Would you trust a chef who won’t eat his own food? Neither would we. Investment services should be no different. We’re proud to say almost all Nutmeg staff also invest with us. Here are their stories.
Name: Ben Agnew
Job: Product manager for the “Potwars” team.
Describe your role: I prioritise and manage the workflow of the engineers who look after your pot settings and projections.
Products I own: Pension, Lifetime ISA, ISA and general investment account.
Preferred style: Socially responsible, though I do have one fully managed pot, which I opened as an experiment to see how the performance would compare.
Why this style? I like the idea that the investment team are keeping an eye on things and managing downside risk. I prefer that to investing in a fixed allocation portfolio. The investment team have a good track record, in my view, and they have earned my full trust over the years.
Preferred risk level: 10, apart from one of my ISA pots, which is at risk level 7.
Investment goal(s): Retirement. I feel comfortable taking the maximum level of risk with my portfolio because I have a lot of years left. The money in the risk level 7 pot is different because it was given to me by my mum. She gave me that money as a gift to avoid it being potentially subject to inheritance tax at her death. I don’t want to take too much risk with it in case I want to use it to support her in her later years.
Attitude to risk: I have seen some pretty big dips over the last four years. As I don’t need my funds any time soon, I am never bothered by drops in value. Toward the end of 2018 I saw my portfolio dip as a result of market volatility. I saw this as a great opportunity and put as much money in to the market as I could. Not only did my portfolio recover to where it was within about six months, the new money I had put in while the market was low had gone up by 20%. Since then we’ve seen some bigger dips with the coronavirus hitting markets. Sadly I didn’t have much more money to invest at the moment, but I have some funds on the way which I want to drip-feed in to my Nutmeg account over the next few months while the virus situation plays out.
What’s good about Nutmeg? Before joining Nutmeg, I took a real interest in financial markets. I actually paid to do a three-month course to learn how to be a foreign exchange trader, but I found that, even doing it full-time, I lost money. That made me realise how difficult it is to trade for yourself. It takes a huge amount of work and time. I like that Nutmeg does that work for me and at a relatively low cost. It means I can get on with my life and enjoy my money and my freedom.
What could be improved? I’d like to see more financial planning tools so that customers can use Nutmeg to manage their whole life’s finances, not just their investments. This is something we plan to tackle in future.
Would you recommend Nutmeg to friends and family? I already have. My mum and my sister both invest with Nutmeg along with several of my close friends. In all cases, it suits them because they don’t have the time and the expertise to manage their investments themselves. If you’re an investor you can earn £100 by referring a friend.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m very proud to work for Nutmeg. I’ve been here four and a half years!
Notes on Nutmeg
Every new joiner at Nutmeg is invited to join the company pension scheme, which is invested with Nutmeg. Employees have the option to opt-out of the pension scheme. Nutmeg accounts are not available for some employees due to their nationality. For example, due to US regulations, Nutmeg products are not suitable for US persons. Learn more on our page about moving abroad.
Risk warning
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
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