£5000 to invest...where?

belcam

My wife has £5000 to invest, can be locked away for a while...any suggestions as to the best place to put it?

FLAPJACK

I'd open a Lloyds Vantage account, it pays 3% pm easy access....all you have to do is filter 1k through the account once a month. Pay 1k in and take it out straight away.

5k is the maximum you can have in a Vantage account...anything over doesn't attract interest.

3% beats fixed rate bonds and you have esy access.

Archi_Bald

How long is "a while"? What is the money earmarked for, if at all? Do you mean invest, or save?

Are you both debt-free? How old is she? Have you got a mortgage, what is the interest rate, can you pay off any of it early? Have you got enough of an emergency fund between the two of you? What are your wife's pension arrangements?

xylophone

Open a Nationwide Flex Direct and a LLoyds and cycle the £100 through each month?
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/flexdirect/default.htm?intcmp=Intcmp_1967

dunstonh

My wife has £5000 to invest, can be locked away for a while...any suggestions as to the best place to put it?

About 50,000 options available that meet that criteria and a near unlimited number of variations. You are going to need to narrow it down more. Otherwise, just pick a number between 1 and 50,000.

archi bald asks some key questions you need to consider before responses can be considered appropriate (or not)

bigadaj

dunstonh wrote: »

About 50,000 options available that meet that criteria and a near unlimited number of variations. You are going to need to narrow it down more. Otherwise, just pick a number between 1 and 50,000.

archi bald asks some key questions you need to consider before responses can be considered appropriate (or not)

Dh, do you have them all written down and numbered?

I'm going for 13,456 which i believe is split between premium bonds, short dated gilts and Nasdaq shares (OP I am kidding of course).

dunstonh

I'm going for 13,456 which i believe is split between premium bonds, short dated gilts and Nasdaq shares (OP I am kidding of course).

There are over 25,000 options listed on the LSE alone.

belcam

Archi_Bald wrote: »

How long is "a while"? What is the money earmarked for, if at all? Do you mean invest, or save?

Are you both debt-free? How old is she? Have you got a mortgage, what is the interest rate, can you pay off any of it early? Have you got enough of an emergency fund between the two of you? What are your wife's pension arrangements?

She is 52, mortgage paid off, will have an Nhs pension having served about 23 years there but no longer paying into it, we have an emergency fund of £5000 also. Looking to invest for retirement so long term.

Archi_Bald

So it looks like you might possibly be interested in investing, and may be an S&S ISA or a SIPP would suit.

Is it fair to say you don't have experience with investing? Have you, or your wife, read any of the books on investing? There was a good selection the other day: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4752194

belcam

Archi_Bald wrote: »

So it looks like you might possibly be interested in investing, and may be an S&S ISA or a SIPP would suit.

Is it fair to say you don't have experience with investing? Have you, or your wife, read any of the books on investing? There was a good selection the other day: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4752194

My wife is one of these people who thinks of shares and instantly thinks you are likely to lose it all, stay safe with an ISA etc...myself, if it was my money, I would probably invest a good part of it in shares. I have had previous experience of shares but not recently.

dunstonh

My wife is one of these people who thinks of shares and instantly thinks you are likely to lose it al

Which is a scenario that could happen if you bought just one single company share and that company failed. However, that scenario could not happen on fund based investments (well it could but it would need every single company to fail that was held in the fund). Plus, if you go with risk profiling the investments, as you should, then you would almost certainly end up with multi-asset investments which include non-stockmarket investments. So, a total loss scenario would really only be Armageddon.

Staying "safe" with cash can be the riskier option in some areas. e.g. long term holding. You would be replacing investment risk with shortfall risk and inflation risk.