Advise about buying a property and investments

papafrita

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advise as I have some money that I want to put to good use (rather than sitting in the bank) and some investment plans that I have in mind.

To start with, I don't have any debts, earn around 60k and have around 50k saved in the back, between a santander 123 account and an cash ISA (which I want to move somewhere else, as they are reducing the interest to almost nothing). I have a pension to which I put 5% of my salary (as well as 5% from my employer) every month. I don't have very expensive hobbies and usually am very conscious about where my money goes, but I need to keep an eye on my spending, otherwise I end up spending on things that I regret (like music and eating out, not really much, but I reckon I could live without those!)

My brother and I own a property in Spain that belonged to my dad, which we've been renting it out for a few years. Now we are in the process of selling it and that could possibly give me around £50-60k, which I guess puts me in a good position to get a house for myself. I see a house as an investment, but I'd like to do it mainly because I'm tired of spending money on renting a property, when that money goes nowhere. Now, I live in London and prices here are ludicrous to say the least, but, well, that's what there is here, so I'll have to adapt. Ideally I'd like to find something where I can live and it's not too far away so that I don't have to spend most of my free hours commuting (which to me is soul crushing), and also something I could possibly sell/rent if the possibility of going back to my home country arises.

Regardless of buying a house in the next few months, I've been looking at investing some of my money via Stocks and Shares ISA. I've been looking at HL Discount Brokers to invest in one of their managed funds with an initial lump sum and then getting a regular income into it, with the objective of growing it long term. It seems they cancel the initial %5 fee (although it's not clear to me that they do the same with the monthly payments).

So, given these ideas/plans I have in mind, I'd like to have any sort of advise whether this sounds good or not. I'm happy to do some learning and am happy to experiment a bit with things. I am reading up on investments and mortgages, and am feeling a bit overwhelmed (even on this forum) by all that there is to read, so any advise would be highly appreciated :-)

Thanks!

papafrita

Anyone? :-)

brasso

You are looking for ADVICE (noun), not ADVISE (verb).

:mad:

Sorry, but that winds me up so much, I couldn't get beyond your first sentence.

cte1111

If I were you, I would wait until you have the lump sum from your Dad's property, then use that plus most of your savings as a deposit on a property to live in. This will put you in the best position to get good mortgage deals.

I wouldn't look at other investments for now, just keep an emergency fund of 3-6 months salary in the 123 account (or an ISA if you think you will spend it if it in your current account).