Help - I have £250,000 burning a hole in my pocket!

rebelmc

I thought somebody here might be able to help me. I'm about to sell my flat, bought 9 years ago and as a result will be in the happy position of having £250,000 in cash (unfortunately it doesn't go that far towards a property in London).

The plan is to rent for a year and then buy another, bigger, place (hopefully after a house price fall, of course) so in the meantime I'll need all the income I can get from that cash in order to help with the rent each month.

Where should I put it to get a high monthly income? I've looked at ICICI Bank's 5.4% (see other thread) but I'm scared that only £30k of my money will be protected. I've also thought about getting £30k worth of premium bonds each for myself and my wife, and then putting the rest in a high interest current account.

I've heard that premium bonds can be expected to pay about 3% tax free - is that right?

Does anybody else have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

helen21_2

Im still up for helping to spend it






Please don't delete again - I am only joking

nrsql

Draw out all the money, put it in a brown paper bag and meet me at .....

>> hopefully after a house price fall, of course
I've been waiting two years - not brave enough to sell (envy) but waiting to buy more.

£250k will get you about half to a third of a 2 bed flat in London - mor eif you go eastwards before the Olympics.

Do the usual things - ISAs (cash + mini?), do the 30G in ICICI if you're worried 60G premium bonds - 3% actually 3.2% but you're likely to do slightly worse or a lot better.
Anyway - spread it around a bit and don't forget to have some fun. Interest rates likely to go down (so I hear) market bouyant although volatile (bouncy?). Regular savings thingy's look good.

deemy2004

You could put the £250k down as a security deposit on funds from Nigerian Oil ........ to release £75 millions.... :rotfl:

Seriously - there are so many options available that deal with piffy little amounts such as £500 halifax monthly saver, cash ISA £3k etc upwards... That the post would be as long as my arrrrrrrrrmmm..

Since it appears your a newbie - probably the safest bet for you is a 1 year fixed bond - I think Derbyshire still pays 5.2%. and yeh you have a surplus of funds so bung £30k into premium bonds if you want, though don't expect much more than about 3% return.

rebelmc

Thanks for the responses so far - does anybody else have any bright ideas for me?

Thenotsowyzewun

Since the amount is so large, I'd advise you to see an Independent (not tied, or even multi-tied) Financial Advisor, go through the yellow pages and call a few, don't expect free advice over the phone though!

cheerfulcat

Hi, rebelmc,

As you need an income to help with the rent I really don't think that you should try anything fancy with your capital. A high-interest savings account ( or nine of them, if you're worried :-) ) is the best home for your cash under the circumstances. If you think that you can tie it up for a year there are some one year term accounts available with guaranteed rates, designed to pay monthly interest; look at moneysupermarket.com

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/savings/

Premium bonds are ok for a flutter but not if you need a regular income.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

tiger

lend me 20,000 at 10%.

Moorepart

As you know olympic games in 2012.they are some rice picking company's:D

At a rough guess, construction companies, catering and hospitality companies, and whoever gets the IKF railway franchise.

I read that ATKINS (ATK) are one of the main contractors for the Olympic build,so bought some ATK this morning. Will hold them. Who knows where the price could be in 1/2 year's:j

deemy2004

Yeh something I have been wondering about... going to do or find an analysis of the timeline of events along the chain to the olympics to see what companies are likely to benefit and when ....

wolvoman

I was in a similar situation a couple of years back though with a much smaller 6 figure number.

Basically the best advice is to get your hand in as many pies as you feel comfortable with to spread the risk.

Some high interest cash accounts, shares, ISAs, gilts, premium bonds, VCTs and offshore accounts are worth looking at.