Where is best to invest £160k

dodgyknees

We are currently in our early 50's and have no mortgage on our house and have £160k at hand to invest and i'm wondering what the best options are currently to make this work for us.

Bostonerimus1

dodgyknees said:

We are currently in our early 50's and have no mortgage on our house and have £160k at hand to invest and i'm wondering what the best options are currently to make this work for us.

What are your financial goals?

ColdIron

The best options will depend on your wider circumstances and objectives for the money which you haven't told us much of anything about. Any responses will just be wild guesses. A starter for one: do you have any other debts, are you employed and how is your pension provision?

Brie

Without any further information I'd be thinking of £50k each in premium bonds and £20k each into ISAs of some sort.  That leaves £20k to play with.

dodgyknees

As per previous queries : we don't have any other debts apart from 1 car on finance.
Both parties are employed , 1 x self employed and pension provision could be improved but have a plan to further put away in that at a later stage 

InvesterJones

dodgyknees said:

As per previous queries : we don't have any other debts apart from 1 car on finance.
Both parties are employed , 1 x self employed and pension provision could be improved but have a plan to further put away in that at a later stage 

As previously asked, what are your goals? In particular, when do you need to access the investment and how tolerant are you (honestly) to volatility/risk?

wmb194

dodgyknees said:

As per previous queries : we don't have any other debts apart from 1 car on finance.
Both parties are employed , 1 x self employed and pension provision could be improved but have a plan to further put away in that at a later stage 

What's your attitude to risk? A lot of people would suggest putting it all in a world stock market tracker ETF and riding the lightning but you'd need to be prepared for a the ride e.g., Vanguard's VRWP. 

"Where's best?" is too broad a question.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-ftse-all-world-ucits-etf-usd-accumulating/overview

Bostonerimus1

Pay off the car loan.
Put 6 months spending in the bank,
What is left put into ISAs and your workplace pensions, assuming you have a DC pension plan. Buy low cost index funds or multi-asset funds.

Mark_d

dodgyknees said:

As per previous queries : we don't have any other debts apart from 1 car on finance.
Both parties are employed , 1 x self employed and pension provision could be improved but have a plan to further put away in that at a later stage 

What is your objective for investing this £160k?  Is this money you need for unforeseen events eg. a serious illness/injury meaning you have to give up working?  Is the idea to put this away in reserve and use the interest/dividends to treat yourselves to luxuries?

On balance of probability I think putting money in to pension early in likely best.

After getting on the housing ladder I've been putting a huge proportion of my salary into pension each month.  My other savings go towards paying off my interest-only mortgage in 17 years time.  So paying off my mortgage would be my investment objective if I was given £160k

ColdIron

dodgyknees said:

pension provision could be improved 

Then with lack of any more obvious objectives pension payments suggest themselves. Do either of you pay higher rate tax? If so it's a no brainer

but have a plan to further put away in that at a later stage 

Early 50s isn't that far away from 57 (or whatever) when you can access it. Do you want to retire early or are you happy to work until state pension age? Be aware that stopping work or accessing your pension could severely restrict future payments into it. You may not have as much time as you think, and of course pension rules could (will?) change