Any ideas how I could invest £500?

kathy_b_2

Hi I don't know if this is in the right place but here goes anyway.
I'm a stay at home mum and although I don't have loads of spare time or money I wonder if any of you could offer any advice about how to invest £500? It's currently making me 4.88% in cahoot but I'm sure it could work harder for me if I did something with it. What do you reckon? Stock and shares? ebay trading? online poker? I really don't want to risk anything I can't afford to lose so £500's the limit.
ps don't mind spending a bit of time each day but it would have to be from home.

ReportInvestor

Hi kathy and welcome to the site .

If you are a non-taxpayer then you are (hopefully) getting your interest gross and already beating inflation with your savings - which is probably aim no.1 for most people.

I like regular saving into the stock market to reduce risk some of the risk of putting a lump sum into shares but with £500 charges can be sometimes be high [unless you go for index tracker funds] and thereby reduce returns.

One way round this would be £50 pm for ten months into an Investment Trust like Foreign & Colonial IT - which gives quite a broad and international spread of investments.

You could follow your investment daily on this trusnet link

And here's a link to the F&C site confirming the £50 pm possibility and the low charges

Its charges are relatively low and it runs a monthly saver scheme. There are far worse ways to dip your toe into the market, and give you an interest that will hopefully help your finances and give you the financial education to go further if you ever want to .

It's probably not worth going down the ISA route as that will incur extra charges (£60+VAT) that won't be recouped by ISA benefits in your case even over the long term.

kathy_b_2

wow thanks for that ReportInvestor. I didn't think I'd get good advice so quick. Just love this site

ReportInvestor

It's not advice, that's not allowed, it's one possible course of action open to someone thinking as you are .

Other poster may have other suggestions, but those won't be advice either.

Gorgeous_George

I'm tempted to learn more about matched betting and I'd probably start off with about £500.



GG

nsandiexpert

If you don't want to lose or risk it I would recommend something tax free, with easy access and secure.
If it was me I'd go for an ISA, Premium Bonds or Index Linked Saving Certificates (with NS&I)

Dave_P161

Gorgeous_George wrote:

I'm tempted to learn more about matched betting and I'd probably start off with about £500.



GG

It is definitely worth the effort. Do your homework before you start otherwise you may miss some opportunities.

Market_Oracle

kathy_b wrote:

Hi I don't know if this is in the right place but here goes anyway.
I'm a stay at home mum and although I don't have loads of spare time or money I wonder if any of you could offer any advice about how to invest £500? It's currently making me 4.88% in cahoot but I'm sure it could work harder for me if I did something with it. What do you reckon? Stock and shares? ebay trading? online poker? I really don't want to risk anything I can't afford to lose so £500's the limit.
ps don't mind spending a bit of time each day but it would have to be from home.

You can fix it for 1 Year at 5.8% gross , 2 years 5.94% gross, or 3 years for 6% gross.

I think these are the highest rates currently available, See my rufflerbank thread. Be quick cos I think it maybe soon withdrawn.

And don't forget the R85

SeanW

MarketOracle.co.uk wrote:

You can fix it for 1 Year at 5.8% gross , 2 years 5.94% gross, or 3 years for 6% gross.

I think these are the highest rates currently available, See my rufflerbank thread. Be quick cos I think it maybe soon withdrawn.

And don't forget the R85

You would need £20 000 though.

Dan29

Dave_P161 wrote:

It is definitely worth the effort. Do your homework before you start otherwise you may miss some opportunities.

Definitely agree about matched betting. Read this post and you could make £500 a month for a few hours' work a week.