How can I start investing?

One of the most-searched investing questions there is — 137,000 times a month. Here's a sensible order to do things in: build a steady base first, then add individual stocks once you know how to judge value.

Start with ETFs as your base

If you're beginning, the strongest foundation is usually a low-cost ETF (exchange-traded fund) that tracks a broad index like the S&P 500 or the FTSE All-World. One purchase gives you a slice of hundreds of companies at once, which spreads your risk instead of betting everything on a single name.

This is your base layer. It's diversified, it's cheap, and it doesn't need you to pick winners — you simply own the whole market and let it compound over time. For most people, most of their money sensibly sits here.

Oak Growth makes this layer easy to choose. The Vanguard ETFs tab hand-picks broad, low-cost ETFs and ETCs and shows their verified historic performance, so you can compare what each has actually returned rather than guess. It's the calmest way to begin: get invested, stay invested, and let time do the heavy lifting.

The base doesn't have to be equities alone. A Gold ETC (exchange-traded commodity) tracks the gold price, and gold has delivered a solid average annual return over the long run while often moving differently from shares — which can steady a portfolio when stock markets fall. You'll find one listed alongside the equity ETFs in the same tab, its historic return shown next to it.

Then look for top performers on top

Once your base is in place and you understand how the market behaves, you can add individual stocks — carefully. This is the layer where you try to do better than the index by finding strong, well-run companies trading below what they're worth.

But this only works if you can answer one question: is this stock actually good value, or does it just feel exciting? That's the difference between investing and guessing. It's why the next step is learning to judge a company's worth rather than its story.

Oak Growth is built for exactly this second layer. Its Best USA Performers tool ranks US stocks by their 10-year total return, so you can see which companies have actually compounded hardest over a decade — then judge whether they're still good value today using intrinsic value and margin of safety. Best-performing ETFs as your base, the best-performing undervalued stocks on top.

A sensible order to follow

First, clear expensive debt and keep a cash emergency fund — investing comes after that, not before. Second, use a tax-efficient account where you can (in the UK, a Stocks & Shares ISA). Third, build your ETF base. Fourth, and only when you're comfortable, add individual stocks you've actually valued.

Notice what's not on that list: cryptocurrency, meme stocks, and anything you can't explain. If you can't work out what something is worth, you can't tell if you're overpaying — here's why that matters.

Common questions