I'm quite new to share investing (well I started investing about 18 months ago). Basically I had an inheritance of a similar amount to you that I wanted to earn a bit of money off rather than stick it in the bank. And it makes my life a bit more interesting I got some advice from a savvy share investor and put the bulk of my funds in HBL (80%) and I certainly havent regretted it - it's a steady as she goes share and the dividend is better than the bank. Also a couple of other small amounts in good dividend bearing stocks. I tried to read Benjamin Graham's book (yawn - I might still have the book in a box somewhere if you want it) and I try really hard to make sense of annual reports and read the fine print but frankly I'm not that good at it. So 15% of my portfolio I guess you could call punt stocks. I've lost some money along the way but learnt to ditch quickly before it goes too far south (IQE eek). I've regretted not getting into some stocks as I didnt know enough (ATM... if only I'd bought at $1.80) I really should do a course but likely I'll pull out everything later this year when I build a new house.

I use ANZ. Took about 3 to 4 weeks to get set up after providing my life story to them even though I have banked with them for 30 odd years.