best way to invest £150k for risk obverse 60 year old

gadgetmind

dunstonh wrote: »

We then see that he thinks a financial adviser recommended zero dividend preference shares and he lost money on those. These are high risk and most financial advisers do not go near these with retail clients.

Many advisers were steering clients into zeros during the late 90s until it all blew up in 2001/2002. I remember reading about people in their 80s who'd seen their "as safe as cash" investments of £6k in Aberdeen High Income drop to a value of £150 very quickly. Let's hope they didn't get steering into precipice bonds or arch cru to try and make it back! Still, at least they'll have had their FSAVCs to fall back on ...

Some of the fines couldn't have gone to nicer people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2004/jun/11/splitcapitalinvestmenttrusts.money

On the other hand, I know a lot of people who did very well from them by (selectively!) buying zeros after the advisers had fled with the mis-selling hounds snapping at their heels.

They now typically return around the same as corporate bonds but as capital gains, which is handy for some folk.

atush

anniekassier wrote: »

Ｉ　ｓｕｇｇｅｓｔ　ｙｏｕ　buy a property in fixed interest

I suggest you be more clear?

I think that PB are fun, but not a reliable investment so I would rec only emergency cash in them say a few hundred to a few-up to 10K.

I say that equities are very different from the preference shares you were sold, and in fact regular investment trust shares are some of my favourites- with which I have actually earned money over these last 5 volatile years.

I would say you need a mix of cash and investments, some easy access cash some fixed term, some equity income funds, some invesment trusts over all.

but mostly you need to think about giving us more info about you and your situation overall if you want anything other than vague suggestions.

There is no way you will be getting 6.5% or more from cash investments these days. And your personal inflation may well be above the headline rate, so you need to earn almost that much just to keep pace with inflation so would mean no spending for holidays at all?

RetiredInThailand

nb73 wrote: »

A 10 year UK government bond currently yields 1.74%, is this the benchmark for low risk return at the moment?

I would say that's a poor return with significant likelihood of the capital value dropping when interest rates rise. I would not buy gilts today, unless I had untold millions that I just couldn't put anywhere else that was secure.

Don't get an annuity for the same reason.

Private investors can get up to 4.5% (before tax) on 5-year deposits from various UK banks, and these are guaranteed up to 85K by the UK government. No real risk of the capital value dropping there.

flittermouse

Thanks for all your comments and advice. You have certainly opened my eyes and I thank you for that.