Beginning to Invest - All questions go here please

Hi guys I was thinking of just dipping my toe into the pool with a sum of €400, I was thinking of buying shares in 1 ETF, 1 oil company, 1 apparel company and 1 Media related comapny in an emerging market, I would probably just buy €100 each. I know this is very small time but to start off it may give me an idea of the whole process, any thoughts?

freeze4real wrote: »

Same here, i dont have the money now but 2 days ago i planned on starting 400e.

I want to have a portolio of shares one is definitely oil and gas. I have a range of oil and gas shares that i am looking at, those with large capitals and with share price that are pretty cheap but with the prospects of doing well e.g SLE.L VED.l.

I have decided to use firstrade as it has all I need although the cost of buying and selling the shares and transfering the money from ireland to the states will be about 12.5% of what I'm investing.

But i am hoping for good returns in a year or so.

Hi Freeze, the price of that Vedanta shares are €2,411.00 :eek: r u buying these?? 12.5%, will that not eat into your profit?? plus the tax like?? what about zecco, it seems it's €4.50 per buy/sell! (I think) Im still bamboozled by which shares to buy but I am looking at LNG and LULU, still mulling it all over though

freeze4real wrote: »

My friends hav used sharewatch and heir service isn't the best.
Although if you use us based brokers you should keep this in mind that you would have to pay $35 or for bank wire transfers.

Sharewatch charges €15 every time you buy and sell compared to zecco and firstrade that charge €5 for each transaction.

Does anyone use zecco or firstrade.

Zecco also deals with forex so it's an additional benefit for me.

I have heard that zecco have very good support and that they are the cheapest. they are in the states, Pasadena. I have just sent off my photocopy of my passport so should be up and running by mid-week. I am confident they are a good company to go with though, just from what I heave read online (havent read any bad posts) still not confident about what way I should spend my little pot of 500 euros though

Im just trying to link my new zecco account with my bank account and it says this "Bank ABA Routing Number " is that the IBAN??? has anyone transferred funds before? how did you go about it?

Have you considered An Post Saving Certificates? I've been investing in these for a number of years and I'm alway very pleased at the final sum which they've yielded. The secret is just invest and forget. I've all my savings in them, and I'm now wondering if they are OK, seeing as the Gov is trying to get their paws on everything. Could the Certs ever be considered as Pension Funds?

ClickityClick wrote: »

Have you considered An Post Saving Certificates? I've been investing in these for a number of years and I'm alway very pleased at the final sum which they've yielded. The secret is just invest and forget. I've all my savings in them, and I'm now wondering if they are OK, seeing as the Gov is trying to get their paws on everything. Could the Certs ever be considered as Pension Funds?

No what way do they work briefly? The return am getting with BOI of say a few grand maturity is absolutely terrible.

ClickityClick wrote: »

you invest your amount in the current issue of saving certs, and there is interest added every six months. you can withdraw at any time, but always make sure that it is after a six month period, that way you get the interest accrued. If you can it's beter to leave it for the full term, usually 5 years. I don't know the actual % of interest, but if you look it up on the net you'll get the current figures.

Ok clickity sounds like an interesting option gonna check it out.

Thanks,
Francie

The NTMA's Savings Certificates grow every 6 month as follows
……………………GROSSED UP................ACTUAL NET "After Tax"
……………………RETURN.…AER………….AER......RETURN
Year…..½……..1.37%....2.75%..........2.01%....1.00%
Year 1…………. 2.88%....2.88%..........2.10%....2.10%
Year 1 ½……..4.52%....3.00%...........2.19%....3.30%
Year 2…………..6.30%....3.11%...........2.27%....4.60%
Year 2 ½……..8.49%....3.34%...........2.44%....6.20%
Year 3………..10.96%....3.56%...........2.60%....8.00%
Year 3 ½…...13.70%....3.78%...........2.76%..10.00%
Year 4……..…16.71……...4.00%..........2.92%...12.20%
Year 4 ½…….20.00%....4.21%..........3.07%...14.6%
Year 5…………23.97….....4.49%..........3.28%...17.50%
Year 5 ½…….28.77.......4.84%..........3.53%...21.00%

The “Grossed Up Rates” on the left hand side of the table is there for comparison so that you clearly see the rate that you would need to receive from an alternative deposit product where all the interest earned is subject to DIRT at 27%.

The return shown on the right hand side of the table is the rate that you actually get paid by the NTMA’s Savings Certificate – it is in effect the “after tax” rate - no tax is payable on the NTMA’s Savings Certificate so no need to complete a tax return either.

The title “An Post Savings Certificates” is not accurate as An Post is a selling agent for the range of NTMA State Savings products and they simply provide a counter service to collect money on behalf of the NTMA – savings never reside with An Post but instead are transferred immediately to the Government under the management of the NTMA.

What are the difficulties in investing in American shares from Ireland? A friend who regularly invests explained it all to me before but I can't recall most of what he said.