Help me decide where to put my savings??

qwertyqwerty

hi all

I have recently sold a property and now have approximately 170k to invest. I am in my mid 40s, and the money in want to invest I won’t need till my 60s now.

I don’t mind risk, so looking for advice on where to place my investments, this is what I have currently done.

50k - placed in the vanguard all world caps fund

50k - invested in premium bonds

50k - sat in a poor return cash isa.

30k - sat in current account.

I want to move the cash isa into a stocks isa, but I am unsure where best to place it, as I am already signed up to vanguard, should I pick one there.

I am not precious about keeping the 50k in bonds, I just wanted somewhere to put the money, and the thought of maybe hitting the jackpot was quite enticing but if there is a better suggestion to move it to, I am all ears.

The money sat in the current account is just there for rainy day, I could use it to top up the various accounts if needs be.

Any help appreciated

eskbanker

What's your pension situation? If you won't need at least some of the money until your 60s then pension contributions will generally be more tax-efficient than other options…

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6663289/help-me-decide-where-to-put-my-savings

You have to be careful with words in this area.

The title of the thread talks about savings, but in the post you say you have £170K to invest.

Saving and investing are two different things.

With a 20 year timeframe, then investing the majority normally makes sense, whist keeping some cash savings for short/medium term expenditure.

As already said, normally a pension is the best investment vehicle for someone of your age, due to the tax breaks. However you need taxable income to take advantage of the tax breaks. Are you working? Do you have a pension?

I am not precious about keeping the 50k in bonds, I just wanted somewhere to put the money, and the thought of maybe hitting the jackpot was quite enticing but if there is a better suggestion to move it to, I am all ears

The average prize return is a little less than the better savings account, but as they are not taxed, they can be useful for someone who is using their ISAs for other things. I would not hold your breath for the jackpot though. Someone with £50K in bonds, will win a Million on average every 100,000 years.

Normally as with any savings account your would hope/expect that by investing the money over 20 years you would get a better return.

I don’t mind risk

So to be clear you would be calm if your Vanguard All World fund, dropped 40% in a month ? You would just relax and think it is bound to recover eventually? Because many people would panic in that situation.

ToastLady

I'm not going to even try to suggest what you might want to do regarding investing, but screaming out at me is £30K in a current account. Why the heck would you have that amount sitting with either no or little interest? Get the majority of that into an easy access account for a start if you feel you have the need to have that amount of "cash" readily available.
I'd also be transferring what you have in a poorly paying ISA to better paying ISA(s).
Check out https://moneyfactscompare.co.uk/ for best rates for different types of ISA's and savings accounts. Do make sure you read all the T's and C's for individual accounts.

DRS1

Is the Vanguard fund held outside an ISA? If so I would be inclined to get it into an ISA as soon as you can. Perhaps transfer the cash ISA to a S&S ISA and then buy the Vanguard fund in there while selling it outside the ISA? I am sure Vanguard do one (not sure about their fees) but another one which may be cheap is Scottish Widows Share Dealing (used to be IWeb) which gets a lot of mentions on here. Or check out the thread on deals for investments - there may be some cash back offerings for opening or transferring an ISA. Doing your investing in an ISA is much simpler than doing it outside especially now the CGT allowance is so low.

The Cashback for Bank or Investment Accounts Discussion Thread - Page 157 — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Newbie_John

Max out your pension contribution to 100% of your salary / £60k cap.

Use existing money to live.

That should sort you out in few years.

Eco_Miser

Treat the premium bonds as your rainy day money and get most of that £30K in the current account into either pension or ISA. Put all but a month's spending into an easy access savings account. For best rates see

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6534798/the-new-top-easy-access-savings-discussion-area

Get the poor rate ISA somewhere better, probably an S&S ISA with Scottish Widows, whose fees are ridiculously low. See https://monevator.com/compare-uk-cheapest-online-brokers/ for other places to open an S&S ISA.