The best advice on maximising a return on an investment of £100,000 without a big risk to my deposit

BocaJunior

Hi , I have £100,000 to invest  with which I wish to obtain the best return without a risk of losing my deposit. This can be from a high interest savings account or investing but I know nothing about this particular financial field. Can anyone offer me some advice on how to get the biggest return with no risk, or at the least very limited risk to my initial outlay.

Thank you in advance for any advise.

Albermarle

Savings = no risk , but the interest you earn each year is usually below inflation ( especially at the moment) so the value/spending power of your money slowly but surely goes down.
Investing = varying levels of risk, depending on what you invest in. Your money will go up and down but historically in the long term investing will nearly always beat inflation.
So time scale of when you might need the money is important. Short term means savings, Long term ( >10 years) then usually investing is better.
As you have not given us any details about yourself ( age, employed, pension provision, ,mortgage etc ) it is not possible to say anything more specific.

My advice is to spend some time researching/reading ( including through this forum) as £100K is a lot of money.

Linton

What do you mean by "no risk": There is a wide spectrum of risk from "risk of losing everything"  through to "risk that the value of your investments will go down by a small amount temporarily".  But if you won't even accept a termporary decrease in value you will probably lose out to inflation over the long term, which is another form of risk.

Broadly speaking the lower the risk the lower the returns.  For the long term, say investing in pensions for retirement in 20 years time, many people here are willing to accept a temporary 40% fall in value several times during the investment period.  There is the expectation that over the full 20 years the return will be much higher than you could have got from savings interest.  If you are only investing for 5 years then taking that level of risk would be imprudent since you may not have time to recover from a 40% fall.

To make a sensible decision you need a clear view of what you want the money for and when you want to spend it.

Sea_Shell

Also remember it doesn't need to be all or nothing.

You could diversify between cash savings accounts, and investments and then diversify 'within' the investments too.

adindas

BocaJunior said:

Hi , I have £100,000 to invest  with which I wish to obtain the best return without a risk of losing my deposit. This can be from a high interest savings account or investing but I know nothing about this particular financial field. Can anyone offer me some advice on how to get the biggest return with no risk, or at the least very limited risk to my initial outlay.

Thank you in advance for any advise.

Investing and without  risk does not go Hand in Hand.

You will get the warning similar to this is  painted in most (if not all) of investment platform.

the value of your investments will go up and down depending on how well the underlying stock markets are doing: If the stock markets go up then so will the value of your investment. If the stock markets crash, then the value of your investment could fall significantly.

So the only option is saving. But it is almost certain your money will be eaten by inflation.

This is the kink for the best saving currently available

https://moneyfacts.co.uk/savings-accounts/

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6106986/regular-savings-accounts-the-best-currently-available-list/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6392978/top-easy-access-acs-ranked-top-of-the-pots-no-chat/p1

Taking a calculated risk is a sensible option. Life is full of taking risk day by day without we realising it. If you do not want to be hit by the car, to get stabbed then stay at home. But how many people go out anyway.

newatc

I would think that Premium Bonds (at least 50k but 100k if partner involved) would be a possibility as no risk of losing deposit with high likelihood of some returns and low possibility of large win.

jimjames

Unless you need all the money at the same time there is no reason the £100k all has to be in the same place. You could invest say £50k, put £25k in savings accounts and £25k in fixed rate accounts, whatever proportions match your requirements

BocaJunior

Thank you everyone who has replied I do really appreciate your time and advice.

To put some context to my earler question. I have recently retired and have the LUMP sum to invest and try to get the best possible return. If I was younger(I am 66) I would be tempted to invest in the Stock Market but again I know nothing about how to 'play them'. And of course who knows how long one has left in life!! I have no mortgage.

I suppose the best plan would be to say put £50k in a high percent savings account over say 3-5 years and say £50k in a savings account where I can get instant access, just in case? 

Anyone any thoughts please or better ideas? What would you do in my position? 

Thank you in advance of any advice....

dunstonh

 If I was younger(I am 66) I would be tempted to invest in the Stock Market but again I know nothing about how to 'play them'.

age 66 still gives you over 20 years for average life expectancy.   So, investing should not be off the table for that reason.     Plus, you can build multi-asset portfolios that work for 5 years or other timescales.

And of course who knows how long one has left in life!! 

But there is also a risk of underestimating life expectancy.

I suppose the best plan would be to say put £50k in a high percent savings account over say 3-5 years and say £50k in a savings account where I can get instant access, just in case? 

So, on that basis, you plan to spend £100k within 5 years and have no money after that.
That is effectively the solution you are building with that.

Anyone any thoughts please or better ideas? What would you do in my position? 

You haven't told us your position.  You have just given us the amount and your age.  
What do you plan to do with the money?  (as mentioned, your solution indicates you plan to spend it all in 5 years. I suspect that is not actually the case)

Albermarle

If I was younger(I am 66) I would be tempted to invest in the Stock Market but again I know nothing about how to 'play them'.

Very few posters on this forum 'play' the stock market in the way you are probably thinking. Hardy anybody is sitting in front of four screens shouting 'Buy' or ' Sell' down the phone.

Many investors only have a handful of funds ( sometimes only one )  that are widely invested around the world and may not change anything for years. Certainly not every week or month. A so called 'Buy and Hold' strategy.

LHW99

Even if you are not working you could put £2880 each year (up to age 75) into a SIPP or personal pension and get it topped up by £720 by the government. Even if you take it out as soon as the tax relief arrives, 25% is tax free, so I think it works out as ~6.25% increase for something that at your age is close to instant access.

Alternatively you could invest within the pension as suggested by posters above.