Share ISA's worth it ?

[VectraMan]

I put £4K into an Asia-Pacific stocks ISA about 2 1/2 years ago. After 6 months is was worth only a little over £2K, but then went back up to be about £4K after a year, and last January was about £5.2K. Or 30% over 2 years, despite a global recession.

The £3K I put into the best cash ISA I could find at the time ended up doing 0.000001% - well, not quite, but a tiny amount and I ended up raiding it whilst on the bench anyway.

All things considered I should have used the full allowance for the stocks and shares ISA, and if I was really clever I'd have put in another £7K at the low point and would have more than doubled my money in a year. But I wasn't clever.

[lukemg]

Despite FTSE going sideways for a decade, read a review that said anyone chipping in a monthly amount over that time would have got 10%+ per annum return !! Pound-cost averaging + Dividends + compound interest.
Something to think about. Start with low cost trackers, vanguard, HSBC. Consider monthly contributions to avoid trying to time the market (you can't).
Now is a perfectly good time to start and yes they might go down from here but MAKE SURE YOU CAN HOLD YOUR NERVE for the 5-10 you state and you will be fine.

[DimPrawn]

Boomer Retirement May Weigh On Stocks For Two Decades: Report

[DimPrawn]

WHS

Spend it on a trip to a Caribbean Island where a man in a white suit and his midget side kick will offer you daily blow jobs in exchange for Gold.

tulip! Sold nearly all my gold.



Spending the money having fun doing what you want to do is the only sensible thing in the current economic climate where valuable things can become worthless and near worthless things can become valuable almost overnight.

[MarillionFan]

And watch them lose 80% of their over inflated present value due to the economic meltdown and millions of baby boomers selling their stocks to fund their (very confortable) retirement.

Of course if you wait several hundred years you might make the capital back with the dividend income.

Then again, maybe they'll triple in value like houses in Wandsworth do every year.....

WHS

Spend it on a trip to a Caribbean Island where a man in a white suit and his midget side kick will offer you daily blow jobs in exchange for Gold.

[DimPrawn]

A selection of excellent FTSE dividend paying stocks

GSK, Unilever, Vodaphone, Tesco, Standard Life, United Utilities

wrapped in a share ISA with a scrip dividend.

Put them in, walk away.

And watch them lose 80% of their over inflated present value due to the economic meltdown and millions of baby boomers selling their stocks to fund their (very confortable) retirement.

Of course if you wait several hundred years you might make the capital back with the dividend income.

Then again, maybe they'll triple in value like houses in Wandsworth do every year.....

[MarillionFan]

A selection of excellent FTSE dividend paying stocks

GSK, Unilever, Vodaphone, Tesco, Standard Life, United Utilities

wrapped in a share ISA with a scrip dividend.

Put them in, walk away.

[jmo21]

No.

Yes...

I mean, maybe.....

erm, could be?

[Bumfluff]

I've never used my stock and shares part of my ISA allowance, considering the state of the markets are they a worthwhile investment ? I thinking long term ie not cashing them in for 5-10 years plus. If so any recommendation of which one to use ?