£650 surplus income to invest but in WOT?

jules335500

Guys

I have £650 per month surplus income plus i already £300 into an isa and £100 into a HSBC saving account. I would like to know what would be best for me as i dont own a property as i live with my girlfriend who owns her house. I am 38 with an income of £30k to £35k.Would i be best to get onto the property ladder and rent it out.......or gamble some in stocks and shares or just simply save it.
I have 2 from pensions from previous employers with i put into for 10 years but these are currenlty frozen. My present employer does have a pension scheme but as of yet i havnt joined.

Advice welcome.

opinions4u

Your call - depends on your risk profile!

Could bang it in to a low charge tracker fund stocks and shares ISA perhaps?

jules335500

Thanks...What do think about buying property at this time?

jamesd

If your employer will contribute money to the pension you should look at joining that - it's extra money that's part of your pay deal that you're voluntarily choosing not to take. This does lock the money away until you're 55.

Why gamble with stocks and shares when you can choose low risk options inside a stocks and shares ISA instead? Take a luck at the CF Arch Cru Investment Portfolio and BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha for a couple of low volatility options. Lots of corporate bond funds exist as well and those are likely to drop by no more than 10-15% in a bad year (already had that).

If you're willing to lend to other people you might try using Zopa. Rates of 8-10% after fee and bad debt allowance before tax appear achievable but some of your money is locked up for 3-5 ears while people repay the loans that you (and many others) have made to them, returning to you gradually as they do that.

The Halifax International regular saver account pays 10% on 100-2,000 variable a month for one year, lower rate if you take any out.

We're probably still near the start or early middle of residential property price drops so now does not look like a great time to buy but it does look like a good time to gather a lot of funds to use for a deposit in 1-3 years.

MILLWALLFC

Complete your Cash ISA allowance first of £3600, to be honest with the property market your be best saving a very large deposit, if you can lock money away for six motnhs you can get 6.86% APR with icesave.co.uk or over 7% if you can lock it away for 12 months.

Shares can go up as well as down, all depends what risks you want to take, however with the credit crunch at the moment i would not be investing in them.

jon3001

jules335500 wrote: »

Thanks...What do think about buying property at this time?

LOL! :rotfl:

jules73_2

Make sure you both max out your cash ISA allowance for the year, then open a regular saver (don't bother with A&L, the terms & conditions are awful).
At this time, I would save as much as you can and wait to see what happens with the economy. Not the best time to be investing in property or the stock market in my opinion......unless you like Russian roulette!

dunstonh

Ok, the OP is thinking of property at the moment so he must be a high risk investor (property shares are high risk and mortgaged buy to let is high risk).

Not the best time to be investing in property or the stock market in my opinion......unless you like Russian roulette!

Now could be the perfect time to be investing monthly on a the stockmarkets. £650pm would allow a lot of diversification and remember that investing doesnt have to mean stockmarket. There are a lot of options between cash and stockmarket and stockmarket is not all one risk level. Its a sliding scale.

Shares can go up as well as down, all depends what risks you want to take, however with the credit crunch at the moment i would not be investing in them.

Shares always go up and down. That is the nature of the beast. You invest for the long term and with regulars that really means 10-15 years plus. In a 15 year period you would expect to see at least 3 major stockmarket crashes. The negative periods are when you make the most money over the long term as the units you buy then are cheaper than the high points. When it goes back up again those cheaper units make more than the units you bought at the high price.

Trying to time the markets is usually futile. You can tweak a little and protect profits when things are higher by rebalancing your portfolio but if you are concerned about the markets in their current state then you may as well forget investing in equities full stop.

jules73_2

dunstonh wrote: »

Ok, the OP is thinking of property at the moment so he must be a high risk investor (property shares are high risk and mortgaged buy to let is high risk).

I took it that he was asking what's best. Property, shares, or savings.
You can't go to far wrong with cash in the bank at the moment.
If he wants to be sure of his return, the volatility in the market at the moment makes it hard to suggest the 'best' choice. (in the short term)

He does ask if he should gamble on stocks and shares. I wouldn't advise anyone to gamble if that's how they see it.

jules335500

Thanks guys for advise

Think i will put cash into bank and search out best deals

Cheers