What to do with my money

ees3dc_x

Its a nice problem to have and expect no sympathy, but I have considerable savings and don't know what to do with it. I have a good salary and save 100% of it and we live on my wife's small salary. We have no mortgage or debts but are helping daughters through university.

We put half our savings into stocks and have lost £5K over the last 12 months + management fees. My wife does not see the long term benefit and just wants to see the money grow each month. Interest rates are still poor and I'm put off the hassle of becoming a landlord.

So I'm stuck on what to do with our nest egg......

ExremelyCautiousSocialist

Put a small % in Bitcoin if you've not already. Dont worry about the folks who say otherwise.


Put some money in many things is my plan + what i tend to do. Already in crypto & property and some other things. Have plans for gold/silver at some point.

Linton

Stick with shares held as funds within an S&S ISA, not as individual holdings. 12 months isnt long term, the past year has been pretty poor world-wide. Any guaranteed month by month returns will be low, if you dont want low you have to take at least a small amount of risk.

Positiveserenity

What about investing in property development?

eskbanker

What are you invested in and via what platform(s)?

Equity-based investments do involve unavoidable volatility but on the flip side, cash deposits are almost guaranteed to lose real-terms value given sub-inflationary interest rates looking set to continue, so neither option sounds completely ideal if she has fundamental nervousness about short-term fluctuations with investments.

Have you both contributed as much as you realistically can/should to pensions?

DrSyn

Everything involved with" what to do with your money" has risk attached to it, even just sticking it in a savings account. It's just the type & size of the risk that varies.

NS&I index linked are no longer on sale & they have now been changed from RPI to CPI.

What exactly does your wife think should be done with this nest egg so that "the money grows each month"?

ees3dc_x

She wants a buy to let. I think its a big commitment and it'll be me doing all the running around maintaining it and sorting the finances.

jimjames

Remember you haven't actually "lost" anything. The paper value might be lower but you only make a loss when you sell. On paper I had lost thousands during the crash of 2008 but within a couple of years it had more than recovered.

BTL isn't valued daily so you have no idea if you've lost money or not each day. Maybe just avoid checking your valuation so often?

Alexland

jimjames wrote: »

BTL isn't valued daily so you have no idea if you've lost money or not each day. Maybe just avoid checking your valuation so often?

Yup and a property value could easily move by more or less than £5k over a 12 months period so with S&S or BTL the OP will be accepting volatility. At least with S&S you cannot get into negative equity and there are no demands for mortgage repayment while it is empty or the tennants aren't paying for whatever reason. I am never being a landlord again.

Alex

jamesd

ees3dc_x wrote: »

We put half our savings into stocks and have lost £5K over the last 12 months + management fees. My wife does not see the long term benefit and just wants to see the money grow each month.

Stock markets work like a rollercoaster in reverse: a long term UK trend of about 5% plus inflation a year with lots of ups and downs along the way. Nothing surprising about the last twelve months and prices could go lower still, good news for people doing regular long term buying.

Residential property BTL is a lot more hassle but the leverage from mortgage borrowing has the potential to improve results. You might be able to cut the hassle and returns with a managing agent.

6022tivo

You're going to get shafted if Corbyn gets in if you have a Buy to Let. He doesn't believe anyone should own two houses.

Just a warning.