what to do with £5k

oxford_yellow

hi,

so i have £5k disposable cash that i want to take out of a full cash ISA i have with Natwest, and see if i can make more than the interest im getting currently.

im looking for anything from quick 1-2years to 5 years plus and happy with the risk of losing partial/the lot.

any advice greatly appreciated

Al.

Firstly, whatever the merits of the amount of risk you can afford to take, consider keeping it in the ISA wrapper - but as an investment (or Stocks and Shares) ISA. Again, without casting thought on the merits (or otherwise) of the quality and nature of the investment advice service that Nat West is able to offer you, have you asked them about this?

http://www.natwest.com/personal/investments/g3/help-and-guides/guide-to-isas.ashx#tab-section3

bowlhead99

If you just want more than you currently get from your Nat West ISA, you can stick it in high interest current accounts with TSB and Nationwide for 5%. They only pay interest on relatively small balances so you would need two of them. If you only want one account you can use Lloyds at 4%.

If you would like to earn a lot more than 5% and are willing to risk losing the lot, go to a casino and put it on red or black at roulette or a couple of hands of blackjack. You have almost a 50% chance of virtually doubling your money in one minute which is better than waiting 1-2 years. Or you might lose the lot, but you say you're willing to do that.

If the '5 years plus' means more like 10 or 15 years you could consider investment funds. Or if you do just mean 5 years you could still use investment funds, but there wouldn't be a particularly stronger chance of making money more than losing it over a short timescale like that, because they are long term products.

inflationbuster

oxford_yellow wrote: »

im looking for anything from quick 1-2years to 5 years plus and happy with the risk of losing partial/the lot.

Stock market if you're high risk and want far better returns.

Plenty of shares yielding high rates of return from the FTSE 100, here's two to wet your appetite.

HSBC Annual div yield (IAD) 6.70%

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=HSBA:LSE

BP Annual div yield (IAD) 7.77%

http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=BP.:LSE

Pincher

Seconded on the HSBC and BP.

I am moving £20k into an S&S ISA as we type.

Bought some HSBA at 580p. At ~500p, it's a steal.

Or am I pumping and dumping the moment you buy? :cool:

I was working towards 2.0% on £40k+ in the First Direct Cash ISA.
They lowered it to around 1.4% the moment I reached it.
Switched to HSBC Loyalty Cash ISA for 1.5%, and now it's 1.4%.

It's roughly 40cent a year, which is about 26pence dividend a year.
I work it out to be 26/500=5.2% .
5.2/1.4 = 3.7 times.

Hang the risk, give me. give me, give me.

brasso

bowlhead99 wrote: »

If you just want more than you currently get from your Nat West ISA, you can stick it in high interest current accounts with TSB and Nationwide for 5%. They only pay interest on relatively small balances so you would need two of them. If you only want one account you can use Lloyds at 4%.

If you would like to earn a lot more than 5% and are willing to risk losing the lot, go to a casino and put it on red or black at roulette or a couple of hands of blackjack. You have almost a 50% chance of virtually doubling your money in one minute which is better than waiting 1-2 years. Or you might lose the lot, but you say you're willing to do that.

If the '5 years plus' means more like 10 or 15 years you could consider investment funds. Or if you do just mean 5 years you could still use investment funds, but there wouldn't be a particularly stronger chance of making money more than losing it over a short timescale like that, because they are long term products.

I disagree. Your advice on the bank accounts would be good if the OP said he/she was very cautious.

The OP wants to move the cash out of a cash ISA and wants a bit of risk in the hope of a bigger gain. 4 or 5% in a current account won't cut it.

And the casino doesn't seem like a reasonable sole alternative.

Keeping the money in the ISA wrapper, how about investing in something like IUKD, the fund that invests in the top 50 or so high-yield stocks in the FTSE 250? I've done well with it. The yield is fairly predictable + you get the capital growth.

For much lower charges, there's the Vanguard LifeStrategy 100%.

No one can predict the future but I reckon that these are reasonable bets (and they are essentially bets) over 1-2 years, especially as we've seen the markets dip this year, and even better bets over 5 years.

Mind you, a gain of say 100% might normally sound really excellent but the extra £5K gained is hardly life-changing. It's the cost of a half decent long-haul holiday for 2.

Yeah, maybe that casino isn't a bad idea after all. At least you get the result straightaway.

Playing_with_Fire_2

A cheap online S&S ISA in index funds (such as the Vanguard 100% or 80%) will have a high chance of doing better than the current accounts over 5 years and a low chance of going to zero like if you put it on red or black.

Well done on saving (/not spending) this £5k.