An investment club is a group of people coming together for the purpose of pooling money and investing together. This is not a new concept and there are already tens of thousands of investment clubs in the UK alone.
Typically they are formed of friends, family and even workmates. Normally there's between three and seven members who you will meet with periodically to discuss and collectively decide how to best invest in the stock market. You will often form a collective portfolio but while we are still building Stockpot, you will decide together but invest separately into your own accounts. Members are traditionally not experts, but pool together their shared wisdom.
Investment Clubs are a good way to learn and (maybe!) see some returns. As you'll be doing it with friends you'll turn something you hate, into something you love. They were mega popular in the 90s, but like so much else, often amongst middle-aged white men.
Stockpot is bringin' em back, but this time, with a twist: the women are in charge.
While it is not always the case, long-term investing often provides much better returns than saving. For example, it’s quite hard to find an interest rate on your savings above 1% right now, whereas the stock exchange has had an average return of 9% each year between 2000 and 2019 - that's a nearly 20 year trend! Past performance doesn’t indicate future results, of course. But that is fairly compelling, isn’t it?
That said, this doesn't come without risk and that pesky phrase "past performance does not indicate future results" is one you’ll hear a lot.
The reality is that the value of your investments can go up or down and there is a risk that you will come out with less money than you put in. This is especially true if you end up needing to use the money you’ve invested unexpectedly, as you could be forced to sell your investments when the stock market is down.
Therefore, you should only start investing if you:
Once you’re sorted with these, investing is a great way to build up your wealth and Stockpot makes it more fun (and less scary) to get started with investing.
Stockpot is the easiest way to start an investment club. We’re focused on getting women collaborating together to start investing, primarily because we are p*ssed off about the Gender Wealth Gap.
A Stockpot subscription makes it really easy for women to start an investment club with their friends (or family and colleagues if you prefer!). In the future you’ll be able to invest through the platform, but for now you can think of your club as an accountability group - you’ll all be agreeing what to buy, but investing into your own portfolios.
A subscription includes everything you need to get started, including some of our favourite bits like:
At the moment, we are only onboarding a small community of clubs to test and get some data. But stay tuned - we’ll be building some of these awesome features as we go.
Right now your subscription is free because we are in test mode. This means this is an invite-only environment where we are only onboarding a small community of clubs to test and get some data.
The boring answer is that it’s a great way to connect with people, learn together and finally start investing (we know, we kept putting it off too).
But the other answer is fun, and you can probably count the times you’ve associated “fun” with your personal finances. You’ll spend time with like-minded people and you’ll learn an important life skill together. You’ll be able to break through that barrier where investing is boring and intimidating, and just “start by starting”.
You may find that you form a different kind of friendship with your teammates where talking about money is less taboo. While the gains are not guaranteed, it’s really such a great feeling to see your Pot grow in value.
Investment clubs also teach you really good investing habits. We’re not here to give advice, but investors generally agree that you should:
Investment clubs help you do both of those things well!
Stockpot is the easiest way to start an investment club. We’re focused on getting women collaborating together to start investing, primarily because we are p*ssed off about the Gender Wealth Gap.
A Stockpot subscription makes it really easy for women to start an investment club with their friends (or family and colleagues if you prefer!). In the future you’ll be able to invest through the platform, but for now you can think of your club as an accountability group - you’ll all be agreeing what to buy, but investing into your own portfolios.
A subscription includes everything you need to get started, including some of our favourite bits like:
At the moment, we are only onboarding a small community of clubs to test and get some data. But stay tuned - we’ll be building some of these awesome features as we go.
This is totally 100% up to you and your club. There is no minimum or maximum, you should align on this figure with your teammates. One of the first steps of your Stockpot subscription is picking your clubmates. We have an Alignment Quiz, which checks that you and your teammates are going to be compatible about this kind of thing.
Anecdotally some clubs start at £25 and we think the average will be about £100 per month.
One thing we definitely recommend is to start modestly. It should be enough to get you engaged with the club, but not so much that you’re up at night thinking about it.
Think of Stockpot as a launchpad - a way of getting informed and confident. If you’re eager to invest £250 but your friends only want to invest £100, then go for the smaller amount. You can invest the rest into your own ISA, the meetings will always provide plenty of inspiration for what to invest in!
None, that is the purpose of your Stockpot subscription!
We’ll share tools and resources to help you learn and minimise your risk. But you do need to be up for that learning. Just because we think investing can be fun, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it seriously. And remember, the value of investments goes up and down, so make sure you only invest what you can afford to lose, because your capital is at risk.
Selecting your teammates is the most important thing to get right. Here are the golden rules for finding the right people:
This is a long-term play so you want to be with people who you trust and respect. Nuf said.
Diversity is a golden rule of investing, and having different viewpoints among your teammates can help you achieve this. When selecting your teammates, try not to select everyone exactly the same. It could be ethnicity, age, gender, profession or simply personality type that sets you apart, but it doesn’t have to be ALL of those things.
Imagine having a minor disagreement with your teammates. Can you cope? Can you say what you mean? Can you still enjoy your wine afterwards? If you think you can handle straight up, no BS conversations well together, that’s a good sign you could be good teammates. Your Stockpot subscription gives you the tools to make sure these honest conversations are easy.
You’ll need good communication to even reach this point, but you need to make sure you and your teammates have the same vision for starting a Stockpot. How much money do you want to put in? How much time do you expect to put in? How scared of risk are you? Are you only interested in impacting investing?
While diversity is good, there is no point in starting a Stockpot with a “growth at all costs” capitalist if you’re a die-hard environmentalist. One of the first steps of your Stockpot subscription is an Alignment Quiz, which checks that you and your teammates are going to be compatible about this kind of thing.
Last but not least, choose people you enjoy hanging out with. Pretty simple: if the goal is to start investing over the long run, you’re less likely to quit if you’re having fun.
Selecting your teammates is the most important thing to get right. Here are the golden rules for finding the right people:
This is a long-term play so you want to be with people who you trust and respect. Nuf said.
Diversity is a golden rule of investing, and having different viewpoints among your teammates can help you achieve this. When selecting your teammates, try not to select everyone exactly the same. It could be ethnicity, age, gender, profession or simply personality type that sets you apart, but it doesn’t have to be ALL of those things.
Imagine having a minor disagreement with your teammates. Can you cope? Can you say what you mean? Can you still enjoy your wine afterwards? If you think you can handle straight up, no BS conversations well together, that’s a good sign you could be good teammates. Your Stockpot subscription gives you the tools to make sure these honest conversations are easy.
You’ll need good communication to even reach this point, but you need to make sure you and your teammates have the same vision for starting a Stockpot. How much money do you want to put in? How much time do you expect to put in? How scared of risk are you? Are you only interested in impacting investing?
While diversity is good, there is no point in starting a Stockpot with a “growth at all costs” capitalist if you’re a die-hard environmentalist. One of the first steps of your Stockpot subscription is an Alignment Quiz, which checks that you and your teammates are going to be compatible about this kind of thing.
Last but not least, choose people you enjoy hanging out with. Pretty simple: if the goal is to start investing over the long run, you’re less likely to quit if you’re having fun.
On that note, check out The China Dolls for some long-term inspo.
We would recommend between three and seven teammates for your first 18 month stint while you get into the swing of it. That’s a big enough Pot to have interesting conversations and pitches, but a small enough Pot that all members will be engaged and open.
After that first 18 month term, you can add and subtract members. Remember that odd numbers are better than even numbers, as it’s then easier to create a majority vote.
Lastly: It is definitely better to have three people you are excited about having a Stockpot with, rather than adding two teammates that you don’t feel sure about.
We are not certified financial advisers. The contents of our webinar are made available for informational and educational purposes only. Investing comes with risks and you could lose everything you invest.
Nice one, that’s awesome. You can sign yourself and your friends up here. We’ll send you all our Alignment Quiz to check that you’re all compatible.
Then, you’ll just have to gather the troops for your onboarding session with one of our awesome Stockpot team!
Don’t worry, we’ll send all the details you need to your email.
You can scroll on through the rest of our FAQ or attend one of our handy webinars that give you all the info you need. They’re normally about 20 minutes long, with some extra time for Q&A.
But if you’re ready to sign yourself up, just head here.
We’re in test mode right now (this means an invite-only environment where we are only onboarding a small community of clubs). During this time, Stockpot membership is free. We are using this time to learn from our community so we can build the best platform that suits our community's needs.
At some point we may charge for some services, but don’t worry, we will always keep you informed of any price changes.
Whether you invest individually, as part of an investment club or even through a professional financial advisor - investing has risks.
You could lose everything you invest. Because you're part of a club, there is a risk your club could vote for something you don't want to buy. Of course, if you really don't want to, you can tap out here and decide not to join. Of course, we recommend you do that as little as possible as it defeats the purpose of a club, but it's always handy to have up your sleeve.
The good thing about investing with Stockpot is that it encourages some investment habits that can help reduce risk:
You won’t be investing all your money in one go. By investing regularly, you won't fall into the trap of trying to “time the market”. Hint: professional investors who have been paid millions to invest for the last thirty years can’t “time the market” so don’t kid yourself that you can!
All your investment decisions need to be made by a majority vote, so it can stop you from panicking and selling up when your investments go down.
Investing with teammates offers a diversified point of view. For example, if you work in tech you'll probably favour tech stocks. But in a club with a teammate who works in the food industry, you'll probably learn about some companies or funds you'd have never even thought of. Don't put all those eggs in one basket!
If you want to get hold of us (and please do!) you can reach us on hello@hellostockpot.com.
Just remember we’re here to help you set up an investment club, but we can’t (never have, never will) provide advice about your actual investments.
As the famous quote goes “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes”. There are circumstances in which you may have to pay capital gains tax if you are making a profit over the annual tax-free allowance when selling shares. The good news is however that the UK also allows for investments in ISAs which are tax-free environments for certain types of investments (including stocks and shares ISAs) below an annual £20,000 threshold. Have a read of this to make sure you take full advantage of this scheme.
If this seems complicated, don't worry! The point of an investment group is that you are in it together. You will elect a treasurer within your group who is in charge of making a written statement of your gains and losses. That is why it's so important to keep a clear record!
Nice one. Welcome to the Stockpot community!
If you’re not sure who to invite, check back to the 'Picking My Teammates' section.
Once you know who you’d like to invite, send yourself and your friends our Alignment Quiz. We’ll send it to you all to check you're all compatible.
Don’t worry, no commitments yet! We’ll do the onboarding session to help you establish your team rules and if something doesn’t feel right, the whole team doesn’t have to go ahead.
The purpose of the Onboarding Session is to get your club set up for success.
We’ll walk you through:
Just remember, we can’t give you advice on which trading platforms to use or which stocks to pick.
We are not certified financial advisers. The contents of our webinar are made available for informational and educational purposes only. Investing comes with risks and you could lose everything you invest.
Yep, that’s simple. Everyone needs to have signed up for the Stockpot community, and they need to have taken the Alignment Quiz.
No, your club should not have not a leader. All teammates in your Stockpot should have equal responsibility and influence, especially when it comes to how you invest. But to get you started, we’ll send the onboarding session booking information to the person who has signed everyone up.
Each month, there’s a few things that need to get done, and the easiest way is to assign roles to people.
For example, you need to check if all teammates have made their monthly contributions. Your Money Boss takes care of that. Need details for the next meeting? Admin Boss will have you sorted.
Your Stockpot subscription has all the info and checklists to make this hassle-free and to make sure everyone’s pulling their weight by rotating those roles.
Still have questions? Email us at hello@hellostockpot.com