With a new episode of Love Island dropping every day for six to eight weeks when it's on (and yes, we’re also counting the Unseen Bits on a Saturday), there’s no denying that watching the show is a rather big commitment.
So, you’re probably still thinking about your favourite couples from previous seasons of the show, and are and frequently checking their social media accounts to see what they’re up to (and if you were interested in finding out who the most successful Love Island contestants are in love and money, well, we’ve actually done some research into this).
However, you shouldn’t feel bad because you’ve spent countless hours watching countless sets of Islanders relax on sun loungers in their bikinis, go on countless dates, and make each other iced coffees to win brownie points; watching Love Island is actually quite the educational experience. Really.
And no, we don’t just mean in terms of finding love and securing an exciting career as an influencer. Love Island’s lessons can also be applied to many aspects of your life – including when investing your money in the stock market (like you could with our Stocks & Shares ISA)!
Don’t believe us? We’ve discovered what Love Island can teach everyone about investing and the general stock market. If you’ve never invested before or have just started to dip your toes in for the first time, then some of these may surprise you!
(Warning: this post may contain Love Island spoilers from past seasons. In our defence, it's been a good while since any of the ones we mentioned aired, so you really should have caught up by the time you read this...).
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
The Islanders always claim that they don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket when it comes to getting to know potential love interests. This is because things change quickly when you’re in the villa and new bombshells are walking in left, right, and centre with the mission to turn your head. But despite these two scenarios being quite different, this advice is something you may also want to take into consideration when investing your hard-earned cash.
Why? Because investing all your money in one place could create a bigger risk of loss (although you shouldn’t forget that with any type of investing, your capital is at risk, so you could get back less than you put in).
For this reason, you may want to consider diversifying your portfolio so that your money is spread across a range of investment types – such as bonds, properties, and commodities (which can be things like precious metals, energy, and agriculture). And if you think that this will be complicated and time-consuming to ensure, then it can be useful to choose a robo-investing platform (like Wealthify) to do things for you. This is especially useful if you’re new to investing and don’t consider yourself to be an expert.
If you choose to invest with us through a Stocks and Shares ISA, General Investment Account or even a Junior ISA for your little one, all you need to do is set up your Plan and we’ll make the investment decisions. And because we know the importance of diversification (although we knew this well before Love Island), we invest your money in a number of funds based on your chosen risk level (or ‘investing style’ as we like to call it). Find out more about how we invest.
Be prepared to commit
For anyone who’s not in the know, the couple that wins Love Island will take home £25,000 each – or one half of the winning couple can choose to keep the entire £50,000 to themselves if they went into the villa for money, not love. However, if they want to secure a cut of the prize money, they will need to find love, convince the public that they’re genuine about each other, and keep this love alive until they reach the final (and hopefully after they jet back home too if they did go into the villa to find it).
But as many past Islanders who failed to make a connection during their first few weeks in the villa have perfectly demonstrated (remember Naz from Season 6?), good things really do come to those who wait - which is an important lesson for new investors too. And boy, did the wait pay off for Naz – as of the time of writing this blog, him and Eva (who he coupled up with in Casa Amour) are still going strong.
“But what does this have to do with investing?”, I hear you ask? More than you think, actually. Here’s why.
When investing your money, it’s vital to remember that stock markets can be unpredictable and go up and down like a rollercoaster – much like many Love Islander’s journeys (and emotions) in the villa. This means that like Naz and many others before him, it could be beneficial to be patient and trust the process because it could take time for your investments to pay off. So, when you’re setting your investment goals, you might want to think of things in terms of years, rather than months.
But rises and falls in the market aren’t the only thing to keep in mind. By investing your money for longer, it could have more time to grow and ‘compound’. Put simply, ‘compounding’ works a little like a snowball rolling down a hill, which gets bigger and bigger as it goes. How compounding works is that when you invest, dividends are paid out and any profits you make will be reinvested back into your investment plan, giving you more money to invest.
Stay true to yourself and your values
Whether you believe Jake did or not, the general public fell for Liberty when she decided to stay true to herself by ending her relationship and voluntarily walking away from a chance in the final because it didn’t feel right to her. This is something we should all commend and be inspired by, as sticking to your values is something that takes a great deal of maturity and confidence, and it can be difficult to do no matter what age you are. But when you invest in the stock market, you don’t need to sacrifice your beliefs.
If you’re passionate about certain issues, like reducing climate change or supporting equality for all, then you may not know which businesses are taking steps to support these – and sometimes, it can be difficult to find out. You may also be wary of using a robo-investing platform as they make all the investment decisions for you. You might think that if you’re not choosing what companies you invest in, how do you know where your money is going - and what types of businesses is it supporting?
Luckily, it’s easy to stick to your values with Wealthify. We offer a range of Ethical Investment Plans, so you can invest your money in organisations that are committed to making a positive impact on society and the environment through their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Our Ethical Investments also exclude certain industries and activities from our Ethical Plans, such as tobacco and gambling, and our fund managers regularly monitor the companies in our Ethical funds to ensure they maintain the standards that we – and our customers – expect.
A loss isn’t always a loss
I mean, just ask Chloe and Toby. He may have invested some of his time in Kaz, then Chloe, then Abi and then Mary during his time in the Love Island and Casa Amour villas, but he came back to Chloe in the end – and they even went on to bag second place (sorry, we said we couldn’t avoid spoilers) and were in a relationship for a good while after leaving the show. Not bad considering that Chloe narrowly missed leaving the Island when Toby chose to save Abi over her only a few weeks before they headed to the final. And although we may have Hugo to thank for keeping her there, the point still stands.
As we’ve already explained, stock markets can go up and down unexpectedly, so you need to accept the ebbs and flows when it comes to how your investments perform. Basically, we’re saying that if the worth of your investments go down, they can always go back up in time. However, it’s important to remember that it can go the other way too as you could get back less than you put in when you invest your money – so you need to be prepared for that.
Just think of Abi. When she didn’t recouple after Toby went off to Casa Amour, she knew that she was at risk of him coming back with someone else which could make her vulnerable – and we saw exactly that happen as she left the Island solo soon after. So, like the Islanders choosing to stick with their partner after Casa Amour, remember that all investing carries a degree of risk.
The tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.
Please remember the value of your investments can go down as well as up, and you could get back less than invested.
Wealthify does not provide financial advice. Please seek financial advice if you are unsure about investing.
