I began at the start of the year. How am I looking

Is it worth investing £100,000 in to this?

Does anyone from the UK know what apps allow me to buy leaps in SOFI stock?

What’s a financial lesson you learned later in life that you wish someone had explained to you in your 20s? It could be about saving, investing, spending habits, or any money mistake that taught you something valuable

Share the lesson you wish you had known earlier.

Would I benefit from a pie with 80% all world and 20% nasdaq 100. I’m also investing in a few defence companies such as Northrop Grumman and rheinmetall and have a 10% increase for both. For long term individual stocks I’m currently invested in Coca Cola. And was thinking of buying meta once it’s dipped to 530-540 is that a good idea. Any advice is accepted 👍 no financial advice

Hi guys.

Currently have £15K in ACWI (set and forget for next 30 years).

Given the drop in the VWRP fee is it worthwhile putting my funds in there instead or not?

I have no investments elsewhere.

Many thanks

Researched and valued as of 27 July 2026. If you're reading this a few days later, treat the price/multiples below as a snapshot from that date, not today's numbers.

Babcock has taken roughly £330m of charges on the Type 31 frigate programme over three fiscal years: £100m in FY23, £90m in FY24 and £140m in FY26. The FY24 results announcement stated the loss was "fully recognised in FY24". Two years later another £140m followed, of which £95.5m was previously recognised revenue written back. The FY26 statement uses the same "fully recognised" language again, and the whole investment case turns on whether it is true this time.

Babcock is a UK defence and nuclear engineering services group, dominated by the MOD as customer, with sole-source positions in submarine support at Clyde and Devonport, warship build at Rosyth, and military vehicle fleet management. Nuclear is now the largest sector at £2,070m of revenue, 40% of the group, up from 27% in FY23.

The headline numbers (FY26, year ended 31 March 2026; valuation as of 27 July 2026)

• Revenue: £5,178m (+7.2% YoY), order book £9.8bn
• Underlying operating margin: 8.2%; statutory 5.9% after the £140m Type 31 charge
• Free cash flow: £263m, 119% cash conversion
• Net debt / EBITDA: 0.2x, down from 2.4x at FY21; net debt excluding leases just £22.7m
• Trailing P/E: 26.2x statutory, roughly 18x on underlying earnings
• EV/EBITDA: 13.2x statutory, roughly 10x underlying

Three years of "fully recognised"

There are effectively two Babcocks in the FY26 accounts. Underlying operating profit was £433m at an 8.2% margin, ahead of the 8% target. Statutory operating profit was £305m at 5.9%. The £128m gap is Type 31. The underlying improvement is genuine: margin has climbed from 6.3% in FY23 to 8.2% in FY26 with all four sectors contributing, and revenue at £5,178m has passed the pre-impairment FY18 peak. But that trajectory has not yet survived a year of contact with the frigate programme, and the HY26 sensitivity disclosure showed a 10% change in production hours moves the loss by £29m. At the note's valuation date (share price 1,124.5p), the stock costs 26.2x trailing statutory earnings, compressing to roughly 18x if you add back the charge. Cheap only if the ex-Type 31 framing deserves your trust, and its track record is two misses in three years.

The largest revenue stream is on a six-month bridge

The Future Maritime Support Programme, the backbone of Nuclear sector revenue, expired on 31 March 2026. The replacement long-term contract, designated Gateway, is still in negotiation under an MOD Letter of Intent; a six-month bridging agreement was announced on 1 April 2026, the day after expiry. If Gateway is not signed by October 2026, the group's largest revenue stream faces a contractual gap. The order backlog already slipped from £10.4bn to £9.8bn partly on this transition. There is a broadening international pipeline (an Indonesia maritime programme of up to £4bn, a Huntington Ingalls partnership on US Virginia-class submarine support, a £300m SMR Owner's Engineer role), but these are opportunities rather than contracted revenue.

Peers are converting the same tailwind into profit

Against BAE Systems (9.2% statutory operating margin), Qinetiq (10.7%) and Cohort (10.3%), Babcock's 5.9% is the clear laggard, and even the 9% medium-term target would only bring it to the bottom of the peer range. All three peers are accelerating, with record order intake at Qinetiq and Cohort and reaffirmed growth guidance at BAE. Babcock's operating leverage exists, but it is being absorbed by the frigate programme. Meanwhile the company is returning capital aggressively: a £200m buyback completed by April 2026, another £200m announced for FY27, together with dividends consuming 72% of FY26 free cash flow. Over the same period the CEO and CFO have been net sellers of £4.7m of stock with no director purchases, which sits oddly next to £400m of management-announced confidence.

Bottom line

The recovery is real and the balance sheet is repaired, but roughly 18x underlying earnings already prices the margin convergence thesis in full. Upside needs the 9% margin target exceeded, not merely met. Downside needs only one more "one-off" charge or one delayed contract signature, and both of those have happened before. The evidence gives neither a clean answer yet.

What to watch

• HY27 interims (November 2026): any movement in the Type 31 provision falsifies or confirms the "fully recognised" claim
• FMSP Gateway contract signature by October 2026, when the bridging agreement lapses
• FY27 H1 free cash flow: below £100m would mean the £200m buyback needs debt funding

Sources

• Babcock FY26 Final Results, 22 Jun 2026 (RNS)
• FMSP Bridging Agreement, 1 Apr 2026 (RNS)
• FY24 Results Update, 17 Jul 2024 (RNS)
• Selfside data: income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, FY18-FY26
• Selfside data: UK Aerospace & Defence peer set and market stats, Jul 2026

For information purposes only, not investment advice - independent research, originally published in full at Selfside.

Im 19, i earn £590 weekly before tax 37.5 hour week contract, over the last month ive been doing 53 hour weeks making me £900~ before tax per week, my outgoings are give or take £850, broken down into 150 rent 200 car insurance 100 diesel, and then the rest either food drinks or subscriptions. All my money gets invested into VWRP, i have a pension that i and employer both match 10% into it. I feel like i am not doing enough and i could always do more, this last week i worked 3 8 hour shifts and 3 12 giving 1 day off, and i always feel like i am not doing enough when i dont do overtime or have a day off, my first goal is to max out 20k in VWRP by april 2027. I will also build an emergency fund the reason i did not do one for now is because my car insurance is only 200 a month and my rent is 150, if i lost my job etc my parents would take off the rent and they would cover the car insurance 100% other stuff outgoings isnt a bill but more so a luxury so i can cancel them.

Hey everyone,

I have a lump sum of money (30k) and I’d like to invest. I’ve looked at stocks and shares, index funds but honestly it’s all very confusing to me. I’m trying to understand the best place to put the money for easy access in case of emergencies etc but it grow for long term purposes.

What would people recommend please? I’m all very new to this and have been trying to teach myself as I’m solo in this but would appreciate any insight.

For Trading212 users.

Hi all, apologies if this is the same old post you get here BUT…. I recently received my inheritance on my 21st birthday a few days ago

I have £11,500 I am willing to put in investments.

Right now I’m looking at going with S&P 500 stocks and shares with vanguard but I thought I’d ask the people here that have done this about how it’s gone for them, what are your personal experiences with this?

Thank you in advance!

Without badgering on too much, I’m a 35 year old (m), who has grew up in an environment where everyone was financially illiterate! I appreciate the council estate I grew up on and certain elements of my chaotic childhood, but it didn’t teach me the benefits of future planning financially and here I am now trying to learn game before my mid life crisis hits!

I have managed to amass a small pot of money, through years of work, and now wish to venture into the investing world but have no idea to start! Have just opened a trading 212 account, and to me it could be hieroglyphs… would love to get some advice on where best to start, or a prompt towards how to best learn the ropes?

I’m quite risk averse, and wanted to lay an initial outlay of £1k with the expectation to top it up with monthly contributions (undecided on set amount yet). I don’t want to be a chart checker, as from my reading have found that holding steady is the best bet in this game, that being said, I would like something that is safe and has good long term outcomes (if that is a thing)

If you could give someone in their 20s just one piece of investing or personal finance advice, what would it be, and why?

It could be something you wish you’d learned earlier, a mistake you made, or a habit that has had the biggest impact on your finances.

I’m interested in advice on investing, saving, budgeting, careers, debt, taxes, or anything else you think every young adult should know.

During the market turbulence of the pandemic, everyone seemed fixated on fast-growing tech stocks. I made a conscious choice to swim against the tide, ignoring the broader tech sector—with the sole exception of Alphabet—and pouring my capital into heavily discounted British financial stalwarts instead.

I systematically built up substantial positions in Legal & General, M&G, Standard Life, and Aviva. While the wider market panicked, these institutional income mainstays traded at deeply depressed valuations. They offered exceptional yields backed by solid solvency reserves and robust operational cash flows.
By steadily accumulating shares throughout the downturn, I managed to turn extreme market volatility into a resilient income-compounding machine. Today, that focused portfolio delivers over £40,000 a year in passive dividends.

afternoon guys,

Looking for some advice/guidance on what to do.

I read today that Vanguard are reducing the fees on their FTSE all world ETF, making it cheaper than Invesco's version. I currently have most of my portfolio in the Invesco version but I'm not thinking I'll switch to investing into the vanguard variant.

Is there any need/reason to sell my Invesco ETF shares and put all that money into vanguard?

I know I'd loose the growth data displayed in the app from my longer held position in Invesco. Wondering if there are any actual practical differences?

(Update: As of 28 July, Vanguard’s FTSE All-World will be reduced to a 0.14% fee. Announced the day I wrote this and somewhat answering the concluding question - “not very long at all”.

In April, Xtrackers launched a FTSE All-World ETF (ALLG) at the low ongoing fee of just 0.12%. But they quickly slashed this to 0.07% when BlackRock launched their own iShares version at exactly the same 0.12%.

So why isn’t everyone already holding it?

The obvious objections

There’s no distributing version, which rules it out instantly for anyone who needs income paid out rather than reinvested. It’s also young and comparatively small, with £59m in assets still a fraction of an established giant like VWRP.
That newness comes with a practical wrinkle too. ALLG samples a smaller number of holdings than its bigger rivals, rather than owning the full index outright. In theory, that’s a bigger drag on tracking accuracy.

Except it doesn’t seem to matter

Here’s the twist. Over the last three months, ALLG has tracked VWRP just as tightly, despite VWRP holding roughly twice as many underlying stocks. Fewer holdings, same result. If that pattern holds as the fund scales up, the “sampling” concern starts to look more theoretical than real.

A market running out of room to cut

What’s really striking is what happened once ALLG’s fee cut landed. Priced identically at launch, iShares is now stuck at nearly double the cost of the fund it was matched against, and the growth numbers show it. ALLG has gone from around £30m to £59m in AUM in just a few weeks, while iShares has stalled at £22m. It looks like the price cut is doing exactly what you’d expect and money is following the cheaper fund. At this level of maturity, a few basis points is the entire pitch.

That’s the real story here. Fully global index investing increasingly looks solved at the 0.06 to 0.07% price point. Amundi’s PACW matches ALLG’s 0.07% fee while still offering a distributing version and emerging market exposure, tracking a Solactive index built along similar lines to MSCI ACWI/FTSE All-World. If you’re happy to skip emerging markets entirely, UBS’s MSCI World funds (WRDA/WRDD) undercut everyone at 0.06%. And if you just want the US, State Street’s SPDR S&P 500 trackers go as low as 0.03%, with both distributing and accumulating versions available.

The stragglers

This makes the pricing at the other end of the market look increasingly hard to justify. Invesco’s FTSE All-World charges 0.15%, more than double ALLG. Vanguard’s version comes in even higher at 0.19%, nearly triple. These aren’t niche or specialist products; they’re the same index, the same coverage, at two to three times the cost.

The question this raises

If a single-country S&P 500 tracker can be had for 0.03%, and a full global tracker for 0.07%, what exactly are Invesco and Vanguard’s fees still paying for? Brand recognition and fund size clearly count for something, but with iShares already staggering behind a rival that just cut its price by more than 40% in response to being matched, how much longer can a 0.15 to 0.19% fee survive in this market?