Investment help in North Devon

Eclipse Financial Solutions can help you with your Investments.

Investments made clear.

When investing, you take calculated risks to increase your chance of getting higher returns on your money, especially over the longer term which is money that you can afford to tie up for longer than five years

What are Investments?

There are different types of investments but, basically, you take the risk with your money by investing in assets that could rise or fall in value. There is no guarantee that you will make a return on your investment or even that you will get back the same amount that you invested in the first place. Investments are different from savings - they are designed for the longer term and involve different types of risk. Before investing, it is usually a good idea to have sorted out your debts, make sure that you have looked at protecting yourself against unforseen events, built up some savings and arranged your pension (your pension is of course an investement in itself). Once you start investing, it is highly advisable to spread your risk - don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

Types of Investment.

You may have heard of all sorts of investments - ISAs, shares, property, unit trusts - the list goes on. However, the best way to understand investments is to think about investing as having three 'layers':

The underlying investment itself will fall into what are referred to as asset classes. There are four main asset classes - shares, bonds, property and cash deposits. You can invest in each of these directly if you wish

Pooled Investments. This is when you put your money with other investors to invest in one or more of the above asset classes. this spreads your risk and saves on costs. Open-ended investment funds, investment trusts and life assurance bonds are the most common pooled investments.

Tax Wrappers. These are tax breaks that you can - subject to certain rules - wrap around your investment, either to shield it from some or all of your tax liability. The wrapper can be around either the underlying investment or the pooled investment. The two most common tax wrappers are ISAs and pensions.

The value of your investments can fall as well as rise.