How to invest in index funds on InvestEngine

For more detailed instructions and a visual walkthrough, follow the guide below.

This guide will take you through the process of investing in funds on InvestEngine.

We'll explain and simplify every step so that it makes sense even if you're a complete beginner to index funds.

We're going to sign up, create a stocks & shares ISA, add money to it, then set up a portfolio.

We'll also show you how to set up a recurring monthly investment, something InvestEngine calls a "Savings Plan".

1. Click "Get started"

On the InvestEngine home page, click "Get started".

2. Select your investor type

Select 'Individual' as your investor type. If you're investing as a business, head over to this guide instead.

3. Add and verify your email

Next, you'll need to enter an email and set a password for your account.

Then, check your email inbox and click on the verification link.

4. Complete the registration process

After verifying your email, click "Finish registration to start investing" if the registration fields don't automatically open.

Fill out your gender, name, date of birth, phone number, address, citizenship (type 'United Kingdom' if you live in the UK), and National Insurance number to verify your identity.

Then, enter your bank's sort code and account number to enable deposits and withdrawals.

Next, add your source of wealth information.

Finally, read and choose whether you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Risk Disclosure Statement.

5. Under "ISA", click "Open an ISA"

After clicking "Open an ISA" you'll have to read and agree to the ISA declaration if you want to continue.

This is a legal declaration - make sure you've read and understood it before deciding to proceed.

Once you've set up your account, you should make sure two-factor identification (2FA) is enabled. This just means that when you log into InvestEngine from another device, you'll have to authorise that access using your mobile app or a text.

Now, you'll be able to add funds to your account from your main dashboard by clicking on your ISA tab and then "Add cash". The process is really simple – you can connect an account using instant bank transfer, and your funds should be moved across in under a minute.

6. Create ISA portfolio

You'll find this option on your main dashboard under "ISA".

7. Choose your investment option

Next, you'll see three options:

The "Managed for you" service is a paid option offered by InvestEngine, where they build and manage your portfolio on your behalf after you fill out a questionnaire.

The LifePlan option is similar to Vanguard's LifeStrategy funds – five different plans with a range of equity percentages to choose from depending on your appetite for risk and how soon you'll need the money.

In this guide, we're focusing on the "Do it yourself" investment service. Selecting this option means you'll choose your own funds to invest in.

8. Choose the fund(s) you want to invest in

The next thing you're going to do is choose the fund (or funds) you'd like to invest in.

There are hundreds of options to search through, so you'll need to research to ensure you're picking the right funds for you.

If you're not sure where to begin, it's worth taking a step back and doing a bit of research. Check out our beginner's guide to ETFs, read more about how to understand what an index fund invests in, or consider taking our (totally free, no-strings-attached) course on index funds, hosted by Damien from Damien Talks Money.

Once you've got some idea of what you're looking for, you'll find several filters to help narrow down your choices.

For example, if you're not interested in bonds or commodities (like gold and silver), and only want to invest in the stock market, you can filter to 'Equities'.

If you know you want a Vanguard fund, you can filter by "Provider" and select "Vanguard".

For the purpose of this example, we're going to choose the iShares S&P 500 fund, which has the ticker 'CSP1'. This fund tracks the performance of the S&P 500 – the largest publicly traded companies in the US. But again, this isn't a recommendation – just an example.

You'll notice this is an accumulating fund, which means dividends are automatically reinvested. If you're not sure about the difference between income and accumulation funds, be sure to read our guide before making a decision.

At this stage, you can choose to "Invest now" or "Add to portfolio".

Select "Add to portfolio" to start building your portfolio that invests in multiple funds.

Then, click "Continue".

Next, select any other funds you want to invest in. You can do this by clicking "Add securities":

You should see all the funds you've added listed at the bottom. If you want to remove any, click the bin icon.

When you're happy with the funds you've added, click "Review and continue".

9. Set portfolio weights

After clicking "Continue", InvestEngine will prompt you to set your portfolio weights.

If you add two funds, it will automatically weight them both at 50% – but you can adjust this using the plus and minus symbols.

We've added one more fund for example purposes here, so you can see what we mean:

This allows you to set how much of your investment you want to go to each fund when depositing cash.

Obviously, the total weight of your investments must always add up to 100%. For example, you could have three funds in your portfolio split as 40%/30%/ 30%, or any other combination that adds up to 100%.

Click "Review and continue", make sure you're happy with your portfolio breakdown, then click 'Save and continue'.

10. Decide how much you want to invest

We already topped up our ISA with cash. Now we just need to decide how much money we want to invest in each fund.

Click 'Invest', then just enter your amount. Your money will automatically be distributed based on your portfolio's target weights.

Click "Review order", "Confirm", and you're all set.

All InvestEngine orders are executed daily after 2.30pm. However, your porfolio might not be updated until 7pm.

11. Decide if you want to AutoInvest or set up a Savings Plan

You'll find the option to set up a savings plan on your portfolio dashboard.

If you pick this option, your deposit will automatically be invested into the fund(s) you selected in your portfolio, according to your assigned weights.

You'll just need to set up recurring payments – these can start from as little as £20 weekly or fortnightly, and £50 monthly.

Just enter how much you want to invest, and the date you want the payment to go out on.

Alternatively, you can choose to autoinvest any spare cash in your account. Again, this will invest your money in the funds and corresponding weights you chose earlier.

And that's it! That concludes the process of signing up with InvestEngine, creating a portfolio, purchasing index funds*, and setting up an ongoing investment.

*InvestEngine only offers ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds). These are slightly different to index funds because of the way they're traded, but they're similar overall. We've used the two terms interchangeably to keep this guide beginner-friendly.

If you prefer to see someone else clicking all the buttons before you have a go yourself, we've also covered all of this in the video below:

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