David Cresswell has been investing in shares, tax-exempt special savings accounts and personal equity plans (Peps) - the forerunners to individual savings accounts (Isas) - since the privatisations of the 1980s on a monthly basis.
Reader Portfolio
David Cresswell
63
Description
Isas
Objectives
Retire in late 2015
"I have always used my late father's words - 'save half of what you never had and you will never go short' - as a guiding principal," he says. "My dividends have always been reinvested and any annual salary increases and bonuses have always been split 50:50 between savings and family requirements, such as holidays or a larger house. I started saving significantly in 2008 into funds of a riskier nature than I had been doing prior to then.