Taking the plunge

brasso

Trentenders wrote: »

How would you feel if you lost 30% of the money within a few weeks, especially with it being an inhertance? Why is Hargreaves the best for you - what are you looking to invest in?

Unnecessarily aggressive.

JohnRo

brasso wrote: »

Unnecessarily aggressive.

Not only that, a 30% drop in the capital valuation isn't money lost. You haven't lost any money unless you sell, and a balanced portfolio shouldn't ever require you to so, that theoretical 30% drop is why you shouldn't invest money you're likely to need in a hurry though.

esmecullen

ok thanks for the advice........... basically in answer to some questions, which I thought I'd covered previously, but apologies if I didnt

I have 2 ISA's, each with £2,500 in

a small company pension, which will cover my day to day living expenses on retirement

3 life insurance policies, 1 has a "cash back scheme" payable in 2015

I did state in my original post that my mother has left me some money............ we are looking at between £10,00 - £15,000 after the final bills are settled

my sisters and I were discussing one night the best way to invest 2/3rds of the money and it was one sister who suggested S & S ISA's and then after doing some reading thought they would be a good plan for the long term given that savings are in the doldrums

am I doing this for the wrong reason then?

I'm not saying I'd invest the whole lot into S & S ISA but a proportion of it

atush

a small company pension, which will cover my day to day living expenses on retirement

Id go over to the pension forum to ask it this will be enough to live on (as you describe it was small). 100K is getting around 5Kish per annum at the moment for instance.

Yes, if you are leaving the 5K in cash ISAs, then a S&S ISA could be a good place to put some of this money for the longer term. Spread it over a number of funds/trackers/regions.

Maybe you need to put some in cash if 5K isn't 3-6 months living expenses, and maybe you need to increase your pension savings. Not sure from what we know.

grey_gym_sock

if you're keeping enough cash for the short term, and that leaves some over for longer-term investments, then S&S ISAs and higher pension contributions are both possible options.

pensions have an advantage if (a) by contributing more, you'd also get higher employer contributions, or (b) you'd get higher rate tax relief on your contributions.

S&S ISAs have an advantage if you may want access sooner than you'd get it with a pension.

either 1 is a decent wrapper to use for longer-term investments.