8-10K to save. Advice needed

geeovana

HI

I am currently a student in my third year of an engineering degree. I have had a 4% fixed rate ISA holding money for two years that matures in March 2014. This was maxed out and will give me nearly six thousand in March. I also have roughly 4 thousand saved from summer placements and things.

I do play on-line poker in my spare time and have been making a steady profit (after many months of not) :eek: for a few months now. I was going to deposit x amount of money to start playing higher stakes but I have decided not to now and just carry on building up that bankroll from what I have.

So I now need somewhere to put this money for a year while I do my Final Masters year but all the ISA's interest rates are now so low that it just seems pointless and I would have money left over after filling up the ISA. I was thinking a stocks and shares ISA with the higher saving limit. How much of a risk do these pose? Can anyone recommend anything else to do with the money?

Any advice welcome

Regards
Graeme

pip895

Provided you are investing for the long term SS Isa should be a good option www.hl.co.uk are good but not the cheapest option - plenty of others mentioned on the forum. Compared to online gambling you should consider it pretty safe.:rotfl:

geeovana

Thanks for the advice

I know a lot of people are going to laugh at the poker thing but thought I would mention it just to explain why I am wondering where to put my money now.

I really wanted to just invest it somewhere for a year so when I leave University I have the money in case I need it.

tight_is_right

Good decision to build the poker roll through play rather than external sources. If I can offer any advice it would be to stay humble and not try for too much too quickly. A big ego will ruin any chance you have of doing well at poker and it's difficult to spot this in yourself. E.g. it's very easy to want to move up if you have a few good winning months but moving back down if things don't go well is tough. If you've not been playing long don't underestimate how swingy this game is - winning consistently at online poker is very tough these days compared to 5-10 years ago.

Ignore the 'online gambling is bad mmkay' posts and provided you stay disciplined you'll do fine. Also recognise that you'll make a ton more money and be many times more satisfied with a good job related to your degree - so don't neglect that now chasing a dream that isn't gonna happen. Poker can be a great hobby but you probably don't want to make it your life.

geeovana

tight_is_right wrote: »

Good decision to build the poker roll through play rather than external sources. If I can offer any advice it would be to stay humble and not try for too much too quickly. A big ego will ruin any chance you have of doing well at poker and it's difficult to spot this in yourself. E.g. it's very easy to want to move up if you have a few good winning months but moving back down if things don't go well is tough. If you've not been playing long don't underestimate how swingy this game is - winning consistently at online poker is very tough these days compared to 5-10 years ago.

Ignore the 'online gambling is bad mmkay' posts and provided you stay disciplined you'll do fine. Also recognise that you'll make a ton more money and be many times more satisfied with a good job related to your degree - so don't neglect that now chasing a dream that isn't gonna happen. Poker can be a great hobby but you probably don't want to make it your life.

Thanks great post! Yes I wasn't very disciplined at first and lost some money but dropped down to lowest stakes and fewer tables and just started grinding. Absolutely love it but I limit play per day now to concentrate on my studies. I have already served an advanced apprenticeship and have a hnc in Mech. Engineering with summer placements at Unilever and the like so I hope to do quite well after coming out of University.

Currently researching in buying shares at the minute and the stock market but have no where near enough knowledge to put my own money into it.

Archi_Bald

geeovana wrote: »

I really wanted to just invest it somewhere for a year so when I leave University I have the money in case I need it.

If you want your money in a year, investing is not for you. Stick with savings.

Even if you could afford a longer timescale, you shouldn't start investing before you have a decent emergency cash sum available. Decent is some 6-12 months living expenses, though some people chance it with 3 months.

ChesterDog

I agree with Tight about the poker.
I dabbled with it for a while before switching to backgammon.
Discipline is the key, and not overextending yourself. Once you feel you can beat somebody easily you will get into trouble. My view is that, played appropriately and at low stakes, these things can make an absorbing hobby that creates a little cash.

But you MUST never throw good money after bad looking for an 'inevitable' win.
Set yourself a loss limit. If you exceed it, no more playing for a month.

It is not relevant to Saving and Investing though, of course. :-)

Porcupine

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If you want your money in a year, investing is not for you. Stick with savings.

Even if you could afford a longer timescale, you shouldn't start investing before you have a decent emergency cash sum available. Decent is some 6-12 months living expenses, though some people chance it with 3 months.

I don't disagree, but I'd say keep on with the research and maybe start a token investment (£50 a month into a S&S ISA perhaps), just to get some experience. You obviously have a tolerance for risk, which is a different starting point to many people ('OMG! I'm down 50p from last week! I'm never trusting a bank again!'), though you need to understand the different levels of risk (buying a single company's shares is probably too high risk in the first instance, stick with funds to start with).

The reason I say this is that you're going to get a job with a pension, and you'll need to know what to do about that. The other is that starting investing in your 20s can make a huge difference to the amount of pension you'll end up with compared to starting later, so if you're well equipped to deal with it you can make the most of this critical period. So, if you have some time for research and a little cash to spare, it's a great time to start.

dryhat

Buy yourself some Bitcoin.

Archi_Bald

dryhat wrote: »

Buy yourself some Bitcoin.

This is the sort of advice you would get from a worried Bitcoin owner who needs to talk up the price.

Happy New Year!

dryhat

Archi_Bald wrote: »

This is the sort of advice you would get from a worried Bitcoin owner who needs to talk up the price.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to you too.

2014 is going to be another fantastic year for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

The OP would be wise to follow my advice.