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50,000 pounds to invest

I was thinking about investing in a flat to rent but then I saw this
http://www.alternativebonds.co.uk/venture/
Is it a scam ? It does say FCA regulated . Also the airport parking deals . Does anyone have any experience with that ?
Im looking at a medium risk investment . Perhaps I would be best with an ISA stocks and shares .
ISAs cash pay virtually nothing these days .
Thank you for your ideas .
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Comments

  • bowlhead99
    bowlhead99 Posts: 12,295 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Post of the Month
    edited 6 July 2017 at 6:43AM
    Karmo wrote: »
    I was thinking about investing in a flat to rent but then I saw this
    [link]
    Is it a scam ? It does say FCA regulated .
    The fact that the agent promoting it is a registered representative of a firm that has FCA permission just means the person fronting the deal is authorised to front the deal. There is no capital protection and no certainty that you would get paid any interest or get any capital back. There is no FCA regulated person that would be advising you personally to make an investment, and so there's nobody from whom you could seek compensation when it turned out to be a bad one.

    You would be lending money to an Australian mining firm whose 2016 financial statements showed zero revenue.

    Their ambition is to become a revenue generating metals miner in the 'near term' and want people to lend them money so they can have a go with a mine they acquired in Tasmania which will require millions spent on it to start pulling ore out of the ground. The money would be spent on, among other things, refurbishing the plant and rescheduling existing debt that they owe.

    It is 'asset backed' in the sense that the company will have some assets and licences to dig metal out of the ground with a proven / probable resource, and of course they will have the cash you just gave them (until they spend it). The 'senior security' just means they have an obligation to pay the bond holders in priority to some of the other creditors and the owners of the equity of the company. Huge numbers of small mining companies spring up and go bust each year. So if you invest £50k within the £25 million they are raising, and they lose most of the money and end up down to their last million and give up on the venture, and then they have a few hundred thousand of liquidation expenses, you would recover only a few hundred quid out of your £50k investment.

    So, that's not a 'medium risk investment'
    Also the airport parking deals . Does anyone have any experience with that ?
    There have been some scams, and while the people selling them will say they are great, almost every credible website will tell you to avoid - you are unlikely to make significant profits and could lose all your capital. Why not search for previous threads on this forum.?

    Typically they will offer to 'guarantee' you some level of income for a short amount of time, which they can pay you with the cash you give them, and then you stand to lose all the rest of your capital leaving you well out of pocket. The resale value of one individual parking spot among loads of others on a near airport parking site that might not continue to be used for parking forever may be close to nil and you will have no control over its maintenance, use or sale. There is nothing special about the parking spot you buy - so if there is some money recovered, nothing can be done to help you get your hands on the cash in priority to the other suckers who fell for the marketing pitch getting theirs.
    Im looking at a medium risk investment . Perhaps I would be best with an ISA stocks and shares .
    ISAs cash pay virtually nothing these days .
    If you're willing to take investment risk, then once you've decided how much risk to take, you can buy a 'mixed asset' investment fund inside a stocks and shares ISA, which will generate dividends and long term capital growth. Such funds are collective investment schemes where your money is combined with other investors' money and used to buy a broad portfolio of company shares, company and government bonds and commercial properties, around the world.

    That way you can get to a medium-ish blend of risk rather than the 'eggs all in one basket' high risk opportunities such as individual company bonds, shares, or parking spots

    This is an example of an investment fund offering medium-ish risk, which can be bought within an ISA:
    http://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/ViewFund?Sedol=B8VZ3F5&Isin=GB00B8VZ3F59

    Of course, one person's view of 'medium' risk is not the same as the next person's.


    **Edit ; I'll leave the original text above in case it's useful for anyone else, but you can ignore my comments about holding a fund like that in an ISA. Based on your other posts you are living in Asia and may not be a UK resident, but instead a foreign resident who only pays UK tax on their UK income.

    Therefore you can't open an ISA (cash or S&S) which is a product only available to UK tax residents. If you declared yourself to HMRC as UK tax resident for purposes of opening an ISA, you would have to pay tax on your worldwide income which presumably would be unwelcome. So, you'd have to invest in a normal non-ISA account instead.

    Also, you will find that many mainstream UK stockbrokers and investment platforms do not want to take on new customers who are non-UK resident and even those that accept overseas investors may have specific restrictions for investors resident in certain countries with a reputation for corruption or lower standards of financial regulation than UK.
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 11,053 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Airport parking schemes are run by the same people who were previously doing self storage pods. Google "self storage winding up" to see where that went.

    No-one here will have experience of such schemes - people who have lost all their savings on get-rich-quick scams have no need to visit a Savings and Investments forum.
  • savenator
    savenator Posts: 6 Forumite
    edited 6 July 2017 at 9:30AM
    It sounds to me that you are just as open for stocks & shares ISA as you are for airport parking ideas. Get your system in order first, and then you'll see where that £50k is best spent for you. The UKPersonalFinance subreddit has a step by step guide on what to do with your lump sum: reddit.com/
    r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/lumpsuminvestment (I can't post links properly).

    Regarding specifically airport parking, how good of an investment will it be when self-driving cars become common? I generally stay away from heavily marketed investment ideas. But first things first, think about your finances strategically. :coffee:
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 18,151 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Malthusian wrote: »
    Airport parking schemes are run by the same people who were previously doing self storage pods. Google "self storage winding up" to see where that went.

    No-one here will have experience of such schemes - people who have lost all their savings on get-rich-quick scams have no need to visit a Savings and Investments forum.

    Oh! but they do. Unfortunately always after the event, with a how can I get my money back thread :(
  • cashbackproblems
    cashbackproblems Posts: 1,826 Forumite
    If you want to take high risk you can do so with funds but in a much more regulated, transparent and safe way.
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Karmo wrote: »
    I was thinking about investing in a flat to rent but then I saw this
    http://www.alternativebonds.co.uk/venture/
    Is it a scam ? It does say FCA regulated . Also the airport parking deals . Does anyone have any experience with that ?
    Im looking at a medium risk investment . Perhaps I would be best with an ISA stocks and shares .
    ISAs cash pay virtually nothing these days .
    Thank you for your ideas .

    Try an Investment Management company - such as Quilter Cheviot
  • bostonerimus
    bostonerimus Posts: 5,617 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Karmo wrote: »
    I was thinking about investing in a flat to rent but then I saw this
    http://www.alternativebonds.co.uk/venture/
    Is it a scam ? It does say FCA regulated . Also the airport parking deals . Does anyone have any experience with that ?
    Im looking at a medium risk investment . Perhaps I would be best with an ISA stocks and shares .
    ISAs cash pay virtually nothing these days .
    Thank you for your ideas .

    Your inclination to simply open a S&S ISA is the right one.....avoid schemes that promise large returns because they are either scams or very risky.
    “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
  • bostonerimus
    bostonerimus Posts: 5,617 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    50Twuncle wrote: »
    Try an Investment Management company - such as Quilter Cheviot

    Have you seem their fees.......with just 50k simply buy a low cost multi-asset fund and keep fees to a minimum.
    “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
  • 50Twuncle
    50Twuncle Posts: 10,763 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    QC charge a %fee of about 1.5%
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 33,398 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    50Twuncle wrote: »
    QC charge a %fee of about 1.5%
    Exactly - so ten times the 0.15% that an investor would pay for a global multi-asset fund of funds held directly by Vanguard....
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