Options for 26k of savings

AircraftHandler

Hi all,

We have 26k in premium bonds doing nothing at the moment as we've won £75 in 6 months.

I have been thinking about pulling it out of there, but I'm unsure of the best way to invest this money for the future. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

pjcox2005

Think you probably need to put whether these are only savings and then your attitude to risk and how much effort you want to put in and whether you need to access the funds.

I expect the answer will be a mixture of regular savers now 5%-7%, fixed rate saving products with say 1 year lock (think 4%ish) or investments. Could also look at LISAs if you don't have them and qualify or pensions for the uplift and tax saving but that locks it away.

I guess you should be looking at £1,000 per year being earnt as a target with more cautious saving. Higher if you take the risk of investing.

I'd probably start with these two links:

Savings accounts: 3.03% easy access or up to 4.5% fixed (moneysavingexpert.com)

Regular savings accounts 2023: Earn up to 7% (moneysavingexpert.com)

Linton

What do you want the money for?
When will you want to use it?
Do you already have an easy access cash emegency fund of say 6 months living expenses in case of redundancy, major house or boiler maintenance etc

Albermarle

We have 26k in premium bonds doing nothing at the moment as we've won £75 in 6 months.

Premium bond prizes are random, so some periods will be a bit slow and some more lucrative. Also the number of better prizes has increased recently. Over a longer period you can expect to see a return around 2.5% with a very small chance of winning a bigger prize. Also all returns are tax free.

I have the full £50K and won £225 last month and a £150 this month.

If you want an equivalent easy access savings account then you can get up to 3% interest .

AircraftHandler

Hi,

I work in Norway in the Oil & Gas and pay Norwegian tax. If i was to loose my job the Norwegian government would look after me for two years from loosing work. I also have a military pension coming in each month, so really want to invest this money to make as much as possible to be honest.

I have thought about stocks and shares with Hargreaves Lansdown and letting them manage it.

Linton

AircraftHandler said:

Hi,

I work in Norway in the Oil & Gas and pay Norwegian tax. If i was to loose my job the Norwegian government would look after me for two years from loosing work. I also have a military pension coming in each month, so really want to invest this money to make as much as possible to be honest.

I have thought about stocks and shares with Hargreaves Lansdown and letting them manage it.

Making "as much as possible" means investing in shares or rather funds which may well hold hundreds of shares.  The downside of such investments is that, even if you invest sensibly,  they are volatile and there almost certainly will be years when you lose money. So as you can assume the overall trend is upwards they are only reasonably safe if you are investing for the long term, say 10 years or preferably longer.  Without taking some risk you will not get better returns than the best paying savings accounts.

So your choice - are you thinking long term and are prepared to lose money in the short term or do you want a smaller but guaranteed shorter term return?  Note that you dont have to do the same thing with all your money.

badger09

Are you resident in Norway rather than UK for tax purposes? If so you will not eligible to save or invest in an ISA. 
In fact, you will struggle to open a savings or investment account in UK. 

NS&I however do have several savings products available to non residents. Not usually the best rates, but worth a look. 

Albermarle

I have thought about stocks and shares with Hargreaves Lansdown and letting them manage it.

HL, or any other investment platform, will not manage your investments. You have to choose the investments. 

They separately offer a  personalised financial advice service on managing your investments, but at a cost of course ,

pjcox2005

AircraftHandler said:

Hi,

I work in Norway in the Oil & Gas and pay Norwegian tax. If i was to loose my job the Norwegian government would look after me for two years from loosing work. I also have a military pension coming in each month, so really want to invest this money to make as much as possible to be honest.

I have thought about stocks and shares with Hargreaves Lansdown and letting them manage it.

If you're looking to invest, then whilst we can't provide investment advice you probably want to look at funds rather than single company shares to spread risk. I've for example got things like Vanguard lifestrategy fund 80:20 that has a range of assets in it, as well as others that I deem more risky which track particular markets. Again, amount of risk and length of investment are going to be key but that's perhaps a starting point to read up on.

Monevator website could be an interesting read, particularly their sections on passive investing i.e. you just buy X amount of funds monthly no matter whether markets are going up, down or static.

Richard1212

AircraftHandler said:

Hi all,

We have 26k in premium bonds doing nothing at the moment as we've won £75 in 6 months.

I have been thinking about pulling it out of there, but I'm unsure of the best way to invest this money for the future. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have always believed that Premium Bonds are a mugs game ever since they appeared so long ago and nothing has changed my mind. I prefer Camelot !

I think you are very wise in looking elsewhere. But the "elsewhere" depends on whether you need easy access or not, or if you want to buy shares etc. First, look around at all the Easy Access, Fixed Access  etc and choose what suits you best ----the lists are pretty easy to google or view every week on Martins Money Tips etc.      
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest/?utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=17-Jan-23-26d154a72f940b2822f-63c70cc073628ca568f0f944914d080e&source=CRM-MSETIP-26d154a72f940b2822f&utm_campaign=nt-bestbuys-quicklinks-one&utm_content=7

retiringtoosoon

Pension is most likely the best place