Got the savings bug at last... 16000 to invest

stugall

Hi all

I have done some research and read all of Martin's great blogs, but wanted some advice from other folks on here please..

I have been saving like crazy, I have no debts, usual outgoings for utilities, insurances and that's about it, and have managed to save £16,080 pounds to date.

Now, what does Stuart do? Buy a car or a Triumph motorbike? Blow it all on holidays? Go on a worldwide tour with a six month stint in Fiji?

Well, no, I want to invest it... anyone thinking I should look at stocks and shares or in some of the higher interest earning lending schemes, or sit tight and await news of interest rate rises?

Any advice welcome please...

Regards
Stuart.

xylophone

Is this your emergency fund?

If so, you may wish to keep it in cash earning the best return you can get.

The interest paying current account route may be worth considering if you are eligible for the accounts and can meet the conditions for receiving interest.

For example, Nationwide Flexdirect (there is also the Flexclusive monthly saver), TSB Plus, a couple of Tesco, a LLoyds Club.....

You can cycle round the required inputs. Do you have the DDs?

Are you a first time buyer considering a house purchase in the future? You could look at LISA.

You might consider starting a stocks and shares ISA with regular monthly contributions.

Anonymous101

General approach to these types of questions is to advise keeping an amount of 3-12 months (depending on your personal preference) expenditure as an emergency fund in a high interest rate cash account. There plenty of ones paying 5% around at the moment.

After that it depends on what you're saving for and you appetite for risk. Personally I just invest anything over my emergency fund into a Passive Index fund with a high proportion of equities. I save for any shorter term items such as holidays, car maintenance and annual bills separately and don't plan on accessing the invested monies for over 10 years. I don't worry about trying to time the market or anything like that, IMO its impossible for anything to be able to predict market movements accurately so I don't even try.

badger09

What are you saving for?

How old are you?

What is your pension provision like?

Anonymous101

badger09 wrote: »

What are you saving for?

How old are you?

What is your pension provision like?

How much you earn / what tax bracket you're in is also important.