Index funds are okay if you want to safeguard your money in terms of protecting capital, when it comes to making money they are a bit dubious as with dividends invested you are looking at between 50 - 100 years to make meaningful gains a  # 1000 invested might come up to  # 100,000 or  # 2,000 as it depends on the valuation of the
shares, my advice is if you really want to do it then invest in one or two and see if you can handle the psychological
dips over 3 - 5 years otherwise just invest in well managed companies.