Graduate wants to invest

Lawgrad

Hey guys I just graduated in July and managed to save about £3500.

I want to invest some of my money £250-500 max as I need the rest to live on. I have some in my savings account but the interest was pitiful.

What is the safest option for investing?

blinko

Lawgrad wrote: »

Hey guys I just graduated in July and managed to save about £3500.

I want to invest some of my money £250-500 max as I need the rest to live on. I have some in my savings account but the interest was pitiful.

What is the safest option for investing?

you need to drip feed maybe or use a share builder $500 just isnt worth investing, you could try an emerging market uint trust and leave it there for 5 - 10 years and it will probably double

bit broker charges alone are £20 - 30

LongTermLurker

Yeah, £50 pm into 2 unit trusts would help to smooth out the pricing. The problem is the low amount. Like Blinko says, the cost of dealing such a small amount in shares makes for a high percentage. On the other hand, HL have a minimum £1000 lump sum into funds or £100pm - if you go monthly, there's a minimum £50 per fund, so you could either invest £100 in one fund for 5 months or £50 in 2 funds for 5 months.

ps - congrats on the graduation!

Loughton_Monkey

Lawgrad wrote: »

What is the safest option for investing?

Again, well done, and good to see a saver making an early start.

Not sure you have the right question there (i.e. 'safest'). On the assumption that, as a graduate, you are going to start earning a lot of money, you must think actively about building up a pension, probably some ISA's (cash and Stocks/Shares) plus investing in property and having some ready savings.

Don't know where you are with all this currently, but you'll probably find a Stocks and Shares ISA product that may take as low as £250 to start off. You should try, though, to start throwing in more on a regular basis.

It's not essential, though, to get the ISA wrapper for the moment since on this amount, you are simply miles away from breaking through any Capital Gains Tax barriers.

If, on the other hand, by "investing" you mean you want to put it away for a year, safely, ready to take out and spend, then any form of Stocks and Shares may breach your requirement for "safe". Shares can go down, as well as belly-up! If this is the case, then you have to put up with the miserable interest rates with which all of us are suffering, but you could do worse than a 1-year fixed term bond.

Santander's 3.25% is looking good, and would rise if Base Rate goes up. Must leave it there the full year, though.

cashbackproblems

I had about the same amount after graduation and stuck most of it in S+S's, a few penny shares which paid off and the rest in ftse 100 companies and i still have them now (apart from lloyds sold tht for a small profit), overall i am up but a few are down, however i am happy to hold long term. Also to the other poster, not all graduates will start earning alot of money straight away, its not like the old days!

If you dont mind risk stick it in a oil exploration company, if you want it safe and earn dividends (tho with £500 your talking a few pounds max) then look at tesco, aviva, barclays, vodaphone etc. tbh i wouldnt bother with such an amount, maybe wait till ur prepared to invest 1k minimum into one stock.