20K to Invest

dbound

My mother has £20K to invest.
She has an ISA this year (just a cash one), and has £1000 of premium bonds.
She is looking to retire in 2 or 3 years time and would like the money to work for her in the meantime.
Any good ideas?
I was thinking Government bonds or suchlike but have no real idea of these or wether they are good.
Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

Too many variables to really answer given the small amount of info. (around 50,000 options available at the moment).

Things like tax, risk profile, knowledge and experience of investing, aims and objectives etc all need to be considered as well as where she would buy the products in question from.

dbound

Yeah, fair enough!
The money has come from a pension fund, and my mother is a low rate tax payer.
She has no knowledge or experience of investing, as this is the first time she has had money to invest.
I would like the money to be fairly safe for her, but a small proportion could be invested for a better return.
The aims for my mum are just to make the money work for her for 2 - 3 years to make her actual retirement easier.
I have no idea how or where she would buy the products as I live in london and my mum in newcastle. Although I could 'advise' her acordingly.
I hope this makes it clearer (probably not!!)
Thanks again.

a7man

I wouldnt take advice off a forum as she needs a full analysis of her situation. Its probably best to get her to speak to an IFA. You would be looking at Fixed Interest investments or savings accounts though rather than asset backed due to the timeframe.

The simplest thing she could do is get a savings account from a bank at around 6-7% interest (before tax)