Independent Financial Advice

kdee_2

Hi,
I've read so much on this site but I am so confused. I really need a way of sorting through all the differing pieces of advice and I am not at all financially savvy.
Is there a way of getting sound financial advice when your savings are not at the 100k mark?
I have about 40k at the moment and it's in various low return saving's accounts - just because I haven't got a handle on what is best.
I know there is probably a way of making my money work harder for me, whether to put it in shares or better accounts so I contacted a Financial advisor, the first wasn't interested as I didn't have enough capital and the second was really expensive in relation to how much I have.
I suspect that the only way of getting independent advice IS to pay but I just wondered if there was somewhere I could actually go to - similar to the way the CAB operates that could help me with some good investment advice.
Any advice would be really helpful

badger09

1st of all, read a few of the recent posts headed

'what do I do with £xxx'
or
'I'm going to inherit £xxx'

Then come back with some basic information about yourself.

That way you'll be more likely to get some useful opinions/pointers (but not advice:cool:) from seasoned posters.

kdee_2

Thank you for this, much appreciated. I have read those and can see differing pieces of advice - I suppose what I was wondering, albeit not very well written, is whether there was a face to face service that I could visit, the same sort of principle as the CAB, or would that be down the route of paid for independent financial advisors?

SeniorSam

Possibly a chat with Hargreaves Lansdowne about what is available may help.

Sam

Radiantsoul

You could always ask your bank, but then they are going to recommend their own product.

I think you probably need to think of why you are saving, over what timeframe, can you afford to lose some of it, do you have any other savings or pension, etc.

jimjames

SeniorSam wrote: »

Possibly a chat with Hargreaves Lansdowne about what is available may help.

Sam

HL normally have a minimum limit of £100k from what I recall.

I'd suggest looking at https://www.monevator.com and then come back with any questions to clarify items of interest.

But even if you stick to savings you can do far better than low rate accounts with current accounts at the moment like Santander 123 which pays 3% on £20k

badger09

kdee wrote: »

Thank you for this, much appreciated. I have read those and can see differing pieces of advice - I suppose what I was wondering, albeit not very well written, is whether there was a face to face service that I could visit, the same sort of principle as the CAB, or would that be down the route of paid for independent financial advisors?

I would avoid banks & building societies as they can only tell you about their own products, which might not be suitable.

Not exactly face to face, but this might be a reasonable place to start?

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en

colsten

kdee wrote: »

I have about 40k at the moment and it's in various low return saving's accounts - just because I haven't got a handle on what is best.

If £40K is your total savings, you shouldn't be looking to invest £40K. You need to have some money in readily accessible cash - 6 to 12 months worth of income at least. Interest paying current accounts are excellent for this.

The rest of your money can be split between current and regular savings accounts, and longer term investments.

You can easily get your entire £40K into nice 3%, 4% and 5% current accounts, and feed some of it into 6% regular savings accounts, too. Whilst your money is earning nice interest, you can then read up about investments on Monevator.

Credit-Crunched

Radiantsoul wrote: »

You could always ask your bank, but then they are going to recommend their own product.

I think you probably need to think of why you are saving, over what timeframe, can you afford to lose some of it, do you have any other savings or pension, etc.

If you are going to ignore one piece of advice, its this one!

:rotfl: