For those not familiar with the concept of ‘compounding’, its best explained with an example: You invest £1,000 which gets 5% growth per year. After 1 year, the value is £1,050. Year two, you get 5% growth on £1,050 which totals £1,102.50. By the end of year 10, the initial £1,000 would be worth £1,628. This is an increase of 62.8%.

I don't know whether your 5% refers just to capital growth, but one shouldn't forget that shares in the FTSE 100 Index are currently on average giving a dividend yield of 4.75%, so that at the end of year 1 the total return is 9.75%. Of course, in practice most people cash their dividend cheque and spend the money. But if the dividend is reinvested every year, then the return over 10 years will be far, far greater (I can't do the maths) than 62.8%. Many companies offer shareholders a scheme for reinvesting dividends, known as a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan), whereby the dividend is used to acquire more shares for the shareholder. This is great for younger people.

financial guidance :

never marry a lunatic just cos she has a nice @rse

never buy a new car

overseas sun property investments are for mugs

Gym membership is daylight robbery

beer with an obscure brand-name is cheaper and often better than the p1ss with all the adverts on the telly

never buy anything from anybody who sells door to door

you cannot beat the Casinos

a drunken evening out in the West End is probably not worth it.

Always found the stock market a mugs game.

A wise man once told me how to invest money. He told me to ‘buy Litecoin, bud’.

I would agree that unless you know how to read company balance sheets and accounts and understand the mechanisms behind how the company operates, buying individual company stocks could be perceived as a mugs game. If you don't know what you're investing in, it is a gamble.

My view on litecoin, or any cryptocurrency, is that it is unregulated and extremely volatile. It is common financial behaviour to have herd mentality and simply buy an investment because everyone else is. The reality is that the horse has already bolted and 99% of investors have no idea what they're actually investing in. For those who spotted it early, knew what they were doing and sold at the right would have done very well.

To challenge your perception on stock market investing, I would encourage you to look at a very basic, low cost passive fund. Try the Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% equity fund. This is a no frills tracker fund which simply mirrors the global stock markets and has 100% equity content (no bonds, cash or property).

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Prior to the recent crash, this had grown 60% in less than 5 years. Since this launched around 10 years ago, the total growth has been around 160% (I can't find confirmation of this figure as its difficult to find past performance for more than 5 years). Short term, this would be very volatile and most likely unsuitable, but long term the growth is likely to be enormous.

The 'mugs' (to use your term) are those who keep their long term savings in cash. Most people are not aware that the rate of inflation (approx 2.5% per year) exceeds the low interest rates (currently 0.1%), so the spending power of cash is gradually decreasing (by around 2.4% per year).

Cash is ideal for short term saving/rainy day fund, but it is guaranteed to lose you money long term.

I was taking the p@ss regarding Litecoin - a joke regarding our dearly and recently departed TUX.

I do believe with absolute certainty though that the stock market is a mugs game for 95% of people and am happy to explain why.

So i'm in property, and If I compare the two:

I have 100k which I want to invest.

I take this to the bank and they sell me 100K of mutual funds which they then charge me for the pleasure of managing, regardless of whether they go up or down in value.

Now with that same 100k I could put this down as a 20% deposit on a buy-to-let mortgage and buy myself a property worth 500k, I now have assets worth five times the original stake!

My buy-to-let will pay me rent each month whereas a mutual fund will pay hardly anything in dividends, certainly nowhere near as much as rent, this is even after I factor in a percentage for void periods and maintenance.

Over time and with natural inflation, my 500k asset will appreciate at 5 times the rate of a 100k asset.

I can also borrow against property so I can additional property No one (as far as I know) will lend you monies against shares.

I'm sure you are a good guy etc however I DO NOT believe in financial advise. Nobody can invest my money like I can. Financial 'advice' in my opinion is all smoke and mirrors, just a way to rip people off whilst the only people who make money are the people selling the products and making the commissions.

Its like the gold rush, most of the people who made money were not the prospectors, but the guys who sold the shovels.