21 year old recently Inherited 7 figure sum - advise?

Eco_Miser

Commiserations on losing the source of your good fortune.
Your posts so far seem eminently sensible. Well done.

Bowlhead and others have already given you very good advice, I'll just re-iterate to put your cash into National Savings & Investments as a totally safe, though low-interest, place until you have taken your time to consider your options. You could also look at opening a high-interest current account with the likes of TSB, Nationwide, Lloyds for your spending money.

Al.

No race is ever won in the first bend but many can be lost there. Bank the money safely, and come to terms with it before making any decisions. Finish your education, take time to reflect.

Good luck.

Malthusian

patanne wrote:

This is extremely good advice. If you, for example, buy a flat and want a lodger because you don't like living alone, try something like a family member is letting you have it for a smaller than usual rent.

I would never go down that route. It's a very easy lie to get caught out in, and once you do it harms your friendship if nothing else. They may even wonder if you got the money through drugs or a pyramid scheme or something. Even when you say "Actually it was an inheritance" they'll think "That must be another lie, he could have told me that to start with".

In that situation I would be quite open that the flat was mine. If the lodger asked "how did you afford it at your age?" I would say "I was lucky enough to receive an inheritance". If they said "who was it from?" I'd probably tell them. If they said "How much did they give you?" I'd say "None of your business." (Or, if you want a polite variant, "Not enough to quit my job and go yachting round the world *wry smile*", which is 100% true and tells them nothing.)

That forestalls the "Because if you could just lend me..." brigade without any deception at all.

Lornally

Thank you all for the input, I've learnt more from all of you participating in this post than I did scouring the internet for the past few days! What I've gathered so far:

- Find a good IFA
- Take some time off from all of this and come back with a new perspective
- Don't mash any decisions on a whim
- Don't tell everyone
- Don't put all my eggs in one basket
- Learnt some new lingo too

Can anyone expand a little on 'National Savings and Investments' I'd never come across this until now, it seems like a great, safe way to just keep the capital locked away

JohnRo

Lornally wrote: »

- Don't tell everyone

The advice given was don't tell anyone who doesn't absolutely need to know the details. I'd really try and stick to that rule personally.

Al.

Lornally,

Backed by the g'ment, so as institutionally as safe as you can reasonably get.. there are a few various products in there that you might find useful. You don't need to start taking strategy decisions just yet, but neither do you want to worry about losing money or experiencing fluctuations in portfolio value either.

http://www.nsandi.com/our-products

duchy

Not financial advice but if you've a yen to travel -check out your SU for volunteer ops abroad in the long vacation. Alternatively if that sounds a bit too adventurous to start with check out Trek America or Contiki tours .

Does your course have a year or semester spent abroad either in work placement or at an exchange uni ? Might be worth investigating.

(Not sure I'd bother with a car if studying in London - Taxis when needed and hire a car if spending time outside of London in vacation time is probably more cost effective)

ispookie666

my 2 cents - please spread the money out in different accounts and dont go gloating around

bowlhead99

duchy wrote: »

Not financial advice but if you've a yen to travel

If he/she has 7 figures in pound sterling, thats somewhere between about 170 million and 1.7 billion yen.