Pension, ISAs or corgi toys

guy-taliesin

I'm looking to put £10,000 into a savings fund this year - otherwise it will be taxed at 40 per cent.

Pension or ISA and something else? Looking at the return on my Nationwide ISA - £300 on £3000 in three years - I'm not impressed.

I like the idea of pension for tax reasons, but aren't they all connected to the stock market, and that looks shaky at the moment.

I've only got a small personal pension - with Pearl (another mistake?) - and some other savings in high interest accounts so I would like to put money into something which will provide good returns over the next 8 years or so ahead of my retirement.

It doesn't feel like the right time to invest in the stock market, although Northern Rock shares are cheap.

And there was also some talk of buying property and operating it as a pension fund - which sounded very interesting.

I've just read that woodlands are increasing in price 13 per cent a year, I've missed the gold price hikes ... but corgi toys are going up in value ! Help!