What should i invest in with £2500?????

Haydn_2

Dear All
I'm 15 and just £2500 and i want to invest in something to get me through university. Any suggestions?
Haydn

dunstonh

its probably best to avoid investments. Partly as you are too young to enter into a contract and partly because the amount is relatively small and probably a good chunk of what you have.

I suggest you stick to savings.

Orion_3

Stick it into an ISA. It'll earn about 6.25% a year if you choose well.
You're 15 now. £2500 will become £2656.25 when you're 16.
£2822.26 when you're 17 and
nigh on £3000 when you're 18 and ready to start Uni.

What I did when I started Uni was take the full student loan allowed to me, and stick that in an ISA too. By the end of Uni I owed £6,600, but the money in my ISAs was earning 6% interest, whereas my loan was only going up at about 3% a year.

Of course, if you have to pay Uni fees when you start (and you quite possibly WILL), then your £3k ISA might be swallowed up right from the start.

I'd be wary about puting money into stocks and shares now if I were you, but would defer to the experts in advising you there!

Liz_the_Whizz

Isn't the minimum age for an ISA 16?

You may have to find some other savings vehicle for now, but in any case, it's unlikely that you will be a tax-payer so you should get the interest gross.

dunstonh

Isn't the minimum age for an ISA 16?

16 for cash but 18 for stocks and shares.

At 15 and earnings almost certainly below personal allowances, a high interest savings account is probably the best approach.

Primrose

I certainly think that once you hit 16 and are able to open an ISA that would be the best option for you. Before then, a savings account paying a good interest rate is the most sensible option. I think the term "investing" is often misunderstood. It's generally taken to mean putting money into equities, i.e. the Stock Market, whereas "saving" means putting money into cash savings deposit accounts.

Orion_3

Sorry, I didn't know about the age limit on ISAs. Does that means he can bank tax free for the next year anyway?

jem16

Orion wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't know about the age limit on ISAs. Does that means he can bank tax free for the next year anyway?

Children have the same tax-free alllowances as everyone. Provided the child has taxable income less than this they can have tax-free interest.

dunstonh

Over time, the difference between saving and investing has become blurred.

Some consider savings to be monthly contributions and investments to mean single contributions.

Others consider savings to be cash based products and investments to be more or less anything else that isnt cash based (that usually means leaving it longer term and involving risk based areas).