What to do with 25k? Is the wife right?

Aegis

ray123 wrote: »

£10000 buy in EACH for World Series of Poker and £5000 spending money, with a chance of winning £5 million

Heh, that would be fun for me, but I'd be out of there faster than a curious puppy out of an unattended back door!

Strictly_Mad

Yes the poker idea did actually occur to me at first as I regularly win online.

Well the PBs definitely sound like a waste of money as it seems that I may as well put it under my matress for a better return.

ISAs it definitely is then. Is there an actual limit of how many ISAs you can have? I know you can only do one up to 3k a year each.

Thanks again for comments since the last.

Aegis

You can have one maxi ISA or up to two mini ISAs per year you've subscribed to the system...

In my case, for example, I have 3 over 2 years because one year I took out a mini cash ISA, then the next took out a mini cash AND a mini stocks and shares ISA.

The system should be a lot simpler as of next year, and you should be able to store more in either ISA type.

It all boils down to the fact that you can have and subscribe to one ISA at a time for cash and one at a time for stocks and shares, but if both of them are the same, that's all you get!

Steve_xx

Aegis wrote: »

You can have one maxi ISA or up to two mini ISAs per year you've subscribed to the system...

You can open only one mini cash ISA in any given tax year.

Aegis

Steve_xx wrote: »

You can open only one mini cash ISA in any given tax year.

Yes, but you can have a mini cash ISA and a mini Stocks and Shares ISA in the same year.


EDIT: ahh, you might have been correcting my poor choice of words. Yes, you can only OPEN one mini cash ISA a year, you can HAVE as many as you've opened in the past. Silly me!

chesky369

Your wife is obviously humouring your desire for a bit of a gamble, but also trying not to lose at the same time by limiting the amount at stake. What she hasn't realised is that in buying premium bonds, you ARE losing.

Browntrout_2

Strictly_Mad wrote: »

Hi all,

My wife and I have 25k to invest. She wants to put 5k in bonds as we won £50 from £100 pounds worth and then save the rest in ISAs nad savings a/cs.

I would open an ISA each and then do the dripfeed process.

OR is there a better way?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Underlined the word invest above, as unless you are talking S&S ISAs, none of the above is investing.

My better way would be to seek out a local IFA and schedule a meeting where both you and your wife can discuss and agree your requirements.

My wife still casts up investments that went awry 7 years ago....


oh btw the wife is always right

Steve_xx

Browntrout wrote: »

Underlined the word invest above, as unless you are talking S&S ISAs, none of the above is investing.

My better way would be to seek out a local IFA and schedule a meeting where both you and your wife can discuss and agree your requirements.

My wife still casts up investments that went awry 7 years ago....


oh btw the wife is always right

The problem with IFA's is that they are not always as independent as one would wish. Often they will seek to tie you into insurance/pension policies where the rake off for the IFA is advantageous.

When dealing with money matters you need to have some basic ideas of your own about where you would like to invest it. And, you need to understand fully the risks involved.

IFA's will normally like to advise based on past history of a given investment. This does not guarantee its future performance. I think a healthy dose of scepticism is needed when dealing with these advisors.

This is my opinion based on my own experience. I've not had a bad experience with an IFA, but then nor have I ever taken any of the advice offered by them!

dunstonh

The problem with IFA's is that they are not always as independent as one would wish. Often they will seek to tie you into insurance/pension policies where the rake off for the IFA is advantageous.

There has been a number of investigations in to this over the years and there has been no evidence of widespread abuse. Obviously, there are some that will but its easily avoided.

For example, agree the commission/remuneration in advance. That way, regardless of contract, the adviser gets paid the same.

IFA's will normally like to advise based on past history of a given investment. This does not guarantee its future performance. I think a healthy dose of scepticism is needed when dealing with these advisors.

That is very much a sweeping statement. Obviously past performance can come into it when you are comparing like for like and looking for consistency rather than a pot luck period. However, thats about where past performance ends it's usefulness.

This is my opinion based on my own experience. I've not had a bad experience with an IFA, but then nor have I ever taken any of the advice offered by them!

If you haven't had a bad experience and you have never taken any advice from an IFA, how can you pass judgement on the quality of advisers?

Most people in the UK have never seen an IFA. Many believe they have with research indicating that around 2/3rds of those seeing tied agents thought they were IFAs. Tied agents are the main cause of damage in the industry. IFAs get tarred with that same brush because people don't realise the difference. Plus, the term IFA is too wide ranging at the moment. Its a catchall term for a wide variety of skills and specialities. You can get one IFA that spends all their time dealing with corporate business, another doing mortgages, another doing investments. Each experts in their own field but how expert are they in other areas? I haven't placed a mortgage in over 8 years. I keep an eye on things (as company owner I have to) but I am no expert in that area. I know that and don't transact in that area personally. However, you will get some that will give it a go in areas that they are really not up to.

There are some highly skilled, highly professional advisers out there and there are some that are glorified salesmen who do all the damage and a load in between. Best not tar everyone with the same brush as the same can be said for every occupation there is.

Steve_xx

dunstonh wrote: »

There has been a number of investigations in to this over the years and there has been no evidence of widespread abuse. Obviously, there are some that will but its easily avoided.

For example, agree the commission/remuneration in advance. That way, regardless of contract, the adviser gets paid the same.



That is very much a sweeping statement. Obviously past performance can come into it when you are comparing like for like and looking for consistency rather than a pot luck period. However, thats about where past performance ends it's usefulness.



If you haven't had a bad experience and you have never taken any advice from an IFA, how can you pass judgement on the quality of advisers?

Most people in the UK have never seen an IFA. Many believe they have with research indicating that around 2/3rds of those seeing tied agents thought they were IFAs. Tied agents are the main cause of damage in the industry. IFAs get tarred with that same brush because people don't realise the difference. Plus, the term IFA is too wide ranging at the moment. Its a catchall term for a wide variety of skills and specialities. You can get one IFA that spends all their time dealing with corporate business, another doing mortgages, another doing investments. Each experts in their own field but how expert are they in other areas? I haven't placed a mortgage in over 8 years. I keep an eye on things (as company owner I have to) but I am no expert in that area. I know that and don't transact in that area personally. However, you will get some that will give it a go in areas that they are really not up to.

There are some highly skilled, highly professional advisers out there and there are some that are glorified salesmen who do all the damage and a load in between. Best not tar everyone with the same brush as the same can be said for every occupation there is.

I didn't say that there was widespread abuse. But I do think that people ought to not be too ready to entrust their financial matters, without a good basic understanding, to another.

You may be able to agree remuneration in advance but that does not preclude the IFA from offering you a deal that suits his rake-off. You may not necessarily, as a customer, be party to what the IFA obtains from any company he/she signs you up to.

I said that I had not taken advice offered by IFA's, not that I hadn't been advised by them. My assessment of the particular sets of advice offered to me was that they were lacking and when I had investigated the potential of the deal I had found it to be not as it seemed and not quite as it had been described. When I asked further probing questions, they couldn't be answered easily and one began to realise that one was being sold something by a person who was operating from a script. Therefore I felt uneasy, and that made me question the credibility of the advisor.

I'm sure that there are some excellent IFA's, and as you say, there are good and bad practitioners in all industries. I don't seek to tar everyone with the same brush. But I do advise people to research whatever they are told thoroughly and to not rely on somebody elses opinion in totality.