I want to invest 40K. Where's best?

Chelmsford_Bird

Is it possible to turn my £40K sterling into euros until the exchange rate drops?

MarkBargain

It's possible, but what if the exchange rate goes the other way and you lose loads of money?

eskbanker

Chelmsford_Bird wrote: »

I want to invest 40K

What you're calling 'investing' is more commonly referred to as 'currency speculation' or even just plain 'gambling', in that you could just as easily turn your £40K into £30K as £50K. Do you believe you have some exclusive knowledge about the direction of the money markets?

MEM62

What makes you think that the rate will drop? Do you know something we don't?

dunstonh

Your thread title says one thing but your post says another. Can you clarify what exactly you are wanting or planning to do with the money and if you are a UK resident?

bowlhead99

Chelmsford_Bird wrote: »

Is it possible to turn my £40K sterling into euros until the exchange rate drops?

Yes of course it is possible to convert sterling into euros and back again later. Converting it first one way and then the other will result in a cost to you and a profit to the currency broker. Also the resulting cash on deposit in Euros instead of in sterling is likely to yield lower interest rates, because UK rates are higher than Eurozone rates.

Therefore, for sterling to weaken sufficiently to make you a profit in real terms on reconversion, to overcome the costs and opportunity costs, you could potentially be waiting some time. The next time the 'exchange rate drops' may be after a period of time in which it increases first, so that it can drop and still not go below today's rate.

So, the time until the exchange rate drops sufficiently may be multiple decades and if you need the money you might have to give up waiting and take a loss.

Chelmsford_Bird

I am a UK resident. I want to put £40k away for my future and I was wondering where is best to put it. Then it occurred to me that if I turn it into Euros as the rate is very good at the mo it might be a good way of increasing it but I don't know about these things which is why I threw it out for debate.

Someone else has suggested premium bonds. Possibly won't make more that 1% but always a chance I could get more. Or just stick with a good old fashioned savings account??

Chelmsford_Bird

eskbanker wrote: »

What you're calling 'investing' is more commonly referred to as 'currency speculation' or even just plain 'gambling', in that you could just as easily turn your £40K into £30K as £50K. Do you believe you have some exclusive knowledge about the direction of the money markets?

No I have no knowledge, thats why I asked the question. I had some good advice about this and have decided against it. thanks.

jimjames

Chelmsford_Bird wrote: »

Someone else has suggested premium bonds. Possibly won't make more that 1% but always a chance I could get more. Or just stick with a good old fashioned savings account??

Or invest it in the stock market in a balanced fund? If it's not money you need then there seems little point keeping it as cash savings.

eskbanker

Usual advice here is to ensure that you first ring-fence a readily-accessible emergency fund that would keep you going for six months and then beyond that consider balanced investments if you're not going to need access for 10+ years. Whatever you do keep in cash form, make sure you make the most of it by using regular savers and current accounts that offer interest way in excess of what you'd get from traditional savings accounts or Premium Bonds, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account for starters....

dunstonh

Chelmsford_Bird wrote: »

I am a UK resident. I want to put £40k away for my future and I was wondering where is best to put it. Then it occurred to me that if I turn it into Euros as the rate is very good at the mo it might be a good way of increasing it but I don't know about these things which is why I threw it out for debate.

Someone else has suggested premium bonds. Possibly won't make more that 1% but always a chance I could get more. Or just stick with a good old fashioned savings account??

You started a thread on the 29th Nov. please stick with your own thread rather than hijacking someone elses. Plus, its not fair on other posters who give their time to respond to your post to ignore them and try again on a new thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5369862