Should I invest money earmarked for paying student overdrafts?

It isn't your money, overdrafts can be withdrawn at any time.
It isnt sensible to invest (with someone else's money) over such a short timeframe and knowing you need the money at a specific time.

It might just about make sense if you could plan to pay off the overdrafts from other excess income over the year.

Historically you are about 50pc likely to suffer a loss if investing for less than 1 year. Given an overdraft can be called in early it would be very risky.

You don't need to invest much to learn about investing.

matthewcl375 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I'll be only investing money I don't need for anything else.

I've narrowed my search down to 3 potential funds, these are

1. Legal and General International Index
2. Vanguard Lifestrategy 60
3. Legal and General US Index

Legal and General has had more growth than Vanguard (presumably because of the good state of the US stock market), but Vanguard seems slightly more diversified. Since I would rather have a large amount in one or two funds than a little bit in each, would anyone be able to advise on this?

I have a medium attitude to risk as this is a long term investment, and I'm willing to leave money in to accumulate rather than for income. I plan to put in £500 into one fund initially and manually add to this on a weekly/monthly basis depending on my immediate financial needs. I can put in £500 each into two funds this week but obviously this will mean I won't be able to put as much in in the near future, and it may be a better idea to invest £500 in one fund and see how it goes in order to build confidence first

Is this still the overdraft fund or a completely different question?

So how long do you think it will be invested? I have a low value VLS60 holding in a Vanguard ISA as it is a fairly stable option and I am not targeting it at any particular purpose. It tends to be where I stick leftover money for medium term after filling our Pensions, LISAs (investing for 60) and my son's JISA which all have higher equity exposure.

The US market is looking pretty hot right now with some extended valuations and p/e ratios. Especially in the tech sector. I question if risk is being factored correctly. I don't see why Apple phones are any different to washing machines. Does anyone care about iPods anymore? Why is iPhone any different? Stuff quickly gets taken for granted and the amount Apple and Amazon are spending on new HQs is totally unjustified when people are as productive working from home. Have they run out of good ideas to invest in? But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

While I am not suggesting you completely avoid the US it seems prudent to keep your investments in reasonable proportion and diversify across regions, sector and asset types. There will still be a lot of US by market capitalisation. The results will be more consistent and it's easier to sleep at night.