Where to invest £300K

adviseme

My husband has just sold his house for around £300,000. We would like advice on where to put this to best effect. We are both ancient, live in my house and have small pensions.

We may sooner or later decide to use the money to buy another house, but would like to know where to put it meanwhile. I believe we should be able to get a safe 10% somewhere, but don't know where to start.

My husband is NOT a risk taker!

Any advice would be welcome.

adviseme

jem16

You will never get 10% anywhere without taking a risk I'm afraid.

If you are simply looking to save then Icesave or Sainsbury's are the top payers at around 6.3%. although you will lose 20% of that to tax. However you need to remember that your £300k will be at risk from inflation by using savings accounts.

chesky369

You really should find a local IFA to help you - NOT one that's tied to your bank, an independent person who will assess your risk attitude and advise you sensibly. I thank the day I found mine - he has helped me save lots and lots of money.

bigfreddiel

chesky369 wrote: »

You really should find a local IFA to help you - NOT one that's tied to your bank, an independent person who will assess your risk attitude and advise you sensibly. I thank the day I found mine - he has helped me save lots and lots of money.

How do you find one - one that's reliable and has a good track record?

fj

Aegis

bigfreddiel wrote: »

How do you find one - one that's reliable and has a good track record?

fj

http://www.unbiased.co.uk is a good start

jamesd

adviseme, what's best depends on how long you think you'll invest the money, what income you want from it and your attitudes to risk: how much decrease you'd accept in a bad year in exchange for higher growth in good years. Assuming it's for five years or so an IFA should be able to put together a collection of fund investments that wouldn't fall by more than about 15% to 20% in a bad year but would on average grow at more than 12% a year. Or give 6% income and 6% capital growth before inflation on average.

If it's only for a year or two then savings accounts, possibly including fixed interest term accounts, are really the way to go. You can sell funds the day after buying them but there's a chance that that will be at a down time, so that's why a longer term is recommended for them than for savings accounts.

EdInvestor

adviseme wrote: »

My husband has just sold his house for around £300,000. We would like advice on where to put this to best effect. We are both ancient, live in my house and have small pensions.

It would be sensible for your husband to look at NSandI index linked certificates which are paid tax free and have a good rate at present - between you a total of 60k could be put in those immediately and another 60k next year.Interest on this money won;t count for tax.

https://www.nsandi.com

He would also be senible to put more of the money in your name (say around 100k) also for tax reasons. Once you get income past the 20-21k level it starts to affect your old age tax allowance.

Mikeyorks

adviseme wrote: »

....My husband has just sold his house..... We .... both .... live in my house ..........

If he didn't live in 'his' house ........ are you sure the £300k isn't subject to CGT?