what would you do with 30k ?

somethingcorporate

MrInvestor wrote: »

For me personally, I would invest 60% into gold bullion (ensure you buy at a suitable price and not more than 3% above market value), 15% into emerging markets, 15% into UK based commodity companies and keep the final 10% in an ISA for a rainy day.

As an investment, ISAs are pretty useless. You earn 4% but inflation is usually at around 5% so that purchasing power of your money is actually going down. My feeling is that gold is a very safe investment (if done properly). I have seen 60% increase in value of my gold over the last two years - and I expect it to continue to rise (because of 101 reasons which would take forever to explain).

Brilliant, a gold-ramper than cannot be bothered to justify their position.

Buying into a highly priced asset that guarantees no return seems financially not very sensible, especially if this is all the savings they have. 60% exposure to any asset class I would say is extremely high risk.

Spread it out, look at using your S&S ISA allowances to spread your money across sectors and markets. Nothing to stop you putting something into gold (I have about 10%) but sticking it all into this is naive at best and taking advice from someone that doesn't want to justify their position seems like taking advice from someone down the pub.

VT82

I would put it all into that stocks and shares 1% thing. That sounds amaze-balls. Where can I get some?

dtsazza

psychic_teabag wrote: »

Is this a "structured product" or something like that ? They seem to generally frowned upon around here. (I don't know anything about them myself.)
http://www.candidmoney.com/investment/protected.aspx

It almost certainly would be.

They're not necessarily bad, but ultimately you can usually replicate them yourself for much better returns. That's assuming you're willing to give up an absolute capital guarantee for a realistically solid one - and if you're the type that needs the absolute guarantee you'd be better off in cash at 4-5% anyway. Especially as the 1% will almost certainly be 1% over the lifetime of the product, not 1% p.a.

There was a good post on this forum about how to construct one of these yourself a few months ago (quite simple, there were only two components IIRC) but I can't find it now.


Anyway, the main reason to be wary of something like this is they're almost always offered by high-street banks, which as a general rule have terribly uncompetitive products. It might turn out to be good, but assuming it's not is a good default position.

DragonQ

Deposit for a house. I'll be renting for at least another two years but after that I'll hopefully get a "permanent" job and can stop throwing money down the drain!

le_loup

Seems that my helpful advice has been deleted by the thought-police, so how about I direct you once again to the helpful articles at the top of the page, like:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/
which will get you started.
Or do you want me to read them for you and pick out the best bits?

calypso_rhapsody

This is a very odd thread ... from his fantastically fervant rating it would appear that the OP is hardly new to managing his money yet he asks a rather vague open question and then refers to what sounds like a rather suspect 'structured product' isa. There is an implication, i feel, in his initial post that he is prepared to take a risk with this money and is looking for the potential for good returns .... no idea.

But to answer his question, what would i do with it if it were mine? - probably put it in the Shawcross 18 mth fixed bond .... but i don't think that's what he wants to do!!

alexJ

It's better that you have plans as how are you going to use your money. Use your money wisely in all expense.

atush

Last I looked, no one was saying the USD would collapse. And although I believe gold can play a part in a well diversified portfolio (and I hold some) I don't agree with much of what you say (nor do we care here for implications of " I know something you dont' know" cr*p. Say what you know or shut up about it already.


So the most I would advicate the OP puts into precious metals would be 3K as 10% of their holding. The reason i didn't (and don't) is this is an unsophisticated saver/investor who is prone to debt.

fairleads

atush wrote: »

I don't agree with much of what you say (nor do we care here for implications of " I know something you dont' know" cr*p. Say what you know or shut up about it already.

Spoken like a troll?

Linton

MrInvestor wrote: »

.....
In Roman times, a noble man could purchase a hand made dress toga for the price of 1 ounce of gold. Today, you could also buy a hand made Italian suit for 1 ounce of gold. This is because the true value of gold has remained consistent for thousands of years. ...

So in 2000 years you have made zero growth in real terms. Sounds like a really good investment!

The Post office apparently has an inflation linked bond that gives 0.25% in addition - over 2000 years your 1 denarius would rise to over 140 denarii in real terms.