When Nick Seagrave inherited some money five years ago, he knew he wanted to do something with it that would count in the future. At the time, savings rates weren’t great and, as he and his wife had bought a house a few years earlier, he started looking at other options so the money wouldn’t just gather dust.
“I did some reading and decided to start investing,” the 36-year-old says. “Previously, I’d never really had much to save. As a graduate on a relatively low income, I didn’t have the money to spare. But all of a sudden, I had to make a decision.”
That research led him to Interactive Investor – the flat fee investment platform that gave him the opportunity to put his money into everything from self-invested personal pensions and Isas (individual savings accounts) to general trading accounts. “My decision [to use Interactive Investor] was really based on the cost of the platform,” he says. “There are so many fees everywhere, so Interactive Investor was effectively cheaper in the long term and gave me much more flexibility on investment options. I tried quite a few platforms but came back to this one.”
Seagrave started with the lump sum inheritance, and now tries to regularly “drip feed” money into his investments as part of his monthly household outgoings. He started with pensions and Isas, but his investments became more focused after the birth of their son, who’s now three. He added a Junior Isa, free with adult accounts, that he contributes to every month, and which their son will be able to access when he’s 18.
It’s been a time of change for the family. They relocated to Cornwall early last year and, after working remotely at first, Seagrave changed jobs and is now a digital marketing manager at a credit reporting company. “Apart from [the attraction of] the incredible outdoors, coastline and living on a creek, my wife is Cornish so we always planned to head back to be closer to her family. The pandemic accelerated our plans, as did our experience as parents.”
The couple’s savings were initially designed to fund an early retirement, but now have potentially an even more important role, says Seagrave. “We have some additional challenges with our son – he is autistic and access to educational support is not always forthcoming. We may need to pay for things when he’s older, so the benefits of saving are clear. Either way, it’s very much about saving for the future and saving long term.”
But putting money aside to invest isn’t as easy as it was a few years ago, says Seagrave. Since the birth of their son, they have been a one-income family: “We used to proactively put money aside at the beginning of the month when the paycheck came in. Then my wife went on maternity leave – and didn’t have a job to go back to after the pandemic, so there’s less money to put away. But it’s not knocked us off track.”
While other household spending may be restricted, Seagrave has managed to carry on investing – albeit on a smaller scale. “We can pay the mortgage and bills but there’s not a huge amount of wriggle room. We haven’t really had many holidays in the past couple of years. But we’re still saving, not the amount we were five years ago, but we’re managing.”
Seagrave remains optimistic. “I think we are in a better position than many,” he says. “Our bank balance is either positive or neutral at the end of the month.”
When it comes to his investments, Seagrave describes himself as relatively hands on. “I wouldn’t call myself an expert, I have read up and I’m confident. I like to choose sustainable investments – I think it’s important as a consumer to try to make sure that most decisions are made with sustainability in mind and to know what your money is doing.”
Although Seagrave feels confident about his knowledge, the language around investing can be off-putting, he says. “There’s a lot of jargon and I feel like it’s deliberately complicated by the industry, whereas actually it’s relatively simple. It’s about having the confidence to do it.”
Seagrave’s initial foray into investing may have felt like a “leap of faith”, but he has built up his knowledge and learned to trust his instinct more over time. “The main thing is learning how important compounding is,” he says, referring to the reinvestment of interest back into the initial pot of money. “It’s simple really, but the earlier you start the more you gain exponentially. If I was to need access to cash at the moment I’d be out of pocket because the market is down, but I believe long term it’s the right thing to do. I’m glad I started back when I did – I just wish I had learned about it about five or 10 years earlier.”
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