We make brief comments here, but also include links to UKSA’s other advice site for deeper analysis. We do not include products that are packages of assets. To remind you of the investment planning process:

• Decide on the balance of assets ('Asset allocation')

• Decide in what form the assets are to be purchased: directly (low cost but inconvenient) or indirectly through products (high cost but convenient)

• Decide on the individual assets (or products) within the asset/product classes chosen

It is vital that the order of the first two is not reversed.

We deal elsewhere with ‘wrappers’. Wrappers are not assets or products - though they are often (incorrectly) sold as such. They are administrative groupings that contain investments (or wrap round investments - hence 'wrappers'). See Tax Wrappers.

Shares

….are small slices of ownership of single companies. More broadly described as ‘Equities’.

Bonds

…..are issued by governments (gilt-edged) and companies (corporate bonds) and are commitments to pay interest (usually fixed) up to a repayment date (usually fixed). There are many more complicated variants.

Bonds are riskier than they look. Suppose long-term interest rates are 2%. Suppose you are thinking of buying a bond with a long-term repayment - say 30 years. To make the maths easier lets make that infinity - ie repayment years into the future. The bond has a 2% coupon. So you pay 100 for it, getting annual income of 2. Interest rates go up to 4%. Then your bond halves in value to 50 ( because 2 is 4% of 50).

Index-linked Bonds

……offer inflation protection. They seem simple but they aren’t.

Premium Bonds

…..are fun and tax free. For the higher-rate taxpayer why not?

Buy-to-let

If you want to be a landlord you need to be honest about your skill-set. You are entering a business. Do you have the skills? Or the time? If the answer is ‘yes’ we suggest that you classify it in your planning as another risk asset similar to shares.

Property

…..is a serious asset class, (and if you own your own home you are already in it). You can buy property shares so consider as part of the diversification of your share portfolio.

Commodities

This is a serious asset class (and incudes gold as a major sub-class) but is best left to the professionals. It’s not a sensible class to hold long-term because, unlike shares, it doesn’t offer an income return.

Collectables

Not a serious investment, but a defensible surrender to the passion of a lifetime.

Crypto

There are a small handful of professionals worldwide who are capable of trading crypto with reasonable odds of making money. You are not one of them. If you think you are, remember counterparty risk