What to invest and where?

[elise2000]

Very open ended question…

We have just sold our house and therefore have the proceeds sat in the current account. I’m currently transferring it around various banks to take into account the £85k safety limit.

The question is, where to invest it next to gain some sensible returns.

I don’t want to tie the whole amount away long term, but instant access is not required.

I don’t want to be doing anything risky/too risky with it, but want to achieve more than the lousy 3-4% available on the high street.

Any suggestions very welcome! (I’m already obviously planning on buying a couple of cars…)

[Actual]

Everyone will probably advise against Premium Bonds but I like that they are instant access if you need to cash up at short notice. With £100K invested in Premium Bonds (if there are 2 of you) then you should win small prizes each month and myself and MrsActual have a little competition at midnight each month to see who is ahead. The 1 month delay before bonds enter the draw is annoying so if you want to go this route make sure you do so before the end of the month.

[elise2000]

Actual said:

Everyone will probably advise against Premium Bonds but I like that they are instant access if you need to cash up at short notice. With £100K invested in Premium Bonds (if there are 2 of you) then you should win small prizes each month and myself and MrsActual have a little competition at midnight each month to see who is ahead. The 1 month delay before bonds enter the draw is annoying so if you want to go this route make sure you do so before the end of the month.

We have a smallish amount in premium bonds already and are probably going to max out. Appreciate it’s not the best financial decision, but, may be lucky and win something decent one day!

[dingg]

If you don't want risk ,you're stuck with the lousy 3-4%

[elise2000]

dingg said:

If you don't want risk ,you're stuck with the lousy 3-4%

An element of risk is fine, but don’t want to take any stupid chances with the whole amount. Despite not wanting anything locked away, realistically it’s not going to be touched for a few years, so an element of up/down within that period is fine, as long as the general trend will likely be up more than the lousy 4%.

[AllyM]

This may assist in the short term if you are not already aware

https://www.fscs.org.uk/making-a-claim/claims-proc...

[elise2000]

AllyM said:

This may assist in the short term if you are not already aware

https://www.fscs.org.uk/making-a-claim/claims-proc...

Thanks, didn’t know that.

[alscar]

Depends also on how long you are intending the funds to be around but you could simply split into pots and go a combi of instant access , term notice access or fixed fate bonds and then perhaps into some tracker funds ?
After you’ve sorted out the new cars obvs.

[locoloco]

may be considered risky by some;
there's preferred stock offered by MSTR in 4 products: strc, strd, strf, strk - each with different nuance ( and also diff % rates); essentially open ended, and traded daily on the normal stock market.

it's done as a fixed $ payout, some monthly most quarterly - as a rough guide circa 8-10%. STRC is designed to trade close to a stable $100, ie/ when it is at that they release more to the market, if it were significantly below - they adjust the $/% 'div' upwards to drive demand.

Downside; MSTR basically backs everything with bitcoin, so if you're a total non-believer, or fear that there's too high a chance that it'll crash to zero - then defo not one to consider.

FWIW - i believe/understand that BTC could go as low as $15k before mstr would have issues.
Few folks i know are using as their money market/instant fund monies.

(not sure how it affects us in UK, i need to check for my own purpose, but in the US it's designated as ROC, so atleast for them there's no CGT/Div tax until the principle has been covered in full by any payments received)

[768]

elise2000 said:

dingg said:

If you don't want risk ,you're stuck with the lousy 3-4%

An element of risk is fine, but don t want to take any stupid chances with the whole amount. Despite not wanting anything locked away, realistically it s not going to be touched for a few years, so an element of up/down within that period is fine, as long as the general trend will likely be up more than the lousy 4%.

Might not take much for that 3-4% to look far from lousy.

[elise2000]

alscar said:

Depends also on how long you are intending the funds to be around but you could simply split into pots and go a combi of instant access , term notice access or fixed fate bonds and then perhaps into some tracker funds ?
After you ve sorted out the new cars obvs.

In theory they’ll be around for a good few years. Only reason to eat into would be a potential property purchase in the future.

Any particular tracker funds you recommend?

Thanks

[elise2000]

locoloco said:

may be considered risky by some;
there's preferred stock offered by MSTR in 4 products: strc, strd, strf, strk - each with different nuance ( and also diff % rates); essentially open ended, and traded daily on the normal stock market.

it's done as a fixed $ payout, some monthly most quarterly - as a rough guide circa 8-10%. STRC is designed to trade close to a stable $100, ie/ when it is at that they release more to the market, if it were significantly below - they adjust the $/% 'div' upwards to drive demand.

Downside; MSTR basically backs everything with bitcoin, so if you're a total non-believer, or fear that there's too high a chance that it'll crash to zero - then defo not one to consider.

FWIW - i believe/understand that BTC could go as low as $15k before mstr would have issues.
Few folks i know are using as their money market/instant fund monies.

(not sure how it affects us in UK, i need to check for my own purpose, but in the US it's designated as ROC, so atleast for them there's no CGT/Div tax until the principle has been covered in full by any payments received)

Thanks, I’ll read up on it

[elise2000]

768 said:

elise2000 said:

dingg said:

If you don't want risk ,you're stuck with the lousy 3-4%

An element of risk is fine, but don t want to take any stupid chances with the whole amount. Despite not wanting anything locked away, realistically it s not going to be touched for a few years, so an element of up/down within that period is fine, as long as the general trend will likely be up more than the lousy 4%.

Might not take much for that 3-4% to look far from lousy.

Please elaborate!

[alscar]

elise2000 said:

In theory they ll be around for a good few years. Only reason to eat into would be a potential property purchase in the future.

Any particular tracker funds you recommend?

Thanks

Have a look at HL ‘s website and also Fidelity’s for some more bedtime reading on their suggested picks.

[elise2000]

alscar said:

elise2000 said:

In theory they ll be around for a good few years. Only reason to eat into would be a potential property purchase in the future.

Any particular tracker funds you recommend?

Thanks

Have a look at HL s website and also Fidelity s for some more bedtime reading on their suggested picks.

Thanks, will do

[butchstewie]

From how you've explained it so far I'd perhaps consider the lousy but 100% safe 3-4% on a savings account and consider putting a percentage in something like a global equity tracker.

So for example 85% in savings accounts and 15% "at market risk" in a tracker or whatever percentage lets you sleep at night.

There's no magic here though - risk/reward applies and only you can decide where you're comfortable along that curve.

[elise2000]

butchstewie said:

From how you've explained it so far I'd perhaps consider the lousy but 100% safe 3-4% on a savings account and consider putting a percentage in something like a global equity tracker.

So for example 85% in savings accounts and 15% "at market risk" in a tracker or whatever percentage lets you sleep at night.

There's no magic here though - risk/reward applies and only you can decide where you're comfortable along that curve.

Thanks. Yes, i was planning on keeping some dead safe and some more risky.

In theory, would it be fair to say that if it’s a mid-long term investment the risk on most managed funds is fairly minimal?

[butchstewie]

elise2000 said:

Thanks. Yes, i was planning on keeping some dead safe and some more risky.

In theory, would it be fair to say that if it s a mid-long term investment the risk on most managed funds is fairly minimal?

Historically the longer you hold an investment and assuming you're not investing in single companies or something that could just cease to exist the more likely it is you'll have a good outcome.

If you're looking at a global tracker or an index fund it's not really "managed" in so much as there's no fund manager sitting there deciding what to invest in.

If you want that you'd look at active funds.

If you just want to go wherever the global index (or some other index) goes you'd look at a passive fund.

There's always a reason to buy and a reason not to buy but historically the longer you hold an investment the more likely it is to keep moving up and to the right.

[elise2000]

butchstewie said:

elise2000 said:

Thanks. Yes, i was planning on keeping some dead safe and some more risky.

In theory, would it be fair to say that if it s a mid-long term investment the risk on most managed funds is fairly minimal?

Historically the longer you hold an investment and assuming you're not investing in single companies or something that could just cease to exist the more likely it is you'll have a good outcome.

If you're looking at a global tracker or an index fund it's not really "managed" in so much as there's no fund manager sitting there deciding what to invest in.

If you want that you'd look at active funds.

If you just want to go wherever the global index (or some other index) goes you'd look at a passive fund.

There's always a reason to buy and a reason not to buy but historically the longer you hold an investment the more likely it is to keep moving up and to the right.

So, generally, are trackers/index funds safer bets than managed funds? And, if so, generally have lower returns?

Thanks

[PM3]

elise2000 said:

So, generally, are trackers/index funds safer bets than managed funds? And, if so, generally have lower returns?

Thanks

Not really and Not really .....