How to invest £40 a month?

Maddy25

ColdIron wrote: »

You want to put some money away for the next 5 years, risk free, does not allow early withdrawals and you don't know about 'investments and stuff'

The sort of thing you are looking at carries significant risk, let's you get at your money at any time and requires considerably more knowledge than you have now

I would suggest you sit back and decide what you really want

If you read my previous posts, I've moved on from 5 years. And i think I've got the idea now that risk-free is not possible.

matttye

Maddy25 wrote: »

Okay I am really confused:huh: now

Is this any good or not:

http://www.sit.co.uk/products/stockplan/

No minimum term, meaning you can take your money out whenever you want.

Probably no good if you lack willpower.

Maddy25

Thank you all for your replies. This is not as easy as I thought, for now I'll stick with a current account!

Drp8713

You pay as long as you want, but anything less than 10 years carries more risk, you have to have discipline to leave it alone as well.


A low cost, diversified investment trust is a good place to invest. You seem like the biggest threat to the idea, so set up the direct debit and don't look at it for 10 years and you'll be fine. If you are going to look at it after 3 years notice its less than you've paid in, then sell it you shouldn't be investing.

dale_cotterill

Maddy25 wrote: »

So are these investment plans, like the Scottish one, 10 years long or do I have to somehow close them myself after 10 years?

In theory you could enter and exit them at whatever point you wanted, at the value of the investment at the given time. Could be up, could be down.

Investing in something you don't understand is in my opinion always an unwise idea so you would be much better off sticking to something you know.

Open a TSB Bank account (the one that pays 5% interest up to 2k) , set up a standing order to pay £500 to in each month (the amount required to qualify for the interest, and then set a standing order to send 450 of it back to your own account the next day. (That will be your £50 of savings dealt with)

That should keep you fine for the next 40 months, and if anything better comes on the market in that timescale you can instantly move to that and 'lock in' if required.

Maddy25

dale_cotterill wrote: »

In theory you could enter and exit them at whatever point you wanted, at the value of the investment at the given time. Could be up, could be down.

Investing in something you don't understand is in my opinion always an unwise idea so you would be much better off sticking to something you know.

Open a TSB Bank account (the one that pays 5% interest up to 2k) , set up a standing order to pay £500 to in each month (the amount required to qualify for the interest, and then set a standing order to send 450 of it back to your own account the next day.

That should keep you fine for the next 40 months, and if anything better comes on the market in that timescale you can instantly move to that and 'lock in' if required.

So, my main current account is Barclays, if I get them to transfer say on the 1st of every month to the TSB, account, and then the TSB to send £450 back on the 2nd?

matttye

Maddy25 wrote: »

So, my main current account is Barclays, if I get them to transfer say on the 1st of every month to the TSB, account, and then the TSB to send £450 back on the 2nd?

Yeah but do it manually if you're going to do that.

Otherwise do the transfer to TSB on the 1st and the transfer back on the 5th or something, to make sure it has plenty of time to reach the account.

planteria

perhaps look at a combination of a Cash Regular Saver and an Investment. the latter would involve some risk, but it can be very little.

Better_Call_Saul

A place to start could be First Direct. Switch bank account to them get £100 for switching then take advantage of there regular savings account for year 1 at 6%. Interest rates will have gone up by then and the savings scene might look a bit different. You will need the willpower not to take it out though. Edit: you can't withdraw from reg saver for 12 months.

planteria

good username

yes, i was thinking HSBC, as i use the Premier Regular Saver, and First Direct is the alternative to that.