What to do with spare cash?

[sri16v]

Apologies for the generic title, looking for a little bit of advice, saw a similar thread in here that I didn't want to hijack, so I have started my own.

My current situation is at the age of 36, I am mortgage free, I have no outstanding debts, a nice car, motorbike, mountain bikes and all the toys and gadgets I could ever want.

I have over 40k just sat in a cash ISA earning me 0.2%!

I earn around 45k with overtime and have a very secure job in a very secure industry. (Skilled/technical trade)
I currently pay 18% into my pension and the company pays 12%, my maximum would be to go to 20% contributions from myself.

I have a company vehicle, which I have a fuel card for, so that enables me to run a nice car on the weekend, but also have a cheaper car to transport my mountain bike around in.

I'm looking at saving 100k, to move somewhere a bit more remote and out in the country, my current house is worth in the region of 230 to 240k, so with the sale of my house and my savings of 100k I would have a deposit of around 350k (may not use the full 100) then maybe have around an 80-100k mortgage.(on a 450k property)

I also have a stocks and share isa with Hargreaves landsdown, which has around 3k in, but I don't really look at it, as I have no interest in researching what to invest in, looking at trends etc..

Am I best going to see a financial advisor or moving the 40k from my bank into the Stocks and share ISA( obviously I understand that only 20k per year is tax free)

It's a nice problem to have, but I just feel a bit of effort now could set me up for the future/retirement

Thanks

[Aunty Pasty]

You can put 20k in a stocks and shares ISA and the next financial year is coming up so you can put another 20k into another ISA next month. You don't need to research what funds to invest in with S&S ISA. Most companies will do it for you. They usually ask you to set a level of risk you're willing to take from a scale of 1 to 5 and they will invest for you accordingly. You can choose to pick individual funds if you wish but if you don't know what you're doing you're pretty much just gambling.

The main question is with the current downwards trend in the markets due to the geo-political issues around the world whether it's a good time to dive in.

[Percy Cushion]

Transfer £20k to a stocks and shares ISA before April 5th and the other £20k after then. The Vanguard funds are very popular on here.

I’d also suggest you could afford the property you want now without having to save £100k.

[sri16v]

Thanks for the replies.

My current Hargreaves Landsdown stocks and share ISA is all self invested, am I able to open another stocks and shares ISA or switch the current one to a managed ISA

[Aunty Pasty]

You can have a different ISA every year with either the same provider or with another provider. You can treat them as entirely separate accounts.

[sri16v]

Percy Cushion said:

Transfer £20k to a stocks and shares ISA before April 5th and the other £20k after then. The Vanguard funds are very popular on here.

I’d also suggest you could afford the property you want now without having to save £100k.

Yes thats probably true r.e the mortgage, but it's nice not having a monthly payment go out, so I have a lot of disposable income at present that I ironically dont spend!.

Current house is around 20 year's old on a nice quiet housing estate on the edge of a rural town, 3 bedroom detached with a garage, so perfectly adequate for the time being, but I definitely lust about being more remote.

I also hate owing money! Hence why I pay for everything and don't take loans or finance.

I do have a credit card with a 5k limit, but use that more for the protection, and its always paid off every month, if I use it!

In some ways I wish I could be comfortable having a monthly payment on a loan or pcp etc.. I just can't do it!

[Mikee19]

When are you looking to move?

I can't help but think there isn't a good answer to the question what to do with cash, in my opinion it looks like we are heading into a recession taking the stock market down with it. Inflation meaning people stop spending as they have less disposable cash, companies make less profit.

In your situation I would consider taking a mortgage on 1% five year fixed and move locally and let inflation eat away at your mortgage debt rather than eating away at your savings.

[Stu-nph26]

I’m pretty sure you can transfer a cash ISA straight into a stocks and shares ISA so you could get the £40k in straight away. Could be wrong though. That said the stock market might not be wise especially if you need the money back relatively soon.

I’ve been pretty happy with the vanguard lifestrategy 100 fund but I’d suggest having a look at index funds like the above rather than picking stocks.

I’m no IFA this is just what I do through a fair bit of research.

[chip*]

sri16v said:

I have over 40k just sat in a cash ISA earning me 0.2%!

I'm looking at saving 100k, to move somewhere a bit more remote and out in the country,

Does the current £40k form part of your £100k target saving, or simply an additional £100k saving?

What's your timeframe for moving / £100k saving?

sri16v said:

Am I best going to see a financial advisor or moving the 40k from my bank into the Stocks and share ISA( obviously I understand that only 20k per year is tax free)

It's highly likely that your current financial institution will offer a Stock and Share ISA too i.e. you can simply transfer your Cash ISA to Share ISA, but your decision may depend on whether you fancy their offerings/investments and charges/fees. Alternatively, you can open an SS ISA with a cheap fixed fee platform such as ii (https://www.ii.co.uk), and transfer over the current cash ISA (pretty quick as it's cash), then decide later on your investment.