To save or invest?

chatterboxwillie

Hi everyone.

I couldn't find any posts that covered this type of query but I apologise if I missed one that does.

I'm getting married next year and have been lucky to have saved up the money to cover the costs of the wedding and honeymoon. After this expected expenditure, I will have some savings left over (approx £12k) which I would like to invest and see grow.

My question is, is it advisable to try and invest my wedding fund now and withdraw what I need at the time (around £22k) or should I only look to invest the left over money.

I'm not sure at this point if I would need instant access to that surplus amount as I'm currently toying with the idea of going self-employed but I should be able to receive a livable wage if I do.

So, should I put all my savings into an investment plan or just some of it and if so is there a better type of plan that I should be looking at, possibly long term, 5 years or there abouts?

I don't expect explicit responses but general direction would be really appreciated.

Thank you

missile

Getting married is expensive. I think you may find you need more than your budget and will have very little left to save/invest.

Do not invest money you may need within say 5 years. Do not invest what you cannot afford to loose. Do not be greedy, high rewards come with high risk. Do you have pension?

chatterboxwillie

The budgetted amount is pretty fixed now to be honest, we've been quite sensible about things and the amount listed does include some amount of 'play'

I don't see it as being greedy though, I just want to maximise what savings I have and let them earn more sensibly. I don't have a pension as yet though but I do have a property that is being rented out (if that helps)

xrjtg

Don't invest money that you need to spend next year. If you have some extra, understand the risks and can afford to lose it, you might well want to investigate possible investments.

Have you anything in mind?

Annisele

If you invest the whole of your wedding fund now, it's quite possible that it will fall in value by 20% (or more) by next year. If the market totally tanks, it's possible that you could lose more than 50% of your money if you invest it. Given that you need to withdraw the money at a specific point, you wouldn't be able to avoid crystallising losses.

Conversely, it might go up in value by 20% or more. Personally I wouldn't invest money that I was going to need in a year - but whether you want to do it depends on your attitude to risk, and whether you can still afford to pay for the weddin if your investments do go down.

chatterboxwillie

Thanks for the comments. I can't afford to lose any of it really so that possibly rules out quite a few options. I guess I would be prepared to take a little risk, say on £5k to see what happens as I'm confident (ish) that I can recoup that amount before the end of the year so I wouldn't lose out as such.

In terms of ideas of where and what to invest I really don't know. I have toyed with shares for a while but it's such a bit area I'm way out of my depth. I only really see things that are in the media and that sparks something in me that wants to dabble but at that point it's usually too late. Someone said to me a good long term investment would be buy shares in BP. They may take 5-10 years to claw their way back up but when they do you could be quids in. That's something I really don't know about so may avoid.

I do have shares already that at the moment have only just equalled what I paid in but this was done some time ago and a financial advisor 'friend' sorted it all out for me. The shares are split between a couple of companies, I can't remember them all at the moment but one is JP Morgan, that's the only one I've ever heard of before.

I think you've already answered my question though which is to not invest any of the wedding fund, my other half would probably kill me....slowly