Financial advice needed for future planning with mental health condition

FrugalWarrior

Hello. First off, apologies if this isn't the correct place to post this query.

I've been a lurker on this forum trying to learn from your expertise, and I've finally plucked up the courage to create a throwaway account in the hope I might be able to get some advice on my own situation.

I'm in my early 30s, UK based. I work freelance in a creative service profession which is limited by a diagnosed severe mental illness I've had for the last 10 years. Without going into specifics, it is a living hell and can leave me near suicidal for at least a month or two per year. The rest of the time, when I am able to function, I try my best to earn in the creative profession I have trained for, in the corporate services world. I don't wish to disclose what it is I do, but in the last 2 years I've earned an average £12k per year. It isn't selling paintings on Etsy, put it that way. It is a b2b service.

I live with my parents because, well, I can't survive on that income at all with rent costs in the area I live. It is shameful for my age to be reliant on them, although I am eternally grateful for their love and support. I have a partner with a flat who I hope to move in when I am well enough, though my mental health can be absolutely disruptive to our relationship and I do get the feeling she will need stability long term and potentially see it as an ultimatum. Which I don't blame her for at all.

Through inheritance and my own savings from when I've worked, I have £40,000 to my name. Though it seems a lot and I am so lucky to have been able to amass such an amount, I realise this could disappear completely in a few years of independent living in the area in which I am based. I do not want to get to a situation where I am reliant on state help.

My question is: what is my best bet to do with this money in the interests of using it to secure a stable future for myself? I have not even considered a pension at this stage in my life. Are there any sensible investment options that I should be aware of which might ease my concerns a bit more regarding my long term well-being? I am a total layman when it comes to this and anything regarding financial advice.

Terry_Towelling

I'm not sure that investment advice is actually what you need but there are people on the forum who can suggest ways to put this money to work - and they will doubtless come along soon.

What follows is just based on my feelings about what you've written; I haven't been able to construct it that well and it is certainly not intended to be investment advice.

The questions you need to answer first are, how long do you intend to stay at home? How soon (and how successfully) might you embark on a long-term relationship with your partner? Or, do you intend to live entirely independently? How will you finance the latter two options?

You've said that your earnings are not enough to live on independently and given no indication that they are likely to increase. You 'hope' to live with your partner but it sounds like that will be fraught unless you get some kind of long-term relief from your condition.

It may be that you need a more solid platform from which to start before thinking of investing, rather than expecting some investment vehicle to actually be the platform.

So, unless you are prepared/permitted to go on living at home for quite some time, or unless you can create enough income to live independently/cohabit, you are probably going to have to (carefully) use at least some of that £40K to fill the financial hole in your life and enable you to move towards an independent life.

Investing is usually regarded as a long-term project, so how long can you last without using that cash and how will you live (away from your parental home) without using it as a ready and constant source of support? How would you feel if you invested it and it lost, say, 30% of its value at a time when you really needed it?

MaxiRobriguez

Does your mental health impact on your decision making (especially financial)? You might want to enlist the help of those you can trust to help you with your investing if so. No shame in that either, by the way.

If not, depending where you live the £40k may go some way to a property purchase, especially if your partner is earning. Depends how close you are and how much trust there is.

I don't think there's a lot of advice people on here can give without knowing more about your situation. If you read various threads you'll see the most common advice given is to take advantage of any/all tax breaks and put your money in a global equity tracker, which is sensible enough for the novice but in your circumstances probably isn't going to be particularly helpful.