Better use of cash

lon_don

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  If I’d had put my cash there I would have lost a fortune.  May as well go to the casino and roll a dice than listen to them, I genuinely don’t believe they have any better insight than ChatGPT does 

I don't know that you would have lost "a fortune" unless your timing was really unfortunate.

Using the EQGB ETF ( https://www.ajbell.co.uk/market-research/LSE:EQGB ), which replicates Nasdaq-100 GBP-hedged, as a proxy for "US tech stocks and AI cos",  it does not compare so badly with, say, FTSE-100, over recent periods, according to Perplexity : https://www.perplexity.ai/search/compare-1m-3m-6m-1y-total-retu-s4TR0eHfQsWsz8EKaz0TCg (disclosure: I haven't had the courage to double check the accuracy of these numbers)

R_P_W

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  If I’d had put my cash there I would have lost a fortune.  May as well go to the casino and roll a dice than listen to them, I genuinely don’t believe they have any better insight than ChatGPT does 

You seem to be making this really complicated and you don't need to. You sound like a bit of a nightmare client if I'm honest.

Set yourself up a SIPP and invest in a global index ETF.  You can backdate your £60k annual allowance for up to three years.  Set up a S&S ISA, or one each for you and your wife.  You can invest £20k each a year tax free, again invest in a global index ETF.

infj

I'd love to know what job pays 190K that isn't finance or IT 
But on a much more serious note  R_P_W is right, you can set up a SIPP and a S&S ISA with that kind of income and fill your boots - you just pick a global index tracker and invest on a regular basis and otherwise ignore it for 15/20 years. Barring the kind of event where we all end up back in caves, you are very likely to be very rich by 55/60.
It does not have to be complicated at all and you defo don't need to stock pick.
Have a look at the monevator.com site, Investing tab, then passive investing - he explains it all very simply.

LHW99

Unless you actually paid for full independent advice, the IFA may have just been commenting that your current pension is not globally diverse enough. Check your current pension fund - it could be very high in UK, which hasn't done as well over the past 10 years or so as the US with Amazon etc.

That said, you can't rely on the past - the future never exactly repeats, and what's been good over the last 10-20 years is probably not going to do the same this time around.

DRS1

You originally said that "we" pay 45% tax but later you say your wife earns £50k so unless she has a lot of other income she is a way off the 45% band.  It may be an idea to put taxable savings in her name (assuming you have a good marriage).

On extra pension contributions it looks like you may be knocking on the door of tapered annual allowance.  If you expect to earn more in future then NOW may be the time to max out your pension contributions.  Don't forget that if you are using up unused annual allowance from previous years you can only go back 3 tax years.  Use it or lose it, as they say.

Kim_13

R_P_W said:

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  If I’d had put my cash there I would have lost a fortune.  May as well go to the casino and roll a dice than listen to them, I genuinely don’t believe they have any better insight than ChatGPT does 

You seem to be making this really complicated and you don't need to. You sound like a bit of a nightmare client if I'm honest.

Set yourself up a SIPP and invest in a global index ETF.  You can backdate your £60k annual allowance for up to three years.  Set up a S&S ISA, or one each for you and your wife.  You can invest £20k each a year tax free, again invest in a global index ETF.

S&S ISA assumes they haven’t already put £20k each into Cash ISAs - which on these figures may have been done. I doubt anyone is unaware of ISAs after speaking to an IFA. It’s £20k per person per tax year between all types of ISA and the allowance isn’t backdatable (unless there is a Flexible allowance outstanding.)

A flexible ISA allowance is created when you have an ISA that lists flexible among its benefits and then withdraw some or all of that money - you then have until the end of the tax year to put it back into the same ISA as it was withdrawn from. It may be useful to utilise this when the time comes to pay school fees.

Hoenir

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  

Doesn't sound like a particularly good one. 

Freecall

Hoenir said:

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  

Doesn't sound like a particularly good one. 

Sounds more like a share tipster to me.

InvesterJones

Hoenir said:

mp80 said:

I did speak to one last year who suggested US tech stocks and AI companies were the best thing.  

Doesn't sound like a particularly good one. 

Guess it depends what parameters they were given - we don't know how bad the alternatives were