Newbie - short term investment advice

ladywood

Hi - just joined the board. We are finally debt free (except the mortgage!) for the first time in 15 years :j . At its worst my partner and I were nearly £40K in debt - but my partner's brother (an IFA) helped us to get a grip of it and then we were able to clear it last summer when we sold our house - the equity cleared the debts and left a bit over. Huge relief! We have been renting for a year and have now bought a new property - it needs some work and we have about £27K (currently in an ING account) for this. We expect the work to take between 3 and 6 months.

With the announced drop in interest rate on the ING account I am now considering whether this is still the best place to leave the money. We want the highest return possible but need instant and easy access so that we can pay for work as it happens (at the moment I can transfer money free between accounts via the internet and would like that flexibility). So my question really is whether it is worth moving the money and if so where to?

Would be grateful for any advice. :xmassmile

dunstonh

Investing short term can be quite risky. Yes, modern investments have no tie in and no penalty on withdrawal but you will be subject to some volatility (to varying degrees depending on where you invest). If you happen to want some money at the wrong time, you could suffer a loss.

That being said, a number of people do it. Myself included. I invest my annual tax bill for upto 11 months at a go and usually stop adding to it around 3 months before its due.