Mother has £140,000 to invest

schiff

baldbloke

I take your point but please heed what dunstonh has said. On some other thread I commented similarly to you and he encouraged me not to drop out of the discussion, as he has with you.

I think half the problem is that MSE is so, so friendly and helpful, and people with limited financial experience just feel tempted to put their brief facts before this friendly crowd who, they are quite sure, will solve all their problems.

I agree with you that someone with a few thousand can be advised even by the less experienced of us but when it's someone with £140K it's a whole different ball-game and they definitely need an IFA. And dunstonh's comments about those people are very useful (I always myself had the old-fashioned view that they usually cost you the earth - but nowadays not always, according to dunston!).

Mikeyorks

amcluesent wrote:

>
a spread-bed on the house-price index.

Must get the wife interested in one of those;) Is it a sure bet??

baldbloke_2

:rolleyes:

schiff wrote:

baldbloke

I take your point but please heed what dunstonh has said. On some other thread I commented similarly to you and he encouraged me not to drop out of the discussion, as he has with you.

I think half the problem is that MSE is so, so friendly and helpful, and people with limited financial experience just feel tempted to put their brief facts before this friendly crowd who, they are quite sure, will solve all their problems.

I agree with you that someone with a few thousand can be advised even by the less experienced of us but when it's someone with £140K it's a whole different ball-game and they definitely need an IFA. And dunstonh's comments about those people are very useful (I always myself had the old-fashioned view that they usually cost you the earth - but nowadays not always, according to dunston!).

Thanks. I'm sorry that I've only just seen your post otherwise I would have thanked you earlier.

Strangely enough Dunstonh's post was a bit of a wake-up call and made me seriously reconsider my own approach & attitude to the subject. I have always been a fervent saver and yet it is only the past few months or so that I have seriously questioned my 'no risk' & 'no cost' outlook.

I am beginning to learn and will continue to learn.

I do find the endless posts asking what to do with £x000 a bit frustrating - for many of the smaller sums it would take people a few minutes research to find the answer and the broader advice given by the IFAs and others gets lost in the endless answers to what is basically the same question.

Now what to do about those Corporate Bonds ...... :rolleyes:

Chrismaths

Now what to do about those Corporate Bonds ......

I've finally found an answer, after 12 months of looking, and building cash positions. However, you need either a) €1.5m of assets outside your main residence or b) discretionary assets under management of over €20mn. Sadly, I fail a), but happily I pass b).

brasso

baldbloke wrote:

:rolleyes:

Thanks. I'm sorry that I've only just seen your post otherwise I would have thanked you earlier.

Strangely enough Dunstonh's post was a bit of a wake-up call and made me seriously reconsider my own approach & attitude to the subject. I have always been a fervent saver and yet it is only the past few months or so that I have seriously questioned my 'no risk' & 'no cost' outlook.

I'm the opposite. I am happy with risk, particularly in the current extended bull market. I'd not dabbled in equities for a while but finally woke up to the situation last autumn and decided to take advantage while I could. I've spread my money over 5 or 6 funds (just the standard, Hargreaves Lansdown-recommended funds) and they are all between 25% and 45% up over that 7 month period. So my response to the OP would be to consider something similar. She could have added a whopping £50,000 or so over the same period.

That said, I fully accept that my investment could have plummeted, and might still plummet if I take my eye off the ball. The building societies will never plummet, but nor will they deliver you much growth, if that's what you want.

baldbloke_2

brasso wrote:

I'm the opposite. I am happy with risk, particularly in the current extended bull market. I'd not dabbled in equities for a while but finally woke up to the situation last autumn and decided to take advantage while I could. I've spread my money over 5 or 6 funds (just the standard, Hargreaves Lansdown-recommended funds) and they are all between 25% and 45% up over that 7 month period. So my response to the OP would be to consider something similar. She could have added a whopping £50,000 or so over the same period.

That said, I fully accept that my investment could have plummeted, and might still plummet if I take my eye off the ball. The building societies will never plummet, but nor will they deliver you much growth, if that's what you want.

I find all of this very interesting and challenging.

I think that it is the existence of managed funds and OEICs etc that have made the risk so much more acceptable. There really is little reason to fear a complete meltdown of one's investments when they can be spread sensibly across a number of funds - as you describe. Even an informed mixture of low, medium & high risk funds does seem acceptable as another way of spreading the potential for serious loss.

If left for the recommended 3,5 or 10 years it probably offers the only serious method of achieving growth. Your final paragraph is well put - but it requires a complete change of outlook for many of us.

schiff

brasso - your situation just like mine. Back into the market in November.

But what's happened to me (in shares) and what's happened to you (in funds) is mostly down to luck (with all due respect of course!). We have been in at exactly the right time and over the right period.

Somebody else, just like us, could start off now on the basis of wanting to join in the bandwagon. And it could go utterly pearshaped. Don't know about you but I just feel dead lucky!

One day there has to be a big correction - Israel's first nuclear missile landing in Teheran?

EdInvestor

One day there has to be a big correction - Israel's first nuclear missile landing in Teheran?

Sounds like an excellent buying opportunity

schiff

Mmm - never thought of that! What an absolutely splendid idea.

steveksullivan

Having read the above post, particularly those by Baldbloke and Schiff I'm sitting here feeling quite sick ........

I have a similar amount of money, however it's not 'invested' - simply in savings ...... earning me a paltry 4.5 - 5% (before tax!!)

I have been deterred form 'properly' investing my money by two things, prompting two questions:

1. Lack of understanding of where to go to discover how a 'beginner' invests in funds and similar investment products, and how to find the best performers ...... which prompted my second problem/question

2. How do you find a 'good' IFA ..... I have consulted one over a pensions issue .... he has come back nearly a month later saying what he told me a month ago 'wasn't quite right' and there are now further charges ......
Also I cant help but notice that ther seems to be quite a bit of disagreement between IFA's on this site .... I understand that peoples situations vary, but surely IFA's shouldn't be disagreeing over basic advice ...

So a combination of the two .... not knowing how best to invest for myself and not knowing how to find a 'trustworthy' IFA, have lead to my funds languishing for over a year in low paying savings accounts .....

Any help gratefully received !!!!