Standard Life shares

coolasacucumber

I've been sorting out finances etc over the last few months... One thing that I haven't considered yet, is:-


I have 197 Standard Life shares, valued at £756. In the last 12 months I've received dividend payments of £31.12 (about 4%)


I don't have any other shares, any debt that needs paying off, or a mortgage (yet) to overpay on.


If the shares were sold, is there any better way to use/invest the relatively small amount, or would it be best leaving it where it is?


Thanks

eskbanker

Only you can answer that question! Another way of phrasing it would be 'I have £756, should I invest it in a single share that has paid divis at 4% or should I put it elsewhere?' and so there are almost infinite possibilities, depending on attitude to risk, timescales, other savings, pensions, tax position, employment, etc. For what it's worth, I have these shares too and am not in any hurry to sell but our financial circumstances are bound to differ in many ways....

coolasacucumber

Thanks for the reply. I know it comes down ultimately to what I want to do with it...


I've just been reading a few other posts about saving, leading me to maybe add a further question:-


I thought (before reading MSE) that I was doing the right thing of having my £1k savings in an ISA, now it seems that one of these high interest current accounts would be better?


My wife & I are adding (albeit not a great deal) money each month to the ISA.


We are both self employed and work part time. We don't earn a lot, and don't spend a lot either, which suits us fine. I would like the little that we have to be doing as much as it can be though!


If there isn't a blindingly obvious better choice for the SL shares, I shall leave them be.

eskbanker

Along with many others on here I'd recommend high-interest current accounts rather than ISAs in the current market, there's a handy guide at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-loophole

coolasacucumber

Thank you... TSB Classic Plus account just opened!

wearside_2

coolasacucumber wrote: »

I've been sorting out finances etc over the last few months... One thing that I haven't considered yet, is:-


I have 197 Standard Life shares, valued at £756. In the last 12 months I've received dividend payments of £31.12 (about 4%)


I don't have any other shares, any debt that needs paying off, or a mortgage (yet) to overpay on.


If the shares were sold, is there any better way to use/invest the relatively small amount, or would it be best leaving it where it is?


Thanks

The news today is great for Stand Life Share holders. Not only has the share price increased by about 10% to £4.17 but the company have said that it returning capital of 73p per share to shareholders following receiving £2.2 Billion from selling it's Canadian business to Manulife. What exactly this means will become clear but it is good news for a change.:j:j

anoncol

Ace news, I too have shares here. Got similar dividends this year.

Spidernick

I have Standard Life shares (as a result of a p*ss-poor performing endowment) and have opted for the dividend reinvestment scheme. If you don't need the cash that might be the best way to go as you should build up the value fairly significantly over time.

vectistim

I wondered why the share price seemed to have jumped.

jimjames

For anyone holding shares in a single company, SL or any other, you need to be aware of the risks. Not suggesting that SL could go belly up or anything but no-one expected to lose the money they had in RBS or B&B shares.

I sold mine and reinvested in a tracker fund which diversified the risk substantially. The fund still dropped in 2008/9 but didn't go to nothing as B&B did.

vectistim

Certainly I was having dividend re-investment, changed over to receiving the payments instead a couple of years ago.
A quick back of an envelope calculation suggests that Standard Life is now about 2% of my total.