Investing Books
How to Invest Without Being Ripped Off The beginner’s step-by-step guide to how I would go about setting up investments under almost every possible scenario.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle John Bogle was the chap who started the first passive fund in the 1970s. He led a low-cost investment revolution that has benefited ordinary investors like you and me. Hats off and thank you to the late, great Mr. Bogle.
The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns
This is an excellent introduction to stock-picking (choosing specific companies to invest in). If that’s your bag, this is your book.
The Naked Trader’s Guide to Spread Betting
Read this book to get an idea of how to start in the fairly complex world of spread betting.
Anything by Len Deighton, Martin Cruz-Smith, Robert Harris, Abir Mukherjee, Philip Kerr or Ken Follett.
These authors have produced a load of really good thrillers, murder mysteries and spy novels. Nothing to do with investments but, because of the way I’ve set up my investments, I have time to indulge my reading habits. Ideal with a cup of freshly ground coffee and a hot croissant. Just saying.
Some of the links above might generate a payment to help support this website if you click them and make a purchase. It won’t cost you anything but it’s only fair to be transparent about these things.
Investing Sites
Age UK
This excellent charity has some really useful information on pensions and annuities.
Bank of England’s banking licence list
This web document provides a list of banking licences in the UK.
This is important because the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will guarantee some of the money you have under each licence. One licence can cover several banks.
For example, Clydesdale, Virgin and Yorkshire Bank are all under the one licence. The amount you hold under all three in total is covered by just one licence.
So you might consider placing money greater than the FSCS limit across institutions that are not covered by the same licence.
Debt advice websites
Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) assessment of fund managers
The FCA’s damning report on how fund managers treat their customers.
Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) investment data report 2020-2021
The report that identified Ongoing Charges Figures (OCFs)The key piece of information, “OCF” Ongoing Charges Figure. That’s how much of your money a fund or ETF takes each year. It’s essential that you pay as little as possible in your appropriately structured portfolio of investments; the Ongoing Charges Figure is key to that. Green means reasonable, the more red it gets, the less reasonable it is. are between 0.00% (correct, no OFC) and 0.20% (a little higher for Alternatives). That’s the difference between good value and a rip off.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
This is the government guarantee of your money if the company you hold it with goes bust.
Investopedia
An explanation of loads of financial terms and bits of jargon.
MoneyHelper, an unbiased information resource on pensions
Starting point for all sorts of publicly funded info on UK pensions
MoneyMagpie
Advice and information on making money, saving money and dealing with debt.
The Naked Trader
A fully clothed Robbie Burns shares his excellent insights on stock-picking and spread betting for those of you who want to dive into that type of intensive investing.
Risk assessment questionnaire (Academic original)
The questionnaire created by John Grable and Ruth Lytton as visiting professors at the University of Missouri on which I’ve based the risk questionnaire on this site.
UK government ISA resource
Starting point for all sorts of government info on UK Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs).
UK government Check Your State Pension resource
Government page where you can see what UK state pension you’re entitled to.
UK pension annual allowance checking tool
This is where you can check the status of your state pension in the UK.
Women and Wealth
A short report showing how unprepared women in the UK are compared to men when it comes to investments.
“Unbiased” IFAs
Database of Independent Financial Advisors in the UK
Underperforming their own benchmarks
The S&P Dow Jones Indices LLP report on how bad active fund managers are at hitting the very targets they set for themselves.