Beginning to Invest - All questions go here please

Found this on Ask About Money forum from a poster discouraging amateur investors going it alone….

Opinions? Are they drumming business for their own business or would you find this credible.

Capital Gains Tax Question (most likely asked & answered 100 times already so please point me in the right direction!)

I started trading at the beginning of last year and need some clarity on Irish CGT in relation to stocks.

So my question - can losses on the sale of stocks be carried over year to year indefinitely? And can the losses from the sale of one stock be offset against the gains from a different stock or do they have to be used on the same class of stock?

Random example: if I lost 1k on MSFT/GOOGL or whatever stock this year, could that loss be offset against a gain from BTC in 2024?

I ask this because I recently read this in a moneyguideireland.com article:

If you have shares that have gone down in value and you wish to use the loss incurred on the shares against other gains, then you must dispose of the shares in the same tax year as other shares sales upon which you have made a gain.

20 is a good number to be diversified. The key is to be diversified in industry and market. 10 different shares is more diversified than 20 travel stocks for example.

Can be tough to buy 20 in one go without a big initial deposit (unless you're going for fractional shares)

What platform do you use to buy your investment trusts? I was looking at Aj Bell, their fees seem ok according to boringmoney? Can you set up an account if you’re based here in Ireland?

What other options are there?

Are there any ‘ beginners 101’ simple to follow websites or apps to help learn about tax on investments in Ireland that anyone could recommend?

Thanks Bainboru! Just had a look at that and their other stuff, They have so many informative videos for beginning investors! Well worth it!

I think it's a little selective with when they took the 5 year period, 5 years ago it was 360 and now its 970 so more like 170%. And you'll need to pay tax obviousy on your gain. It had a great run and may have been up 360% at some stage, it's down about 40% in the last few months

If it’s not too personal a question, would anyone be willing to give an example of their own returns from investing in an investment trust over the last five or ten years? I would love to get an actual insight on how people have really faired out, I completely understand if it’s too personal!

Was only in the financial position to start Feb 2021 after being a long time voyeur of the markets, anyways my impeccable timing had me down 10.5% by end of Dec 2021 and now down 20% since the start of this year! Come sign up to my financial advice service turning dreams into nightmares!

From observing from the sidelines I see some of the green energy stocks that I’ve had on my watch list have shot upon the last few days, no doubt due to the energy crisis atm. Everything else seems to be going down.

Where does money usually go when the market is nervous? Bonds/ gold? Has anyone invested in these areas?

Just thinking about something, if you are in a position of recurring income and have future CGT wins then really investing is a no brainer, although I state that with intention someone here might correct assumptions I'm making

If you realize any stock losses you can off-set them against future CGT gains, my own accountant tells me absolutely yes on this as I thought it could only be CGT in the specific year, so really even when you lose you don't really lose 💁‍♂️

So I have 1-2k to play about with on shares via Revolut... I'm not too fussed about short term losses etc and it's money I can afford to loose. Ideally, I'd like to pick about 10 stocks and forget about the choices for a minimum of 5 years. Any suggestions or ideas? I will be doing my own research but I'm interested in peoples thoughts.