Need some help investing

andrewthomas2008

Hi All

I've managed to save up roughly £70,000, its all in cash placed within various isas, current accounts and regular savers.

I'd like to invest in property because I want my money to start working harder for me and I'd like a passive income but I'm not sure whether I should go via the btl route. I've got a good credit rating and no debts but I'm not earning a great wage at the moment but I'm on the path of training to be an accountant so hopefully that'll change in the future.

I've seen a 3 house that's empty, I've used the land registry to find out the name and address of the order, I was thinking about writing a letter to see whether I could make a proposal to buy the property at a reasonable rate as I live in London and prices are very high. The house from the outside looks like it needs a lot of work and has been empty for at least a few years to my knowledge, probably a lot longer. I'd like to know how I should go about crafting a letter to the owner in regards to what I should include within the letter.

I also thinking of investing a monthly payment into unit trusts over a period of 10 to 15 years, would that be a good idea?

I'd like some other business or investment options I could consider taking up.

Any help provided is greatly appreciated.

Regards

Andrew

Mistermeaner

Read all the threads on here with the obvious titles of people in similar situations and come back with more specific questions; you have made very little effort and hence your thinking is confused, you haven't provided enough info and you don't know what your question is yet.

LukeHughes

Hi Andrew,

From my experience, the first question that a lot of people don't ask themselves is what interest / income they want back from their investment. If property (along with the hassle of searching, fees, tenants, furniture, maintenance and more) yields around 3-4-5% when you could be investing the money without all the hassle for around 8% (most advisors subscribe they can usually get), this should be your first consideration.

If you're looking to invest long time also, you won't get the advantage of compounding interest, the most powerful part of investing. This means you have the potential to earn a lot more from investing than in property. A lot of the time, people don't want to invest because they don't understand it or are afraid.

Also with your money, you have to think about tax and what the government are going to eat up of your profits and also if this becomes a success and a long term wealth enhancing tactic, then in the future you'll have to think about passing it down and setting you and the family up with 40% tax burdens can be a painful business.

The UK property market is good because it's liquid and prices aren't too volatile. With the economy stabilising, hopefully for the next decade, house prices should look to steadily increase, and always remember with property, it's all about: location, location, location. Properties in better proximity to things people want e.g. transport links, school, etc. will be less affected by volatile price movements.

If you want any further advice or want to bounce some ideas. I'm currently studying under a financial advisor and we work to give people ideas so they can go away and make these decisions themselves. If they choose to come with us that's great, but otherwise they just have the advantage of taking on new information and broadening their understanding of their options.

Good Luck.

Mistermeaner

^

Might be innocent and well intentioned but looks like fishing spam to me so don't contact via PM

As a supposed trainee financial adviser they have failed to ask some simple questions and offered very poor limited advice without enough info to form such advice.

Is also their first ever post.

Ignore

Keep_pedalling

I would not be putting all my savings into a single asset class such as property, assuming you already own your own home that is everything in one basket, and you also have the hassle of being a landlord.

I would be looking at shifting those cash ISAs into S&S ISAs that have funds covering a broad range of assets. You should see good growth in the long term and no CGT to pay when you sell, unlike property.

The rest of you cash you could utilise in high interest current accounts with little effort.

Mistermeaner

And what about a pension?

jimjames

andrewthomas2008 wrote: »

I also thinking of investing a monthly payment into unit trusts over a period of 10 to 15 years, would that be a good idea?

I'd like some other business or investment options I could consider taking up.

I'd say that was a better idea than buying a property. Maybe look to property once you have built up the portfolio and have your own place sorted.

andrewthomas2008

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

I would not be putting all my savings into a single asset class such as property, assuming you already own your own home that is everything in one basket, and you also have the hassle of being a landlord.

I would be looking at shifting those cash ISAs into S&S ISAs that have funds covering a broad range of assets. You should see good growth in the long term and no CGT to pay when you sell, unlike property.

The rest of you cash you could utilise in high interest current accounts with little effort.

I don't currently have my own property, I'm currently renting with my partner, so I'd like to investment the cash I have right now that could either give me a passive income and give me greater rates of return than I'm getting now.

The way I see it, is if I buy a property to live in then I'll never really benefit from the capital gains unless a downsize or move out of London.

I have an Isa with Nationwide that gives me 1.5%, club Lloyd's account that gives me 4%, tsb plus accounts 5% each, regular saver from Lloyd's 4% and bank of scot accounts 3% each.

Although I do intend to purchase a property, I may just wait until I find an amazing bargain as I live in London and I feel anything bought now is ridiculously overpriced.

andrewthomas2008

jimjames wrote: »

I'd say that was a better idea than buying a property. Maybe look to property once you have built up the portfolio and have your own place sorted.

I've watched a few documentaries raving about mutual funds ( I think they are called trust assets in the UK) where you can just invest the money without having to pick individual stocks and shares, as you're investing in a broad range of stocks and shares in a preselected package.