VANGUARD Invest from the UK

[Mr stuble]

Hi fellow UK investors, I read an article in the daily mail earlier where I have found that Vanguard is now offering funds to UK investors through their own platform. My understanding is that in the past, you could invest in Vanguard funds, but through different platforms, and as such these platform charges increased the fee. I have pasted a link to their website below and was interested to hear if this is something new or whether I am late to the party?

I have also left a link for the article where I read it from.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/investing/article-4535348/How-save-8-000-new-investing-website.html

A couple of questions I have for other readers, particularily anyone who has invested in Vanguard funds before are;
- As a UK investor which fund would you select? (My front runner at the moment is FTSE UK All Share Index)
- Does anyone use the life strategy funds if so what are the pros and cons?
- Is it really a massive risk to have 100% stocks allocation? I am 23 and not worried about fluctuations as I have no reason to withdraw the cash any time soon
- This one may be contentious, I was wondering, If I had a lump sum to invest now, would you filter it in over months (I think this is called cost averaging?), or invest it all right now, or wait. My reaosning being that the FTSE 100 is at 7,500 currently, this is the highest it has ever been, so I feel as though I would be investing at the peak of the market! (I know it is impossible to time the market, just want some honest opinions)

Cheers!

[cerat0n1a]

I'm going to reply mostly by posting links to monevator...

First thing is that investing direct with monevator rather than via Halifax, Hargreaves Landsdown or other ISA/SIPP provider of your choice might not be the best option in terms of charges. Depends on how much you want to invest and other factors. See

http://monevator.com/vanguard-direct-uk/

In terms of using the LifeStrategy funds, a lot of people on here do that - you might want to look at the monevator take on it.

http://monevator.com/using-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds-life/

I would advise NOT putting all your money into a UK tracker. It's just as easy to get a world tracker (e.g. Vanguard's VWRL) and this is more diversified. The FTSE has a tilt towards finance & resources (oil, mining) and very little technology. It's not even particularly focused on the British economy - more a random selection of large multi-nationals with historic links to the UK. It makes sense to have a UK bias because of currency, but not to put all your money in UK shares.

In terms of whether to go 100% equity, my only comment would be that it needs to be money that you don't need for a few years. At 23, you potentially might want to buy a house one day, maybe a relationship and/or children lies in the future, so a bit of flexibility isn't a bad plan. Have you checked out things like the lifetime ISA - 25% from the govt isn't too be sneezed at?

If you want some really good advice, it would be "stop reading the Daily Mail." It's full of lies and will turn you into a horrible person :-)