best way to invest 60k

Suki

i have just come into 60k from a house sale and dont need the money at the moment however my family would like to move abroad in the future at some time and have been looking at the best way to make this money make money i can get 5.4% from a few places but there must be a way of making this money make more over say the next 5-10 years i dont really want to risk losing any of my investment ie: stocks and shares as in the past i have swallowed some big losses on the ftse and dont want that again, does anyone have any ideas plz many thx. ;D

Walletwatch

If you already know of some avenues giving you 5.4%, I personally don't see too many other options that will give you more without some element of risk. You can park part of the money in an instant access savings account like ING Direct or egg and drip feed regular savings accounts (they are the only ones with rates higher than 5.4% and risk-free) - Currently Abbey (max £500 pm for 12 months) and Halifax (max £250 pm for 12 months) offer Regular Savers at 7% gross and Derbyshire building society (max 1000 pm) gives you 5.85% gross

Rafter

Probably worth maximising your ISA allowances too to avoid paying too much tax.

Also take a look at National Savings Certificates to reduce your income tax bill.

You could also put a couple of £'000 into Premium bonds.

No guaranteed income, but your capital is safe and you have the potential to win one of the £1million prizes and buy a really big house overseas!

Good luck.

R.

mk-donald

As you want to be sure your money is safe, bear in mind two things.

For deposit taking institutions covered by the UK´s Compensation scheme, only the first 2000 pounds is guaranteed in the event of collapse. And only the next 33000 pounds is covered at 90%.

So to be totally safe either only put 2000 with any institution, or else rely on National Savings with the government guarantee behind it.

More realistically limit your exposure with any one institution to 35000, running the risk of losing 10% of 33,000, ie getting only 31700

See http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/faqs/deposit_claims_faqs/

I certainly limit my exposure to any bank/building society to 35000 because of this.

dunstonh

i dont really want to risk losing any of my investment ie: stocks and shares as in the past i have swallowed some big losses on the ftse and dont want that again, does anyone have any ideas plz many thx. ;D

The only way you could do that is if you kept removing the money after every downturn in the market. Even if you had invested at the highest point on the FTSE100, you would now have recovered your initial investment and be in surplus.

This suggests a little inexperience in investing. This is nothing to be ashamed of. However, a bit more knowledge and understanding would have prevented losses.

You need to decide if you want to invest or to save. You also need to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it otherwise you could end up doing the wrong thing for you again. There are non stockmarket based areas to invest in which offer greater potential than savings accounts. All the answers so far have been savings responses and not investment responses. What do you want to do; invest or save?

If you read the responses above, it is clear that getting advice here is the wrong thing to do as they have given you suggestions without clarifying anything. They may be correct or incorrect but jumping to "suggestions" without adequately ascertaining your risk profile could cost you money rather than make it work in the best for you.

cheerfulcat

Suki wrote:

i have just come into 60k from a house sale and dont need the money at the moment however my family would like to move abroad in the future at some time and have been looking at the best way to make this money make money i can get 5.4% from a few places but there must be a way of making this money make more over say the next 5-10 years i dont really want to risk losing any of my investment ie: stocks and shares as in the past i have swallowed some big losses on the ftse and dont want that again, does anyone have any ideas plz many thx. ;D

Hi, Suki,

Look at the highest possible rate you can get currently from a deposit account. That is the best return you will get for no risk. If you want a better return you have to accept more risk. Of course taking on risk doesn't *guarantee* better returns; it just exposes you to a wider range of possible outcomes.

Over 5-10 years stock market investments will almost certainly outperform cash-based ones. It is possible to minimise the risk of loss by "drip-feeding" money into your chosen investment. It is also possible to lessen the risk by diversifying across sectors and markets.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

carnet

dunstonh wrote:

Even if you had invested at the highest point on the FTSE100, you would now have recovered your initial investment and be in surplus.

Big assumption is it not ? Surely depends on what stocks you had bought ?

On New Years Eve 1999 the FTSE100 stood just short of 7000. Today it is just shy of 5300. A drop of some 24%.

So, even assuming the whole index was bought and the reinvestment of divis of, say, 4% ( and even that seems a little high to me) compounded over almost 6 years there certainly wouldn't be much of a surplus .

dunstonh

Big assumption is it not ? Surely depends on what stocks you had bought ?

On New Years Eve 1999 the FTSE100 stood just short of 7000. Today it is just shy of 5300. A drop of some 24%.

Yes, it would depend on what stocks but if you are not quite recovered yet because you have been "unlucky", you wouldnt be far off. The point was aimed more towards the suggestion that Suki had suffered large losses in the past on the FTSE. In reality, if you assume FTSE funds (trackers or managed), its been a little hard to suffer large losses over a 5 or 10 year period. Therefore, suggesting that Suki had pulled out of the investments after a drop, rather than leaving it in. Something that should not be done but often inexperienced investors will do.

Chadsman

How about a corporate bond fund? ...not as risky as shares but (probably) offering a better return than cash.
or reinvesting in buy to let property.

Chadsman

How about a corporate bond fund? ...not as risky as shares but (probably) offering a better return than cash.
or reinvesting in buy to let property.