The 2024/25 tax year has reached its half way point. Around this time of year, we like to take a look at the investing trends in our community, from how often people are investing to what type of investments they’re making.
We also think the end of summer and the mid-tax year point is a great time to review your own investments. We’ve put together a guide to making sure your investments are working as well as they can be as we head into the colder months.
Building healthy habits
Little-and-often investing is, for many people, the ideal way to ensure their portfolio keeps ticking over for the long-term.
Our Savings Plans feature means investors can top up their portfolios on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. We’ve seen thousands of investors opt for the effortless, hands-off approach Savings Plans allow. The latest payment technology means investors can even choose the day of the week they invest on.
As it transpires, the majority of Savings Plans users opt to stick with monthly investing, when paychecks come in and the automated monthly outgoings are sent out.
We’re pleased to see that thousands of investors are choosing to invest every single week, however. This kind of regular cadence can make investing part of a routine and lead to steady portfolio growth via contributions. It can also remove market timing as a concern for investors – when you invest weekly, you won’t be consistently buying at the top or bottom of any market trend.
ISAs remain the most popular way to invest
InvestEngine customers have the option of investing via an individual savings account (ISA), a general investment account (GIA), or a self-invested personal pension (SIPP).
SIPPs are a great way to save for retirement, and we’re delighted to be helping so many of our customers plan for their life after work. It’s ISAs that take the crown as our most popular investment product, however.
The ISA is the ultimate all-rounder when it comes to investing. It allows people to invest up to £20,000 each tax year and pay absolutely no tax on the returns those investments might generate.
Of those ISAs, we’ve already seen over a quarter (27%) of our customers utilise their full £20,000 allowance for the tax year – we look forward to seeing how many of the remaining 73% fill their ISAs before the tax year ends in April 2025.
How we’re helping you save
This is also a great time of year to look at our own stats. At InvestEngine, we measure our success by how much we can save our investors, as well as how easy we can make investing for them.
We’re delighted to be able to share how much we’ve saved our customers:
The headline figures from our stats are:
- £3,250,802: the amount we’ve saved investors in account fees with our commission-free DIY platform and our low-cost managed portfolios
- £24,993,926: the amount our investors have saved in trading fees on their DIY portfolios (spoiler: we don’t charge any)
- 7,935,930: the number of trades we’ve completed for our investors since our inception
- 883,192: the number of times our customers have rebalanced their portfolios using our handy app
Figures based on actual InvestEngine client data from inception to April 2024. Investment fees saved based on average equivalent fees as at April 2024 for DIY Portfolios on Interactive Investor, Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell, and Managed Portfolios on Wealthify, Moneyfarm and Nutmeg. Please contact support@investengine.com for full details.
Important information
Capital at risk. The value of your portfolio with InvestEngine can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. ETF costs also apply.
This communication is provided for general information only and should not be construed as advice. If in doubt you may wish to consult a professional adviser for guidance.
Tax treatment depends on personal circumstances and is subject to change, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.