Save a small amount regularly if you can, regular saving is more important than what you put it into at first IMO as gains are likely to be limited the first few years.
You can buy fractional shares so you donât have to buy a full share of apple say, but also do consider ETFs (collections of shares), particularly VWRL, which is much safer than any particular share or even market.
I agree with the savings part - I plan to be saving alongside this as well.
Another, possibly obvious, question - You hear all the horror stories of people who lost everything on the stock market. My question: Is there a situation where I could have a company come after me for more money that I initially invested? So, if I am super careful and ONLY invest the bits of disposable income that I can easily spare, then my only risk is losing that amount?
So, to keep things easy to understand, if I invest my initial ÂŁ50, that is the maximum I can lose? Which means, if I understand it correctly, the horror stories are people who invested every penny they had (potentially unwisely?)
Or am I being far too simplistic?
Simple answer is no 
You can only lose what you put in on FT in worst case scenario.
When you invest in a stock what youâre doing is buying a tiny piece of that company. The worst that could happen is that company could declare bankruptcy and as part owner of the business your stake is then worth ÂŁ0.
Youâre not being to simplistic, people who loose all their money typically over stretch and invest everything they have, often their pension. Theyâll typically not have a very wide range of holdings which means theyâre risking everything on 1 or 2 companies.
Stick to investing money you donât need to live on / cover an emergency with, and aim to hold them for a minimum of 3-5 years. Then youâre on the wealth train calling at financial independence junction & smug faced parkway. All aboard Choo Choo! 
That is exactly what I am thinking! Is this spare money for a cinema trip, or day out, or is it for car repair. The former - then I can choose to invest instead. The latter - then it stays in my hands.
Definitely looking to be on the Hogwarts Express to Gringotts!
Whatâs ETF - I get itâs a collection of shares, but what does ETF stand for?
And whatâs VWRL?
This zooms out to more of a personal finance topic. Good advice is to have an emergency fund so that should something terrible happen, like loosing your job or illness, you can cover your bills for X months without worrying.
Fun fact: I was once sacked with a 2 month old baby at home! I had an emergency fund and while I didnât really want to spend it my mortgage and bills were covered until I started a new job.
How much should you have? Common advice is for 3-6 months. Hold this somewhere unsexy and accessible maybe premiums bonds as it only takes a few days to get it or a savings account.
Once you have this then money could can invest becomes easier to separate from, it gets very nervy if youâve got money for nee tyres in the stock market and itâs not doing well.
Exchange traded fund - Exchange-traded funds - Invest in ETFs | Freetrade
VWRL - Is a very popular fund. Itâs run by Vanguard who are known for their low management fees. This one is made up of over 6000 (I think) companies so is an easy way of spreading your risk out.
I have just over 2 months salary stashed in a cash isa, and look to be maintaining around 3 months in there as a minimum.
And yeah, unexpected new tyres happened yesterdayâŠ
https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance is a good resource for general PF questions / advice.
I guess I view investing as another form of saving. After you have some cash savings itâs good regularly build capital in a shares ISA like the Freetrade one. Eventually after decades even an ordinary worker can save enough to stop working for wages and live off their capital instead.
Investment has a better return than cash at the moment but there is more risk, particularly if you are saving short term. Roughly speaking risk goes up from cash to bonds to all market indexes like VWRL to other funds to individual stocks to penny stocks to meme stocks, though right now governments have made both cash and bonds very unattractive and people have moved up the risk spectrum too far IMO.
With Freetrade you can never lose more than you put in so ÂŁ50 would be the max loss, but the real returns would come if you save ÂŁ50 a month for ten years and reinvest the returns, from ÂŁ50 alone or a few lump sums youâd never make anything significant.
Exchange Traded Fund, itâs an annoyingly obtuse name for just a collection of shares, you have given a good definition, thatâs all you need to know about ETFs!
VWRL is one of these collections which invests in all the worldâs largest companies and crucially has low fees. That makes it fairly safe and ideal for starting with - much safer and more boring than single company shares. Search for it in your app for more info.
Thatâs my plan - ÂŁ50 a month and reinvest as I go, meeting some practical goals along the way, and with some flexibility that if for some reason I have a bit extra I can throw that in too, or if something comes up I can skip a month or put a bit less in.
Is there a rule against asking if anyone wants to share their referral link, so I can sign up? If thereâs a way to private message and keep those links off here then please do!
There isnât a rule that I know of but youâd be better to sign up using the Rita Ora promotion as they have an additional free draw.
Once youâre signed up would you mind sharing your user number here? How many users now? Itâs the most active thread and helps some of the crowdfunders tack user sign ups.
I hope you find this forum a useful place and keep coming back to learn and share what you know. Something tit bits you hear or stuff you see online is helpful to other investors or beginners looking to learn.
Doing it now!
Do you have to use the app, or can you work from the website?
Itâs all done in the app.
Welcome to the family!
I absolutely will do that!
So far, the bank link thing has taught me that money only gets added on weekdays unless you do a manual transfer⊠And thatâs given me time to pause and really think about where to put my first investments.
Intrigued to see what my free share might be when that pops up.
WoohooâŠhere we go. First ÂŁ50 invested in a kind of pick and mix of smaller stocks.
And now we waitâŠ
And try not to check the Freetrade app every 5 mins 
The temptation is HUGE!!
So, end of first day and my little portfolio is down 0.51p
Considering I started with only ÂŁ50, and Iâm learning as I go, I think thatâs ok. And tomorrow is a new day, and weâre playing the long game, right?