Where is the best place to invest...

Easter_Road

£5,000 for my son who was born last month.

His Grandad wants to give him £5,000 and wants me to invest it, but apart from a normal account what else would anyone suggest?

What is a good rate for kids these days (being skint all the time means I don't keep up with savings rates).

Basically we wouldn't want him to have access till he is 16 or 18 so it would be a long term investment, but we also want it to be pretty safe.

All advice gratefully received.

dunstonh

His Grandad wants to give him £5,000 and wants me to invest it, but apart from a normal account what else would anyone suggest?

A normal account would be saving and not investing. So, the first thing you need to decide is if you want to invest or save.

Basically we wouldn't want him to have access till he is 16 or 18 so it would be a long term investment, but we also want it to be pretty safe.

Safe can mean many things. For example, if you use a savings account you are more or less saying that the £5000 will still be £5000 in real terms when he gets to 16/18. Investing means it will fluctuate in value daily and will sometimes be less than savings, sometimes more. However, this is long term and that lenght of time reduces the element of risk somewhat.

Easter_Road

Thanks for your feedback.

It would be nice for it to be worth more than £5,000 (in real terms) when he was older but I suppose the main priority is it isn't worth less than that. So in a round about way I think I'm edging toward a savings account. Anyone got any advice on the best place to save it and leave it (rather than changing every year as we are likely to forget).