How much money would i need to invest to make a very good return?

Got2Save

I am looking for investment advice. I have never invested money into anything before now, but i really want to start doing so in order to try and make good returns. I have a little saved up (£3000+) and am looking into the best possible way to make a return from this. Which investments would i need to make with such a little amount? Is it even worth my time to invest an amount so small? I am continuing to save and build up my savings amount.

silver145

as most people on here would recommend, with amount, look at the 3/4/5/6% interest savings/current accounts that are currently available

Archi_Bald

You should have an emergency fund in cash savings before you consider investments. 6-12 months living expenses is what's usually suggested.

HappyMJ

Got2Save wrote: »

I am looking for investment advice. I have never invested money into anything before now, but i really want to start doing so in order to try and make good returns. I have a little saved up (£3000+) and am looking into the best possible way to make a return from this. Which investments would i need to make with such a little amount? Is it even worth my time to invest an amount so small? I am continuing to save and build up my savings amount.

£3,000 is a good amount to put into current accounts and regular saver accounts and get up to 6% interest. Anything else would risk your capital and as £3,000 (I keep £5,000) is needed to cover emergencies I would want to keep it 100% safe.

Best investment I made was buying a house at the right time. Worst investment I made was investing in stocks and shares (I lost the lot). My pension is performing less than I expected and have not much more in the account than I have put in taking inflation into account. I no longer contribute to my pension account as I don't see the point of it any more.

eskbanker

HappyMJ wrote: »

Worst investment I made was investing in stocks and shares (I lost the lot).

Apologies if you've already posted about this somewhere but are you able and willing to expand on this cautionary tale if it's not too painful (your signature would suggest you recovered well!)?

There are always plenty of people on here rightly advocating diversification but real-life stories from credible posters illustrating how it's possible to lose everything on more specific investments would carry some weight - what did you invest in, why and what happened?

bigfreddiel

As returns are usually quoted as a percentage, it makes no difference how much you invest.

Say the return is 3%, well whether you invest £1 or £1,000,000 the return will still be 3%

Hope that helps fj

Dan83

Put £2500 in nationwide, you get 5% interest for 12months.

Put £500 in TSB, you get 5% interest.

Transfare it every month back and forth between accounts to meet the minimum pay-in's.

When your 12 months intro rate runs out in nationwide, shut it down and move money to TSB.

There could be a loads of different accounts out in 12 months, do decide then what to do with the extra money.

Keep an eye out aswell because new offers come out all the time and you need to keep your money in the highest paying account you can to get max back.

jimjames

The smaller your amount the better the return you can get

With £1000 you can make 12.5% effective interest with TSB and Halifax. If you only had £500 then it's 20%

5% interest on £1000 = £50 + £75 (gross) from Halifax
5% on £500 = £25 + £75 (gross) from Halifax

Eco_Miser

Dan83 wrote: »

Transfare

Are you in Geordieland?
I ask because a Transfare is an inter-modal ticket available for a single journey within Tyne and Wear, according to Wikipedia, and I was wondering if this is why you consistently mis-spell transfer.

Got2Save wrote: »

I am looking for investment advice.

We're not allowed to give investment advice. We can, however, comment and make suggestions.

Got2Save wrote: »

I have never invested money into anything before now, but i really want to start doing so in order to try and make good returns. I have a little saved up (£3000+) and am looking into the best possible way to make a return from this. Which investments would i need to make with such a little amount? Is it even worth my time to invest an amount so small? I am continuing to save and build up my savings amount.

Investing in diversified funds within a Stocks & Shares ISA, can be expected to give an average return of 3-4% above inflation. However within that average will be falls of 20% and even 50% of the value of your investment, and rises of similar size.

Until you have cash to cover all your expected outgoings (like holidays, home improvements, better car) and at least six months spending money (to tide you over if you're out of work, etc.) you are definitely better looking at bank accounts paying from 3% to 6% - similar returns with no risk to your capital.

Meanwhile read up on investing - threads here, http://monevator.com/, Tim Hale's book Smarter Investing and a load of other resources, so when the time is right, you will have some idea of what to do, or at least know the right questions to ask.

BarleyGB

Archi_Bald wrote: »

You should have an emergency fund in cash savings before you consider investments. 6-12 months living expenses is what's usually suggested.

Why? That sounds like an awful lot unless you are retired, are investing in illiquid assets and/or have no credit cards.

redux

BarleyGB wrote: »

Why? That sounds like an awful lot unless you are retired, are investing in illiquid assets and/or have no credit cards.

It depends. Someone might lose their job and not want to panic into taking something less than ideal straight away, another might have unexpected repairs to the car or house or both, and someone else might spend money on an operation to help keep working rather than wait several months for the NHS.