£50 or £500, here’s how to reach your money goals

Investing looks different for everyone. We all have separate goals, amounts we can invest, and strategies we prefer to use. But there’s quite a few investing principles that apply across all kinds of circumstances and some basic steps you can use to get going.

For many people, the most comfortable way to start investing is to put a little bit of your salary into your investment account each month. This can help you build a foundation without feeling overwhelmed.

That might be £50 for some, and £500 for others. If you put £50 in an investment that returned an average of 7% each year after fees, your pot would be worth approximately £3,600 in just five years. Even better, approximately £600 of that amount would simply be from your investment returns, creating extra money in your pocket.

At £500 a month, that sum becomes £35,797 after five years with the same investment returns, which could be used as a deposit on a house or towards education.

Determining your goals

It can be hard to find the motivation to start investing if you don’t have a reason. But most of us have something we would like to accomplish in the future that investing can be a big help for, whether it be a first home, a wedding, retirement, or even a holiday you’ve been dreaming of for years.

Come up with an idea of how much that will cost and work backwards to determine how you can save for it.

For example, if your life goal was to climb Mt Everest, you might look up how much the trek would cost, and when you plan to do it. Then you can determine how much money you’d need to invest, and how aggressively you’d like to invest it, to get there.

You can use AJ Bell’s Stocks and shares ISA calculator to come up with your figures. Of course, you can’t predict returns, so these figures will be an estimate. But it can be a good starting place to put your goal top of mind.

How do I get started?

Outside of pensions, one of the most popular ways for people to invest is through a Stocks and shares ISA. These accounts protect your gains from capital gains tax when it comes time to sell, and there is no income tax on any dividends paid by your investments. Not only do ISAs save money, but they also don’t any extra tax paperwork for the investments they hold.

You can contribute up to £20,000 in your Stocks and shares ISA each year. But if you invest through a Dealing account, you will not get these same tax protections, and you might have to file with HMRC depending on your investment dividends and gains.

You can set up automatic payments into your ISA, so you aren’t tempted to use the money for something else throughout the month. This also means that once you’ve set it up, you don’t need to be constantly checking back in.

What should I invest in?

Where people can get stuck in their investment journey is choosing a fund. The options can feel overwhelming at first, but we have a lot of information on different types of investments, and who they might appeal to if you’d like to learn more.

One option is to put your money in an active fund, and an investment company will make the decisions for you, or you can simply track the market with a passive fund.

Popular options for first time investors are global equity funds, which invest in a range of companies across the world, or ones holding companies in a specific country, like funds tracking the S&P 500 (the main US stock index).
You can also look at multi-asset funds, where investment professionals choose a mix of different assets based on how much risk you’re comfortable taking. AJ Bell offers its own suite of these kinds of investments.

The top 15 most popular funds and trusts held by AJ Bell DIY Investors

Source: AJ Bell as of 1 December 2025. Excludes funds with less than five years of performance history.

Remember, just because the fund has the highest return, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the right one for you. Considering other factors, like the risk level you are willing to take, will be essential to choosing an investment you can stick to.

Historically, high risk has been associated with high reward in the stock market. But if you’re not comfortable with taking high risks, or if you need access to the money sooner rather than later, you might need to go down a different, more cautious path.

What kind of fees should I expect?

If you’re investing through an ISA, you shouldn’t need to worry about any extra tax, but there are some costs to consider.

First, you will typically have a transaction charge to buy and sell investments. Second, you have a platform charge which you pay to your provider for holding your investments.

AJ Bell’s Dodl app has no transaction fees, and you can pay as little as £1 per month for platform fees. It has a limited range of investments to choose from.

A much wide choice of investments is available on AJ Bell’s own website and app. For example, if you invested £50 each month in a fund through AJ Bell, you would pay £1.50 each time you make a transaction, and 0.25% of the value of the investment as an annual platform charge.

AJ Bell’s charges calculator helps to you calculate what you’d expect to pay based on your investment choices and amounts.

If you invest in a fund, you will also pay a management fee that’s built into the product. These can often be a fraction of a percent. Choosing a fund with a low ongoing charge can mean more money in your pocket.

And a high fee doesn’t necessarily mean the fund will perform better, so it’s worth shopping around. You can do this through AJ Bell’s fund screener.

After you’ve chosen your investment, and set up your deposits, you can sit back. It might be tempting to check your investments all the time but remember that markets go up and down. By checking your investments closer to every month, or even every few months, rather than every day you can get an idea if you’re happy with the performance or if you want to make any changes.

Not sure you’re ready to invest?

If you’re unsure about investing, you can use this checklist to help decide if you’re ready. Taking steps like building an emergency fund, clearing debts, and deciding what you are investing for can be helpful to put yourself on the right track.