Me again, last time. Promise

Jaguar_Skills

Hello all again. I must be the most annoying newest poster in here!

Anyway I just got my bonus and I wanted to know what you thought. For those that aren't aware I go travelling next Thursday so time is critical.

My financials below:

Santander 123 current account £47,000 (I know this astronomically high for this account but I just had my bonus paid in there.

Fixed ISA £17,000 - can't do anything with it for two years.
S & S ISA £11,880 for this year.
Fund & share account £49 - I lost like £2k here following a mates advice and I had no idea what I was doing - bit like now!

Obviously the main things I am going to do is draw out another £3,000 ish for the S & S ISA for 1 July. But I then still have about £44,000 in there. I envisage I may need £6,000 for travelling. So call it £10,000 taking out for travelling and topping up S&S.

What should I do with remaining £17,000? Should I put it in my Fund and Share account? Invest it? I really don't want to lose that money really although I could stick it in some managed funds which are likely to be relatively low risk?

Or just a cash savings account so I can withdraw in 18 months to use for deposit on a house?

Does that all make sense? Can anyone help?

TCA

Jaguar_Skills wrote: »

What should I do with remaining £17,000? Should I put it in my Fund and Share account? Invest it? I really don't want to lose that money really although I could stick it in some managed funds which are likely to be relatively low risk?

Or just a cash savings account so I can withdraw in 18 months to use for deposit on a house?

Stock market investments should really only be considered over at least a 5 year timescale. If you don't want to risk losing any of your money and want access to it in 18 months, then don't invest in stocks and shares.

There are plenty threads on here about cash savings options. I'd go that route.

Jaguar_Skills

Thanks. I will probably start with using the ISA for the £15,000 then.

Do you have any links to cash options? Are any of these cash options available through Hargreaves Landsdowne, the platform I use...

Look forward to other opinions.

Thanks again.

Jaguar_Skills

Also I read somewhere I can have two Santander 123 accs?

Could I stick the £17,000 in my joint account with my girlfriend? I.e. get the 3% on basically two accounts up to £20,000?

TCA

Jaguar_Skills wrote: »

Thanks. I will probably start with using the ISA for the £15,000 then.

Do you have any links to cash options? Are any of these cash options available through Hargreaves Landsdowne, the platform I use...

Look forward to other opinions.

Thanks again.

Also I read somewhere I can have two Santander 123 accs?

Could I stick the £17,000 in my joint account with my girlfriend? I.e. get the 3% on basically two accounts up to £20,000?

You're very unlikely to get decent rates for holding cash within a stocks and shares ISA on a platform like HL. And cash ISA rates aren't great either. As is often posted on here, you get better rates with some current accounts, like your Santander 123 account.

There are tons of threads entitled "where best to save x amount" or similar. Read those or use the search facility. A very quick google will give you all the answers to the questions re your Santander 123 account but I'm sure there's a thread here on that also if it's not mentioned in the umpteen threads on cash savings alternatives.

Jaguar_Skills

TCA wrote: »

You're very unlikely to get decent rates for holding cash within a stocks and shares ISA on a platform like HL. And cash ISA rates aren't great either. As is often posted on here, you get better rates with some current accounts, like your Santander 123 account.

There are tons of threads entitled "where best to save x amount" or similar. Read those or use the search facility. A very quick google will give you all the answers to the questions re your Santander 123 account but I'm sure there's a thread here on that also if it's not mentioned in the umpteen threads on cash savings alternatives.

Thanks again.

What I meant was I am going to be putting the cash in the S and S Isa into managed funds. A better option I think?

JohnRo

Jaguar_Skills wrote: »

Thanks again.

What I meant was I am going to be putting the cash in the S and S Isa into managed funds. A better option I think?

With an 18 month horizon?

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me personally. You might also get lucky of course but it's a huge risk for money you can't afford to "lose" in the short term.

TCA

Jaguar_Skills wrote: »

What I meant was I am going to be putting the cash in the S and S Isa into managed funds. A better option I think?

TCA wrote: »

Stock market investments should really only be considered over at least a 5 year timescale. If you don't want to risk losing any of your money and want access to it in 18 months, then don't invest in stocks and shares.

Managed funds are still invested in the stock market, so still carry a level of risk. You could however select a fund with the lowest possible risk (as close as you can get to cash) and that would allow you to use your ISA allowance. But that is perhaps counter intuitive if you want access to that money in 18 months anyway.

Jaguar_Skills

I don't think I am that likely to need the ISA money. My cash in joint acc and current acc will be fine for my deposit so I may give the s and s a go for the long term.

I also will be working when am in oz for my current employer so should tide me over.