Andy Bell - The DIY Investor: How to Take Control of Your Investments and Plan for a Financially Secure Future

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Born in Liverpool in 1966, Andy Bell was educated at Rainford High School and then went on to study at Nottingham University. He graduated with a first-class degree in Mathematics in 1987 and subsequently joined a large insurance company as a trainee actuary.

Somewhat disillusioned with the financial services industry, Andy took a sabbatical in 1990, which lasted for three years on and off, to coach football and tennis (of a fashion) in America, followed by an extended period of travel and growing up.

When Andy returned to the UK, he resurrected his actuarial career and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1993, while working at a small actuarial consultancy.

AJ Bell was established in 1995 by Andy Bell and Nicholas Littlefair in a 149-square-foot office, funded by 10,000 of personal loans. It has since grown into one of the largest investment platforms in the UK, with over 20bn of assets under administration. AJ Bell has offices in Manchester, Tunbridge Wells and London, employing approximately 500 staff. It looks after a wide variety of retail clients, many of them DIY investors.

AJ Bell (www.ajbell.co.uk) offers investment solutions to DIY investors as well as clients of financial advisers and other financial services companies. Its award-winning DIY investment platform is called AJ Bell Youinvest (www.youinvest.co.uk), formerly known as Sippdeal.

AJ Bell also owns the popular Shares magazine (www.sharesmagazine.co.uk) and specialist investment information websites MoneyAM (www.moneyam.co.uk), StockMarketWire (www.stockmarketwire.co.uk), Broker Forecasts (www.brokerforecasts.co.uk), Directors Holdings (www.directorsholdings.co.uk) and DIYinvestor (www.diyinvestor.co.uk).

Andy was ninth in Management Today s 2010 Britains top 100 entrepreneurs and AJ Bell is one of only a handful of companies ever to appear in the Sunday Times Profit Track and Fast Track (top 100 UK private companies with the fastest-growing profits and revenues respectively) in the same year 2010. Both Andy and the company have won numerous other business and industry awards.

Andy lives in Lancashire with his wife Tracey, their four children, a dog and an ever-growing menagerie of farmyard animals. His interests are skiing, playing 5-a-side football, flying helicopters, boxing (training, not fighting) and watching Everton and St Helens RLFC.

Andy set up his own charitable trust in 2011 and has a number of other charitable and business interests.

I cant abide intellectual arrogance. I have no time for people who think they are cleverer than they are or, even worse, people who deliberately try and sound intelligent at the expense of others. Most subject matter, when explained well by someone who understands it, makes sense. So I have a simple rule in life, and that is if I dont understand something then it must be the fault of the person who has just explained it to me. Hopefully that doesnt sound like intellectual arrogance.

So what does this have to do with DIY investing? Well, what puts most people off looking after their own finances is fear. A fear of the unknown. A fear of not being able to understand the subject matter. A fear that they might feel stupid.

The world of investments can appear impenetrable full of statistics, jargon and acronyms but being a DIY investor can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be and you can become a DIY investor, if you want to. And remember, if you dont understand this book, it is not your fault, it is mine.

So, who should read The DIY Investor , and why?

The who should read it question is easy. The answer is anybody who is thinking of, or is currently, managing their own investments. Todays and tomorrows DIY investors a group that industry experts expect to increase from 2 million to up to 7 million in number over the next few years.