All good things...

A journey begins with one first step and this particular journey is very much centred on building a portfolio of investments and seeing how it works and (quite hopefully) grows profitably.

Investments, stocks, shares and savings are all varied with different levels of risks attached to each. But focussing on buying shares in different companies and sectors (the old adage of spreading your bets or shares in this case stays true) is a good place to start, with starting small and carefully building very much key.

So phase one? which investment platform to use and a simple google search will show there are so many to pick from and i have found considering each of the costs and fees involved, does the platform have access to the type of companies that I would like to invest in are top of my list of considerations.

Pitfalls...

I suspect this list will grow the more familiar I become with the various share buying / selling activity and actually using the investment platforms.

• Read, research and carefully evaluate all the fees and costs each investment platform charges as they are different and would not want to be in a position where fees are eating your profits.

• Fees are inevitable so what are the pros / cons? does the platform allow access to the companies that are interesting for your platform and how easy is the website or mobile to use.

• The investment platform should be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) so they are credible and bound by FCA rules.

Keeping all of the above in mind, leads to the shopping around part of things which is picking which platform to use!