Got close to £10K. Never invested before, options please?

jackhulk

JoeCrystal wrote: »

Although if you are very fast on opening Cash ISA, you can put £3600 in this tax year and a week later, another £3600 in the same Cash Isa.

This sounds good. As long as I go for one thats available to open online I should be able to start the process straight away. As long as I get my app in before the 5th April cut off, this should be fine right? So, next question, which Cash ISA to go for? Which offers best rate please???

And yes, it was the Guaranteed Growth Bonds from NS&I I was referring to.

Lokolo

If I were you I wouldn't do it over the internet. If you have ID, proof of address etc you could go into town tomorrow open up one there and then. There could be delays on internet shizzle if you don't have an account already.

Barclays Golden ISA supposdly can be open in branch etc. but not sure how good they are at the moment.

Other than that, open an instant access ISA with any bank, you can sort the rates out etc. at a later date (transferring an ISA is a bit different to normal BACS transferring) but for the mean time its get it open and funded by Friday.

JoeCrystal

Personally? If I was you, I would go down there tomorrow with passport, a cheque of £3600 payable to yourself (or card details) and National Insurance card and demand to open the ISA!

As for Guaranteed Growth Bonds? they are not really good since the rates are bad and the fact you have to file the tax return (to pay taxes) on them. The interest get paid gross after all. (Investment Account got same irritating problem as well!)

jackhulk

Lokolo wrote: »

you can sort the rates out etc. at a later date (transferring an ISA is a bit different to normal BACS transferring) but for the mean time its get it open and funded by Friday.

So I'm not tied to that one ISA? I'm free to transfer it to another bank without penalties?

Lokolo

jackhulk wrote: »

So I'm not tied to that one ISA? I'm free to transfer it to another bank without penalties?

In an instant access ISA yes.

Only fixed, 30/60/90-day notice ISAs and ummm not sure about any others, stop you transferring any time.

Aegis

DiggerUK wrote: »

@ Jackhulk,Putting any funds into saving schemes associated with stocks and equities is a fools game at the moment.

What? Why? The standard tactic for equities is "buy low, sell high", and now equities are very low. Why would buying them now be a fool's game when buying them 2 years ago was considered a good idea?

Stay away from IFA's their just "sexed up" sales reps who want their fees and commissions, they will give you a lot of tasty figures based on such promises as "assumed returns" on "assumed projected growth".

Sounds like yet another IFA-basher new to the forum... IFAs are required to show estimated returns for certain products when you are looking at, for example, critical yields for a customer deciding what contributions to make to a pension. They will explicitly state that returns are not guaranteed with most equity investments, with guarantees only issued with certain structured products.

Yes, their income is based on sales, but so is a supermarket's. In fact, so are most companies when all's said and done. However, a whole-of-market adviser can effectively sell appropriate products from a huge range of providers, advising a client as to a course of action that best fits their requirements.

Why should people avoid them because they make money from doing their job?

Cash ISA's seem your best road, you could get a fixed rate with this years allowance. After April you could get an instant access. I suspect that there will be an increase in the Cash ISA allowance following the budget.

Cash ISAs are safe, but if he's looking for higher returns, then that might well require investment in riskier asset classes.

You could have some fun and buy Premium Bonds, crap interest, but hey you never know, and they are instant access.

Better bet would be to put money into a savings account and spend a portion of the interest on lottery tickets of some description. Premium Bonds are about the worst of both worlds when it comes to savings or gambles.

jackhulk

So what are IFA please?

Lokolo

jackhulk wrote: »

So what are IFA please?

Independant Financial Advisor. They are people the advise what to do with money, usually mortgages, investments etc. not usually savings though.

jackhulk

IFA! Of course! Soz. {note to self, fix brain as soon as possible please}

I don't mind entering stocks and shares with some of the money. As I say, I am open to some risk for higher gains. If I choose this option, what product should I be looking at please? Also, what about spread betting??? As a long time user of Betfair, this is something that does interest me and if I was to enter in to stocks and shares I would probably rather do it this way and be hands on (all be it with smaller amounts).

With regards to ISA, I've just read this....."The Mini/Maxi distinction that used to govern ISA investments has now been replaced with a much simpler scheme that, each tax year, allows you to save up to £3,600 in a cash isa and any remaining allowance up to the £7,200 maximum in a Stocks and Shares ISA."

With the above in mind, if I choose (and I'm quick) I could use £7200 this tax year and then rest next tax year, ie next week? Correct?

Aegis

jackhulk wrote: »

IFA! Of course! Soz. {note to self, fix brain as soon as possible please}

I don't mind entering stocks and shares with some of the money. As I say, I am open to some risk for higher gains. If I choose this option, what product should I be looking at please?

With regards to ISA, I've just read this....."The Mini/Maxi distinction that used to govern ISA investments has now been replaced with a much simpler scheme that, each tax year, allows you to save up to £3,600 in a cash isa and any remaining allowance up to the £7,200 maximum in a Stocks and Shares ISA."

With the above in mind, if I choose (and I'm quick) I could use £7200 this tax year and then rest next tax year, ie next week? Correct?

Essentially when you decide to invest for higher-than-cash returns you'll be looking at one of two broad options. Structured products offering a guarantee of some description (eg guaranteed not to drop below initial level, final return based on the performance of one or more indices) or products with no such guarantee.

If you are a cautious investor and can genuinely do without the cash for some time, then a structured product might fit in to your investment portfolio as something of a flutter on the stockmarket. The disadvantage of these products if that they tend to be longer term than many are willing to go for. The shortest I've seen with even half-decent return potential was for 3.5 years, with 5 or 6 years being far more typical. You should almost always avoid these sort of accounts if they are bank products, as these tend to charge very high implicit (i.e. hidden) fees for the guarantees you get.

If you are more adventurous (or are looking for something more adventurous as part of a balanced portfolio), then you can look for products where the capital is not guaranteed at all. More or less in order of increasing average risk, the products that most people will limit themselves to are:

• Gilts
• Corporate bonds
• Shares
• Commodities

Property can fit into this list as well, probably at more or less the same level of risk as shares since the capital is volatile but there is an income from your investment, assuming you are investing in property with a rental yield.

Holding these directly is usually an option for people with extremely large portfolio sizes, so what you more commonly see is the use of unit trusts, OEICs and ETFs. Essentially these are all open ended funds, meaning there is no limit to the number of shares that can be created (and also meaning that the units always trade in line with the net asset value of the holding), and they are ways for people investing smaller amounts to gain exposure to a wide variety of assets with a single purchase.

Many people unsure of what to invest in look for trackers, and that's undoubtedly the simplest place to start your research because the idea is very simple. The goal of a tracker is to track an index as exactly as possible, so a FTSE100 tracker will go up and down with the FTSE as it moves.

Managed funds deviate from the indices and allow managers to play a part in stock selection to try and get better returns than the index without significantly increasing the volatility of the units. Sometimes this works, other times it doesn't. This is definitely an area for either advice or a fair bit of your own research.

I would suggest taking a look around citywire.co.uk and trustnet.com to look further at your options. Don't just pick the best performing products over the last X years, but instead dleve into your particular requirements and try a few ideas out on the regulars here. It's likely that if you find a fund you like the look of, someone else here will have seen it at some point and might be able to discuss the pros and cons with you.