Ndubuisi 'Andy' Egwim explains that a Stock & Shares ISA is a tax wrapper (not itself an investment) through which you can invest in funds, stocks or bonds. He emphasizes the ISA’s tax benefit—capital gains within the wrapper are tax-free—and uses an illustrative example (putting in £20,000 over 20 years) alongside personal anecdotes (reference to NHS pension) to clarify the point.
So you can invest money through it. A stock and shares ISA is not an investment. Lots of people say I invest in the stock and shares. I said recently, I was speaking to, I think it was a church in excess and someone was saying, oh, I invest in stock and shares. I'm like, no, there's no stock and shares. I sell investment. It's just a tax protector. So you put your money through that stock and shares isa, and then invest what you invest, whether it's an index fund or whether you buy individual stocks or whatever, or bonds, it's entirely your business. Or maybe the platform you're investing might say, choose this fund, choose that phone, of which a lot of times you don't really know what is under those funds. So these are the different ISAs. If you use a stock and shares ISA, you can actually invest capital gains tax free. That means you never, as long as we know you never have to pay a tax on whatever your gains you make. Let me paint a picture for you to make it make sense. Let's say you are putting in 20,000 your ISA over 20 years of your career. Let's say you still have 20 years in your career. I mean, if you go by my current NHS pension, I don't have NHS pension because I'm not a salaried person. But let's say you're a salaried doctor, I've got NHS pension and you're going to get it at 65.
