lifestyle.

So, unless you make the sacrifice of saving more in each year, you might get bored and miss working. And if you run out of money, you may find it more difficult to re-enter the workforce when you have a long employment gap.

The post Planning to retire early? Think again! appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Jack Tang has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

In terms of the long-term outlook for property, it offers significant capital growth potential. Over the next decade, the UK population is forecast to rise at a rate of around three times the number of houses currently being built each year. This means that the demand and supply imbalance that has been a key reason for house price growth in recent years could continue over the long run.

However, in the short run house prices could fall. The effects of Brexit are yet to be fully felt by the UK housing market, since the negotiation period with the EU is likely to cause a much higher level of uncertainty than that experienced since the EU referendum. This could damage confidence in the UK property sector and lead to first-time buyers and investors putting off purchases until a more certain outlook is present. However, greater certainty may not appear in the current decade, since fear towards the property sector may be at its highest when the UK goes it alone in 2019.

Price growth under pressure

Furthermore, higher stamp duty and changes to taxation mean that property isn’t as appealing as an investment as it was just a few years ago. And with the pound having weakened in recent months, the necessity of low interest rates may be fading somewhat. A weaker currency could provide a boost to the UK economy as well as higher inflation. In such a situation, interest rates may rise and this could dampen demand for mortgages and cause house price growth to come under pressure.

Of course, shares face risks, too. The election of President Trump could lead to increased uncertainty among investors, since changing policies may impact negatively on the US economy. Furthermore, Brexit could cause the UK economy to experience a difficult period, which could cause share prices to fall. And with a US interest rate rise likely before the end of the year, it would be unsurprising for the UK stock market to experience falls in the short run.

As such, the short-to-medium term could prove to be a good time to buy both property and shares and plan to hold them some time. However, since shares offer greater liquidity, higher diversification and are easily accessible for investors both large and small, they provide the most practical and logical means of generating a high return in the coming years. And with no mortgage required, no tenants to deal with, a lack of void periods, as well as no maintenance charges, it’s a wonder why anyone favours property over shares in the first place.

The post Should you dump your shares and pile into property? appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

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• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Time

While buying and selling shares can be exciting, the reality is that buying and holding on to stocks is likely to provide a superior risk/return ratio. That’s because attempting to buy low and sell high is difficult, since shorter-term share price movements are hard to predict. For example, you may select a company that has excellent prospects but if the wider industry experiences a difficult period it may take time for that company to come good. Similarly, selling a share just because it’s in profit may lead you to miss out on further gains.

Investors such as Neil Woodford tend to find companies they like and stick with them for the long term. This allows changes to management strategy and new products to have a full and significant impact upon their profitability and share price. After all, shares are small pieces of a real business and the business world moves much slower than many investors realise.

Dividends

One area where Neil Woodford has specialised in his career is dividends. Various pieces of research have shown that the majority of returns in the long run are derived from the reinvestment of dividends, rather than from capital growth. As such, dividends are worth focusing on – especially at a time when interest rates are falling and there’s a lack of income return available in other asset classes.

Dividends also provide information on management’s view of a company’s future. While this may be inaccurate, it nevertheless provides an indication of management’s confidence in the company’s upcoming financial performance. In addition, dividend stocks are usually seen as more defensive companies and so may provide a degree of protection against falling share prices in the wider market.

Conviction

While diversification is important for all investors, so too is having conviction. It’s easy to spread the risk among a number of different sectors and stocks, but ultimately if you wish to achieve superior total returns to the wider index then you must back your judgment on specific stocks and sectors. That’s not to say that a portfolio should be overly concentrated on a small number of stocks and sectors, but rather that as an investor you should invest where you feel comfortable and where you think you have a competitive advantage.

For Neil Woodford, this has centred on tobacco and healthcare. Although they’ve provided him with excellent returns, he’s actually said that his biggest investing mistake was to underinvest in both sectors. Therefore, it’s clear that as well as being a top-notch investor, Neil Woodford is only human too.

The post 3 steps to investing like Neil Woodford appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
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• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Spending

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Warren Buffett is his view on spending. While he could easily afford multiple houses, cars and other material possessions, he lives in the same house as he did when he was a young man. It’s incredibly modest for a multi-billionaire, while his humdrum car and lack of lavish taste provide further evidence that he’s a man who could live well within his means even if he had a lot less.

This goes against how most people manage their finances when they achieve a relatively high level of wealth. Buying cars, houses and other material possessions is considered the norm if they become affordable. However, Buffett would rather reinvest his profits for future growth and if you’re able to do that too, your returns will be significantly boosted in the long run.

Investing

Buffett’s investing style is well known. He seeks out companies with a distinct competitive advantage over their rivals, whether that be because of customer loyalty, a low cost base or a dominant position within an industry. He also seeks to buy shares in those companies at a fair price to allow for capital growth to be boosted by an upward rerating in valuation.

Buffett’s investment style, therefore, is incredibly simple. He shuns the complicated modelling techniques of Wall Street in favour of a method that can be mirrored by anyone who has the time to research stocks. Clearly, his approach hasn’t always been successful and the failure with Tesco is a notable example of him overestimating the size of a company’s economic moat.

However, his strategy is relatively low risk in terms of buying well-established businesses rather than newly-established startups. This provides his portfolio with a degree of stability and consistency over the long run, which can be replicated by any investor.

Portfolio management

In an era when diversification is considered a requirement for all investors, Buffett bucks the trend. He holds a highly concentrated portfolio that means he’s far less diversified than many investors. While this increases company-specific risk in his portfolio, it could be argued that it enables him to outperform the wider index and that it means he only invests in his very best ideas.

Buffett’s holding period is rumoured to be forever. This means that his holdings have time to come good, with new strategies and new products having sufficient opportunity to make a positive impact on the company’s (and Buffett’s) bottom line. This long-term view also provides Buffett with the time required to wait for the best opportunities and to be patient when his returns aren’t as high as he hoped for.

So, for investors who are willing to sacrifice short-term spending gratification for long-term returns, who can adopt a simple but highly successful strategy, and who can back their judgment on specific stocks for the long term, the opportunity to become the next Warren Buffett is very much on offer.

The post You could be the next Warren Buffett appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Peter Stephens owns shares of Tesco. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Of course, the difficulty in most people’s eyes isn’t in deciding how much is needed to retire comfortably, but rather how to reach that point. This is where the returns of the FTSE 100 and the power of compounding make a huge impact on any retirement goal.

Since its inception in January 1984, the FTSE 100 has risen from 1,000 points to around 6,900 points today. That’s an annualised gain of 6.1% and when dividends of around 3% per annum are added to that figure, the total return from the FTSE 100 since 1984 has been 9.1% per annum. This means that £10,000 invested in the FTSE 100 in 1984 would now be worth almost £170,000.

Modest investment

Clearly, that’s shy of the £1m target, but investing a relatively modest amount each week over the same time period would have boosted the end figure so that it’s over £1m. For example, investing £100 per week since the FTSE 100’s inception would equate to an end figure of £955,000. When added to the £170,000 from the initial £10,000 that takes the total figure to £1.125m.

Investing in this manner would require an individual to start at the age of 32. The average salary in the UK is £27,000, so saving £100 per week would equate to just under 20% of gross earnings. Even without the £10,000 initial lump sum, it would require less than another year of returns to push past the £1m level. In other words it would mean starting at age 31 rather than 32.

Of course, the FTSE 100’s returns aren’t consistent and can be highly volatile. This may tempt investors to seek to trade shares so as to buy low and then sell high. While this strategy makes sense in theory, the reality is that guessing short-term share price movements is incredibly challenging and time intensive. Therefore, it makes sense to simply buy and hold shares for the long term and potentially pick up an annualised return of 9.1%.

It’s possible, though, to beat the FTSE 100 in the long run. Selecting a diversified range of good value, financially stable companies that have competitive advantages over their sector peers is a proven strategy to beat the index. It may not do so in every year, but investors such as Warren Buffett and Neil Woodford have enjoyed huge success by adopting this (or similar) strategies.

So, while achieving a goal of retiring with £1m at the age of 65 may seem rather lofty to some investors, the reality is that anyone can do it. Certainly, it requires the ability to save a proportion of earnings each month as well as the time for compounding to have a significant effect on its value. However, the real skill is in being disciplined in terms of picking attractive shares and simply letting them make money for you.

The post How to retire at 65 with £1 million appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Of course, as well as being busy, the last few weeks have been uncertain. And many investors may now feel as though the future of the stock market and, more importantly, their pensions is up in the air.

After all, the UK economy is expected to endure a challenging period and a slowdown of sorts. A recession can’t be ruled out and with the Bank of England likely to ease monetary policy in some way, shape or form in the coming months, it’s arguably the most difficult time to be an investor since the credit crunch.

Worst of times… or best of times?

While that may be the case, it’s also one of the best times to be an investor thinking of holding stocks long term since the credit crunch. That’s because periods in history such as the one we’re currently experiencing have proven to be excellent times to buy. In other words, when the outlook for the economy is at its most uncertain, the best buying opportunities tend to exist as investors begin demanding wider margins of safety in order to compensate them for the increased risk.

By buying stocks with wide margins of safety, investors can not only increase their potential rewards, but also reduce overall risk. That’s because buying a high quality company, one that’s very likely to still be operating and highly profitable in the long run, but buying it at a lower price, reduces the amount of downside risk. Therefore the odds move in an investors’ favour during uncertain periods, with risk/reward ratios being more appealing than during rosier economic times.

Furthermore, the stock market is very much a global index. So, while some listed companies are heavily dependent on the performance of the UK economy, many of them aren’t. Therefore, for investors who are bearish on the UK economy, there’s plenty of choice through which to improve the chances of a financially secure retirement. And with sterling weaker and set to remain so over the medium-to-long term as UK monetary policy becomes even looser, UK-listed global companies could gain a significant currency translation boost.

All of this is great news for anyone planning their retirement. And even if the stock market falls, most investors are net buyers and so lower share prices are good news. Add to this the fact that ISA subscriptions are now £20,000 per year, while the cost of buying and selling shares has plummeted thanks to the internet (which has also made company information more freely available) and the reality is that investors have probably never had it so good. Therefore, far from being doomed, your pension could benefit hugely from the present investing conditions.

The post Why your pension is NOT doomed following Brexit appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?

Of course, Brexit may present a buying opportunity, just as every period of uncertainty during my investment career has done. Events such as the 1987 crash, Britain leaving the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1992 and the dot.com bubble of 2000 all caused share prices to come under pressure. As did the tragedy of 9/11, the credit crunch and, more recently, the commodity crisis.

All of these events have a number of things in common. They caused significant falls in the prices of shares, whether this was an entire market or just a specific sector of it. This inevitably provided bold investors with a buying opportunity, but another thing that all of these events had in common was that they took time to fully shakeout.

This means that markets were extremely volatile, often for a sustained period, and the outlook for the stock market changed on a week-to-week and sometimes day-to-day basis. Therefore, investors had time to carefully consider which stocks offered the best long-term opportunities, and where the widest margins of safety were on offer.

Buying opportunity

Of course, by focusing on margins of safety it was possible in all of those difficult periods to buy high quality companies at discounted prices. Clearly, no investor has ever got it right 100% of the time and mistakes are inevitably made, but it really has been the case for me over the last 30 years that the best times to buy have been when the outlook has been highly uncertain.

With that in mind, a strategy that could play out well for long-term investors is to keep a substantial pile of cash at the ready, so as to deploy it as and when challenges such as those highlighted above come into play. This will require a significant amount of patience and the requirement to overcome the fear of missing out on rising share prices (which was very hard during the dot.com era when technology valuations went through the roof).

However, by being patient, it’s possible to lock-in superior buying prices and over a long period, such as 30 years, this can make a huge difference to overall returns. Brexit may not have caused the FTSE 100 to fall, but a number of UK-focused stocks that offer sound long-term outlooks are now trading on low valuations. As I said, the worst may not yet be over as the process of the UK leaving the EU hasn’t started, but through gradually buying stocks with a wide margin of safety, investors can set themselves up for a successful investing career.

The post How I’ve profited from the ups and downs of the stock market over the last 30 years appeared first on The Twelfth Magpie.

More reading

• The £15bn defence splurge that could send UK shares soaring in July
• Up 446% in 12 months! What’s next for the Ceres Power share price?
• How much is needed in an ISA to unlock £1,220 of passive income a year?
• Forget meal deals! Here’s how £8 a day could be worth £357,000
• Up 132% and surging, how is this FTSE 250 share STILL so cheap?