Good Morning I was in an accident while ago and ended up with a pay-out, there's a few quid aside for the mortgage and some just sitting in a cash ISA getting f all interest and sometimes being chipped away at. I'd like to lock some of it away fro 3-5 years with a better return and as low risk as possible, but I know there will be some. Wondering what you guys use or would use? Thanks
Between Brexit, Le Pen, Trump, N. Korea, Putin and ISIS I wouldn't throw that possibility out the window...
I tend to have my head in the sand when it comes to global issues, if not for the Mrs I'd think the world is getting on well (ok i'm not that bad) but these are things I'm not sure how will/could affect investments
I've got a chunk of my savings in a Moneyfarm robo-fund stocks-and-shares ISA. Decent projected returns at reasonably low risk, though it's currently at a small loss thanks to a dip in the markets. If you're after zero risk, though, you'll have to put up with restrictions and poor returns. For example: this slightly-risky ISA projects a 6% return for the year; my special-rate savings account gets me 3% APR but is limited to £400 a month investment; my bank's normal-rate savings account gets 2% APR but is limited to £250 a month investment. The ISA's a risk, but at double the projected return of my bank's best savings account and with no interest to pay and a £20,000-a-year investment limit (I wish I had that to stick away!) There was also an offer on, though I don't know if it's expired, for £200 in Amazon vouchers if you invested a certain amount, which makes the small paper loss I'm taking at present more palatable.
To be honest, I don't think you can go far wrong with one of Vanguard's Index funds if you're intending on leaving this chunk of money for a long time (like retirement/15 years+ or something). It's remarkably difficult to beat the market. If you aren't saving for a first time buy house, ISAs are a shitshow at the minute. I'd check out the personal finance subreddit also, throw your numbers on there, and you'll get some quality advice.
If your buying a house then go with Help to buy or lifetime isa. If just savings and you don't mind risk then as above go with a market tracking passive fund, I have one and its made roughly 65% over 5 years or so. However you need to be able to ride out a downturn so really needs to be 5 years minimum, mine for example lost 5% one year and made it back the next.
How about a buying fund? I hear national infrastructure focused fund are a low-risk option. I've been told that stocks and shares investment is all about locking the money away for a long time. There's no point checking every day, you'd get depressed. Best way is to just put the money away for 5-10 years and not think about it. Only retrieve it when you need it, you might even be pleasantly surprised.
No risk: Cash ISA. Returns suck, but no losses. Minimal risk: Tracker fund (e.g. Vanguard). If the world goes tits-up it might make a loss, but otherwise trackers often outperform fancy investors. High risk/high return: picking startups to invest in. You need the combination of enough technical knowledge to identify startups that actually have a good idea (I've been to a 'VC' tech event once, 90% of the stuff there was utter garbage that got standing ovations, so that might not be so high a bar) and enough business knowledge to tell if they can feasibly pull it off (much harder). And even then, the risk is very high that any given business will fail long before you could get a return. Ideally, a combination of the three: some savings in cash so you can be confident it'll always be there, some in stock trackers so it has the chance of getting some sort of return, and a maybe little that you can stand to lose in investments if you happen to stumble on a good opportunity you're confidant in succeeding.
Wouldn't bother. The pseudo VC route isn't worth it unless you've got a minimum of $50k to stick in for 5+ years - you don't get enough equity to make it worth while, and the amount of profit they'd generate (if they do) wouldn't be enough to mitigate any risk. As your '90% was trash' statement alluded to, currently only 1 in 10 VC backed start ups every actually creates any return on investment.
Nationwide have a regular saver for current account customers. You can only put in a max of £500 per month but you get 5% interest. If you aren't already with Nationwide they have a friend referral and we both get cash for it. PM me if any good. Otherwise, look at the Vanguard stuff, it's always well received and popular. There's also stuff like Property Moose if you want a diverse portfolio.
My house in London was my best investment. £115k bought with a £30k deposit. Paid the mortgage for the 1st year but have been renting it out for the last 5 years at £700 a month. Market value is now £200k and the mortgage is at under £40k. Problem is house prices in London have gone silly so it's the wrong time to invest there really.
I'm a big fan and heavy user of DEGIRO (https://trader.degiro.nl/). It's a rapidly growing and extremely well reviewed Dutch Broker, off the top of my head I'm fairly sure trades (regardless of their size) are priced at £1.75. I'd suggest starting small, you can drop just £500 in to get a feel for how everything works and go slowly from there. They also have a good app, so if you're a bit obsessive like me you can check it 6 times a day for no real reason! Just remember no investment is guaranteed and nothing is safe, don't throw all your money into a single promising stock, it's very much a long game, be patient, don't expect much more than 3-4% return on a year, stocks wont make you rich unless you've got a huge chunk of change in them already and a small percentage = a big amount. Do use your tech knowledge, if you genuinely think some new piece of tech that a company is bringing out is going to be brilliant, then buy up some shares. The original Wii did brilliantly for me but I'm not investing in any VR companies. Do go for big stocks after bad news, I did nicely out of Barclays when the whistle blowing news dropped their share price, bought some stocks on the basis that it was a big bank, it'd be fine. Next quarter they announced their best return since the recession and the shares jump. In this situation it's important to sell on a high, don't be greedy, shares fall quickly after a spike, decide before hand what you will set for and do it. DEGIRO has two vital tools at no cost: Stop-Loss and automated selling. Stop Loss lets you set a minimum value, if a share falls to this value, it will sell them to stop you losing any more money, sounds horrible, but is a sensible fail safe. Automated selling (I forget the real term) is brilliant, I like to buy a share (like Barclays) and decide then and there what I would be happy to sell for if a spike happens when I'm not around. It's a good way to make a profit and avoid being greedy and over playing your hand. I am no expert, I've been trading with a few thousand pounds here and there for a few years, but I really enjoy it and once you've got a handle on the basics above there's nothing to be afraid of.
This is the kind of advice I like. Have been thinking about dropping £500 somewhere to play with, will have a loot into this
You guys are boring. Buy up exotic watches and sports cars for long term Day-trade in bitcoin for short term. *** PROFIT!
Wrong - any investment in shares etc is risky, and especially when looking at just a 3-5 year period. Recently the FTSE 100 and all share lost money - for the FTSE 100 in 2008 (-31.8%), 2011 (-5.6%), 2014 (-2.7%) and 2015 (-4.9%). A tracker would echo that ... and more once you've paid the fees. Trackers are very popular now in mature markets (USA, increasingly UK) but are not in any way a low risk investment. They just echo the market, good or bad. The stock market is great for really well informed short term punts (see Barclays example above) or for 5 year plus investments that can ride out short term bumps, but if you're an immature invest or can't afford to lose money, stay away If I definitely needed money in 3 years, i'd keep it in cash. [all of the above is from someone who has had some lovely upturns and cringing drops].
