advice on where to invest £24k

aimex

Hi there

Anyone have any helpful advice as to where to invest £24k? It needs to be fairly easy access so was thinking £15,240 into S&S isa adding the remaining sum in April (so putting that in a current account for now). Are there any particular funds people would recommend? Have been advised that on opening a S&S isa the fee is 5% which seems pretty high to me, is this right?

Have got Santander 123 account with 20k in and my understanding is that's the max amount to get interest on that account and also got an isa but haven't used my allowance this year so that's also an option for the remainder (until april).Any thoughts gratefully received.

Xx

Aretnap

aimex wrote: »

Anyone have any helpful advice as to where to invest £24k? It needs to be fairly easy access so was thinking £15,240 into S&S isa adding the remaining sum in April

If you think you're likely to need the money in the fairly near future then a stocks and shares ISA may not be the best option, as even the "safer" types of investment can be quite volatile and your chance of losing money in any given year is fairly high. The rule of thumb is that you should consider S&S investments for money which you can afford to lock away for at least 5 years, so you can ride out the highs and lows of the market and (hopefully) make money over the long run. You can of course withdraw it sooner if you have to, but you risk having to take it out just after a big drop in the market, turning a paper loss into a real loss.

Have been advised that on opening a S&S isa the fee is 5% which seems pretty high to me, is this right?

The fee structure depends on the ISA and the funds you invest in - but a 5% fee for opening one would be unusually high. Have a look here for more typical platform fees

http://www.comparefundplatforms.com/

(there'll be fund costs as well as the platform fees to consider - typically between 0.1% pa and 1% pa depending on what type of fund you invest in)

Have got Santander 123 account with 20k in and my understanding is that's the max amount to get interest on that account

It is indeed - though other current accounts are available which pay as much if not more interest, and you're not restricted to a single current account.

and also got an isa but haven't used my allowance this year so that's also an option for the remainder (until april).Any thoughts gratefully received.

The £15240 limit applies across both cash and S&S ISAs. So you can't put £15K into a cash ISA and another £15K into a S&S ISA - it's one or the other, or a bit of both.

aimex

Thank you Aretnap some really useful comments. Will check out the site you suggested. I think as you say if the money may be needed it may be better putting jt in a current account. Will have to look further into jt. Thanks for the time you've taken to comment x

masonic

If you are interested in further current account options, you might want to check out this site put together by forum user --_Adam_--.

aimex

Great site thank you. Confused by the monthly payment amounts tho?so you have to pay dds in sum of that amount to Rach account each month?x

xylophone

Presumably you are complying with the terms of the 123 account in respect of pay in and DDs?



As to the £24,000, for example.....



TSB Classic Plus £2000

Nationwide Flexdirect £2500 (close after one year)

Club Lloyds £5000

BOS Vantage 3 accounts £5000, £5000, £4500.

The three BOS can be set up to finance each other by cross firing standing orders on the same day.

You will need 2 monthly DDs on the Club Lloyds. Then £1500 from NW to Club Lloyds and back again each month.

£500 from NW to TSB and back again each month.

Skim off the interest and pay into the "short" BOS.

You can do the paying in manually or set up SOs......

masonic

aimex wrote: »

Great site thank you. Confused by the monthly payment amounts tho?so you have to pay dds in sum of that amount to Rach account each month?x

No, if there is a requirement for DDs then they can be for any amount. The monthly payment amounts are simple transfers / standing orders that need to be set up to meet the funding requirements.