250K, what to do with it ?

jimjames

gazpacho_uk wrote: »

thanks for the link ! I discovered yesterday that a close friend "dabbles" in S&S and he has suggested a cpl of options. I am prepared to risk an element of the money with the prospect of better gains and understand that it is a risk

It is also important to put that risk in perspective. A previous post mentioned gambling. If you get funds and a balanced portfolio I certainly don't agree it is gambling. When you gamble you have the risk of total loss of capital. If you invest correctly and use general/index funds then you have the risk of your capital dropping but the risk of it dropping to nothing is infinitely small.

For example if you have bought a FTSE 100 tracker fund then for it to drop to 0 would mean that the top 100 companies in the country had no value. If that ever happened I think the last thing on our minds would be the value of our money. Even with the global financial crisis since 2007 the FTSE dropped 50% so your investment would have done so too in a tracker. But it has risen back above the starting point again now so you would be in profit.

Another site to have a look at for reading - but not necessarily buying a S&S ISA is http://www.hl.co.uk/

gazpacho_uk

talexuser wrote: »

Just send 500 to account 1 and back out on day 1, the same 500 to account 2 and back out next day, and the same 500 to account 3 and back the day after that. That is what I do, and top up the DDs when they are paid to always have 20k in each account. That other £1000 could be earning interest elsewhere!

so in and out on teh same day wont cause any problems ? I will certainly look at that ! thanks

grizzly1911

gazpacho_uk wrote: »

so in and out on teh same day wont cause any problems ? I will certainly look at that ! thanks

I have yet to put in and take out, from/to the same external account.

I have put in from an external account and swept the surplus to an esaver on the same day.

gazpacho_uk

Thank you so far for all advice and help. I have started to get my act together and i think a plan is forming.

I decided that I wanted/needed to pay off the mortgage and stop the life insurance policies. In my mind, it is just easier to concentrate on saving and investments without a mortgage still hanging round my neck.
Additional available money each month with the cancellation of the mortgage/life insurance will be approx £800. Any ideas what I should do with this ?

Next up, is the emergency fund. We will have 3 x Santander 123 accounts each with 20K with the eligable DDs. regarding the £500 monthly deposit, I under stand that this cannot go from one 123 account to another to qualify and it must come from an external account. I have two options here that I would like opinions/advice on.
1/ £1,500 deposited into all three accounts on same day each month, then taken out and deposited into savings/investments. What would be the best strategy for this ?
2/ £500 from external account and recycled through the 123 accounts and the external account. At the end of this, the £500 then forwarded to a saving/investment account. Again, any ideas here would be much apprecaited

We will open 2 x cash ISAs and 2 x S&S ISAs between my Wife and I to the maximum allowance and repeat this at the begining of the next financial year.

I am still reading the recommended S&S information that has been suggested, but I will be looking at a lump sum of around 20K to invest over the long term

£120.000 of the windfall will go towards a new house. An offer of £160.000 has been made for our currrent property this week !

In 2017 our endowment will mature, giving us another 60K and we both have pension schemes

Our ages are 49 & 46 and we hope to retire or at least change from working full time to part time within five years ......

Does it sound like a plan or is there still a lot more work to do ?

atush

You need to have a look at a pensions calculator and also figure our your 'number' ie how much you need to live on each year.

Retiring at 54/51 on PT work sounds like a plan, but there is a whole lot of years to cover before pensions become payable so a lot of outside income is going to be needed.

Archi_Bald

atush wrote: »

but there is a whole lot of years to cover before pensions become payable

Probably not on a copper's pension.

gazpacho_uk

atush wrote: »

You need to have a look at a pensions calculator and also figure our your 'number' ie how much you need to live on each year.

Retiring at 54/51 on PT work sounds like a plan, but there is a whole lot of years to cover before pensions become payable so a lot of outside income is going to be needed.

The property we plan to purchase will be around £280.000. The idea is to downsize in 5 years or so, live off equity and savings until the pensions kick in