Some Investment Advice If possible

paye

When it comes to investing I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge is quite poor in this subject. Although I have started reading more about the subject the whole thing
 just seems a blur 

I have around £250k in savings but I don't know exactly how I should best invest this money to gain maximum growth. I have around £6k of debt with an outstanding mortgage of

circa £55k (currently in year 2 of a 5 year fix at 1.8%). I'm on a ok  salary at work and I try to save £2k a month but this is not always possible as something always crops up so I end up saving around £1400 a month. 

Currently my savings are mostly kept in a Santander easver account generating only 1.98% of interest. 

I Can't seem to find many accounts offering high saving accounts even through the rates have increased. 

Would it be beneficial if I speak to a Financial Advisor if so what kind of services would they offer and how do I go about finding one? 

wmb194

paye said:

When it comes to investing I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge is quite poor in this subject. Although I have started reading more about the subject the whole thing
 just seems a blur 

I have around £250k in savings but I don't know exactly how I should best invest this money to gain maximum growth. I have around £6k of debt with an outstanding mortgage of

circa £55k (currently in year 2 of a 5 year fix at 1.8%). I'm on a ok  salary at work and I try to save £2k a month but this is not always possible as something always crops up so I end up saving around £1400 a month. 

Currently my savings are mostly kept in a Santander easver account generating only 1.98% of interest. 

I Can't seem to find many accounts offering high saving accounts even through the rates have increased. 

Would it be beneficial if I speak to a Financial Advisor if so what kind of services would they offer and how do I go about finding one? 

Finding savings accounts paying more than 2% is the easy part:

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

Albermarle

paye said:

When it comes to investing I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge is quite poor in this subject. Although I have started reading more about the subject the whole thing
 just seems a blur 

I have around £250k in savings but I don't know exactly how I should best invest this money to gain maximum growth. I have around £6k of debt with an outstanding mortgage of

circa £55k (currently in year 2 of a 5 year fix at 1.8%). I'm on a ok  salary at work and I try to save £2k a month but this is not always possible as something always crops up so I end up saving around £1400 a month. 

Currently my savings are mostly kept in a Santander easver account generating only 1.98% of interest. 

I Can't seem to find many accounts offering high saving accounts even through the rates have increased. 

Would it be beneficial if I speak to a Financial Advisor if so what kind of services would they offer and how do I go about finding one? 

First you need to be clear on the following:

Savings = known interest rate and your money is safe. However the interest rate is often less than inflation, so your money loses spending power slowly every year.
Investing = unknown outcome, with short and medium term volatility ,but historically has had higher returns in the long run.

A Financial advisor will almost certainly advise you to put a lot a lot of your cash savings into investments, pensions etc, although exactly how much and what type of investments, would depend on your age, your objectives, and your current pension situation. If you are not comfortable with that idea ( investing most of it) then no point paying an advisor. They are not really interested in cash savings as it is so simple for the client to deal with that themselves.

Are you aware that if Santander went bust, you would only be covered for max £85K compensation? ( although very unlikely they will go bust) You should at least spread your savings around more.

simon_or

You've got 250k in cash, saving a healthy £1,400 a month, low debt, have a relatively small mortgage on a low rate. A great situation to be in!

To start off, while you think it over, it may be worth looking at the MSE savings best buy easy access (4% and over) or notice account tables (more than 4.5%) and distribute the 250k among 3 or more unrelated providers so you're covered on the 85k/bank FSCS protection and as importantly earning a decent rate rather than the sub 2% that Santander is paying you.

As for formal financial advice, I doubt you'd get anyone that could promise 'maximum growth' and I don't think that's something that you'd want to aim for.

For a fee, a regulated financial adviser should be able to advise you on how best to invest the lump-sum that you have based on your individual circumstances. The advice isn't going to come cheap though!

saverkev

paye said:

When it comes to investing I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge is quite poor in this subject. Although I have started reading more about the subject the whole thing
 just seems a blur 

I have around £250k in savings but I don't know exactly how I should best invest this money to gain maximum growth. I have around £6k of debt with an outstanding mortgage of

circa £55k (currently in year 2 of a 5 year fix at 1.8%). I'm on a ok  salary at work and I try to save £2k a month but this is not always possible as something always crops up so I end up saving around £1400 a month. 

Currently my savings are mostly kept in a Santander easver account generating only 1.98% of interest. 

I Can't seem to find many accounts offering high saving accounts even through the rates have increased. 

Would it be beneficial if I speak to a Financial Advisor if so what kind of services would they offer and how do I go about finding one? 

Are you paying interest on the £6000 debt?
If so at what percentage?

auser99

There's some financial experts on here who would probably laugh at my naivety in asking.
But why on earth wouldn't you pay off that 6k debt as an absolute first step? Unless there's something odd about it, like 0% interest?

You say "investments", but am assuming you're open to anything more efficient than a huge amount at an incredibly low rate?

Easiest quick low risk move is using your yearly 20k allowance to go into a Cash ISA.
There's accounts paying 5% these days. You can lock your money in 1,2,3 years etc, guaranteeing that rate, with the big benefit of being tax free.

Split that money out into different banks too.

Albermarle

auser99 said:

There's some financial experts on here who would probably laugh at my naivety in asking.
But why on earth wouldn't you pay off that 6k debt as an absolute first step? Unless there's something odd about it, like 0% interest?

It is not naive, it is a perfectly good question. However a relatively small issue in the light if the fact they have a very large amount sitting in a low interest account.

auser99

Albermarle said:

auser99 said:

There's some financial experts on here who would probably laugh at my naivety in asking.
But why on earth wouldn't you pay off that 6k debt as an absolute first step? Unless there's something odd about it, like 0% interest?

It is not naive, it is a perfectly good question. However a relatively small issue in the light if the fact they have a very large amount sitting in a low interest account.

Agreed, lots of very easy wins for the opening poster.

Eyeful

1. If the sums are large & you need advice make sure you see an
 Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) and not a restricted advisor:-
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/getting-financial-advice/#h-types-of-financial-adviser

2. To find interest on different savings accounts, have a look here:-
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1583859/Best-savings-rates-General-savings-Internet-branch.html

3. Check money in a saving accounts is protected by the FSCS up to £85k:-
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings/

LOW RISK SAVINGS BONDS: are regulated investments.

You get them from either:-

(a) NS&I, which is a loan to the UK goverment.

b) Bank/Building Society covered by the FSCS protection (at present up to £85K).

When savings products cannot repay you your money. The FSCS will repay you (up to £85K)

SAVINGS: Money is in a safe place & not at risk. You expect to at least take out what you put in.

Money need within 5 years should be kept in a savings account.

OTHER BONDS: are unregulated investments, where there is the potential loss of all your money.

Somewhere there should be a warning about this risk to your money.

They are INVESTMENTS (not savings).

INVESTING: Putting your money at risk where there is the potential loss of all your money. You hope to take out more than you put in, but this is not guaranteed.

Think of investing for at least 10 years at least.

Investments are not covered by the FSCS protection.

Bond Scams:- Occur in unregulated investments.

4. Investing, first watch this:-      

https://www.kroijer.com/

Then consider investing in a low cost Global Multi Asset Fund. They have wide diversification while minimising risk, at low cost.

Global Multi-Asset Funds:

Vanguard Life Strategy

HSBC Global Strategy

L&G Multi Index Funds

Blackrock Consensus

Architas Passive

Examples

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/what-are-lifestrategy-funds?intcmpgn=lifestrategyfunds_learnmore_link

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/investments/isas/hsbc-global-strategy-portfolios/

barnstar2077

Depending on your age and when you would like to access your funds, you could do worse than investing in a stocks and shares ISA.  Putting your money in a globally diversified index fund, like Vanguard's FTSE Global All Cap Index fund (which is what I use.)

The Lifestrategy funds have more of a UK focus than the afore mentioned fund (which is more accurately weighted towards US stocks.)  Only you can decide if you see that as a good thing or not.  

If your money is already in an ISA then you could transfer it to Vanguard's own platform quite painlessly.

If on the other hand you would like to withdraw a lot of this money in a few years, or you just don't like the ups and downs of the stock market, then one of the previously mentioned savings accounts would seem a good bet.  It really depends on what you want to do with this money and your timeframe.

paye

Thanks for all your sound advice which I will most definitely take on board and will help me with my decision-making process. 
 
I will most certainly look into adding more in towards my pension considering I'm 42 and will also look into opening up previously mentioned saving accounts.

The reason why I haven't done this yet is because I’m concerned (unsure why) that it could affect my credit rating should I have multiple accounts running. I was initially thinking of buying a property but because there is so much uncertainty surrounding the housing market, I have decided to hold off for the time being. 

Someone did mention why I haven’t paid of the £6k credit card debt, the reason for this is because it's on a 0% interest free period, When the promotion finishes, I'll pay it off.