3 ways to maximise your chances of investing success

Important information - the value of investments and the income from them, can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest.

'The early bird catches the worm' is a phrase that’s used to describe someone who gains an advantage, or succeeds, by starting something early.

In investing, the ‘early bird’ is an investor who doesn’t hang around at the start of the new tax year, which starts on 6 April each year. In fact, they can’t wait to make the most of their valuable tax efficient ISA allowance - which is £20,000 for 2025/26.

Some investors like to get in right at the start. In fact, one customer managed to use their full ISA allowance 13 minutes into the new tax year, at 00:13am on 6 April 2025.

• Open an ISA
• Add cash to your ISA
• Give your money more potential to grow. Plus win up to £20,000. T&Cs apply

But what’s the benefit of investing sooner, rather than later, in the tax year?

Here are three reasons why you might like to think about being an early bird investor.

1. Start early - time really can mean money
   
   Time in the market may increase your chances of investing success. Even when markets are uncertain, there’s a case for investing sooner rather than later. This is because you can buy more investments when prices are lower. And the longer you invest, the more potential your money has to grow.  Of course, there are no guarantees but starting earlier rather than later can make your money work harder for you over time. The key is not to let short-term uncertainty derail your long-term goals. You can see why it can pay to invest sooner rather than later below.
   
   Understand more about the benefits of starting early
2. Use your ISA allowance to keep more of your money
   
   If you don’t use your ISA allowance within the tax year, you lose it. Getting in early means you secure this very valuable, tax-efficient allowance (as any money you invest can grow free from Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax).
   
   Learn more about the ISA allowance
3. Save regularly to reap the rewards
   
   Not everyone has £20,000 lying around to invest at the start of the tax year. Don’t let that stop you. You can set up a regular savings plan in your ISA from £25 a month, right up to £1,666 a month - which will ensure you’ll make full use of your allowance by 6 April 2026 (almost, but not quite - if you want to squeeze out every last drop of the ISA allowance, you’ll need to pop an extra £8 in at some point).
   
   Investing regularly is one of our principles for good investing. Not only does it help take the emotion out of investing by trying to time the market (something even the experts find difficult), but - over time - it can help average out the cost of your investments.
   
   Learn more about investing regularly

The maths: does it pay to start investing at the start of the tax year?

To see the kind of difference investing at the start of the tax year can make, some clever colleagues of mine ran the numbers. 

They came up with three investment strategies of three hypothetical investors over a ten-year period (2015 to 2025).

The idea was to show what consistent investing on the first day of each tax year looked like (Early Shirley), in comparison to regular monthly contributions (Monthly Monty) and investments on the final day of the tax year (Last-minute Lara).
 

Returns generated after 10 years of investing the maximum ISA allowance

Source: Datastream, Fidelity International, April 2025, total returns in GBP of FTSE All-Share

Early Shirley’s strategy of investing the full allowance on the first day of the tax year is effective, generating returns of £255,135 over 10 years. Similarly, Monthly Monty’s consistent strategy pays off over this timeframe too, with returns of £245,304. While Last Minute Lara’s strategy pays less at £244,306.

It goes to show that it really can pay to be an Early Shirley.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns

Source: Refinitiv, total returns from 31.3.20 to 31.3.25. Excludes initial charge.