what to invest in?

[TW]Fox;19972954 said:
Then just put it in a Cash ISA at about 3%. It's only £5k - it simply isn't enough to be worth the bother of doing anything fancy, and if its in a Cash ISA at least you can get it easy enough.

Would that mean I'd make £150 a year if the rate was 3% and I put in £5k? Seems a bit pointless to me, I want my money to work harder than that
 
Would that mean I'd make £150 a year if the rate was 3% and I put in £5k? Seems a bit pointless to me, I want my money to work harder than that

Then get more of it?

It's £5k - sadly interest rates are at an all-time low so we can bail out all the people who took on mortgages they couldn't afford so getting huge returns for your savings isn't on the cards at the moment.

Anything that gives you an excellent return on just £5k is also going to carry with it large amounts of risk - risk you might lose all or some of it. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

If you don't need the money for a while and want safety consider an NS&I Savings Certificate, its tax free and pays RPI+a bonus.

But really, its £5k. Whack it in an ISA, realise it isn't really enough money to get great returns without great risk, and take it out next time you need a holiday or something.
 
there was a killing to be made

your own in the majority of cases


Then just put it in a Cash ISA at about 3%. It's only £5k - it simply isn't enough to be worth the bother of doing anything fancy, and if its in a Cash ISA at least you can get it easy enough.

With 5% inflation the rate of return is negative. RPI Indexed certs from the PO will at least give you a slight positive return over annual price increases, it does need to be held at least 1 year though.

My suggestion in this last year would have fallen to about 0% return in the last few weeks. Right now its showing 9.8% return which on 5k is something.
since 1984 the ftse has given about 3% returns after inflation so thats the base line really. savings accounts dont always keep up, shares sometimes lose a lot more
http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-disc...d-general-pacific-index-class-r-income/charts
 
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With 5% inflation the rate of return is negative

RPI traditionally over-inflates the real inflation level but it's technically negative based on CPI as well I guess - but it's the best easy-ish access option.

In the real-world though, 3% is still 3% and an RPI of 5% doesn't mean every single thing you'd spend your money on will be 5% more expensive than it was..
 
I wouldn't knock spreads too hard. If you know what you're doing it can be quite lucrative given the swings of recent. If you were doing spreads in news dominated times like 2008/2009 there was a killing to be made on huge deals.

Its still a product aimed at suckers.

Forecasting is what lots of suckers attempt to do (badly) and if you want to take speculative directional punts then yes spread bets can be used. People taking directional punts mostly don't actually know what they're doing they just think they do - some of them get lucky.

Fully hedged clients at SB firms are mostly suckers that got lucky - the SB firm just doesn't want to take chances. Most people are in the B book - you lose the SB firm gains - they only hedge the overall exposure to each instrument and let the suckers trade away. You can't individually hedge against retail numpties trading at a size smaller than 1 lot anyway - they mostly blow their accounts up sooner rather than later.
 
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Key question is whether this is money that you can afford to tie up for the long term or not, you say you aren't looking for a quick buck but could you lock the money away for 5+ years?

I am looking for a suitable investment too as I have a moderate amount of cash earning below inflation interest. Solar panels scare me and living in a midterraced house I'm not sure if it is even a possibility.
 
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Ok been reading around on the Net.. cant make heads nor tails of this shares stuff. Any books out there that give you the basics? I was thinking of throwing in something like £250 into some shares as a tester. I know its not much but its purely for experimenting.
 
if you have money and you want to invest, i suggest you invest in my new business venture, i propose to start a company selling celebrity figurines i have made from my own pubic hair, i currently have a collection of 50+ celebrity replica's the crown of my collection being a recreation scene by scene of the first Brittany Spears music video hit me baby one more time, please get in touch if you want to make a sound investment which is almost guarenteed to give massive returns on your original investment.
 
I would have thought £5k would do more than yielding £150/year.

It's £5k.

You seem to be under the impression you have some sort of small fortune?

Do you have other savings? If not surely this has to go in a savings account if only to provide you with a useful fund of spare cash should you ever need it? The first step with investing is always to make sure that side of things is covered FIRST.

No good having thousands of quid tied up in shares when you need a grand in a hurry.

For my first £5k I'm not sure I'd even bother with an ISA - I'd probably have it in a Santander eSaver issue 4 paying 3.1% before tax. You'll end up with a tad less interest than an ISA @ 3% but its totally instant access with zero penalty. Which is what you want really. Have a decent sum in easy access. Then have the next decent sum in an ISA. Then, after you've got this, start locking cash away or going for long term investments like shares etc but IMHO not before.

Do you have any debt?
 
[TW]Fox;19978343 said:
It's £5k.

You seem to be under the impression you have some sort of small fortune?

Do you have other savings? If not surely this has to go in a savings account if only to provide you with a useful fund of spare cash should you ever need it? The first step with investing is always to make sure that side of things is covered FIRST.

No good having thousands of quid tied up in shares when you need a grand in a hurry.

Yep got plenty in savings, this £5k was for a car but tbh I don't need one hence me thinking of what to do with it
 
Ok, well, perhaps the time is right for some sort of additional risk investment as long as you understand that there is no reward without risk. I suggest you spend a few months at least learning how the stock market works until you are at a situation where you ''can make head nor tails of this stuff'. Don't just ask everyone elses advice on how to invest, do your own homework because you must be able to understand it for yourself. You could lose every penny in the stock market if you don't know what you are doing and you don't understand what it is you are buying.

Oh, and make sure your savings are in the best place :p
 
[TW]Fox;19978389 said:
Ok, well, perhaps the time is right for some sort of additional risk investment as long as you understand that there is no reward without risk. I suggest you spend a few months at least learning how the stock market works until you are at a situation where you ''can make head nor tails of this stuff'. Don't just ask everyone elses advice on how to invest, do your own homework because you must be able to understand it for yourself.

Oh, and make sure your savings are in the best place :p

Good advice thanks :) But were do I start learning about how to trade in the stock market?
 
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