27k dilemma,Isa's,savings,stocks........?

busy_b

After many home improvements, I now have 27k left ! It's in a bog standard Interest account earning about 4.5% or maybe less (I know I should know!)

Partner & I always place full cash allowance in Isa's every April. (Still looking for best ones for this year and also would like to merge all our previous ones, if possible)

We don't really touch the stocks part of the Isa allowance after losing heavily in tech some years ago but have an ongoing Insurance Isa of some sort for £80.00 per month each....(Sorry, I should also know what that is too)

Dilemma - we've already offset all our other savings against our mortgage and now have £400 per month (previous mortgage payment), along with the 27k to invest/save or generally make it work for us !

Where do we go from here.....? (We tend to have good instincts/ideas but then get lazy and leave the money where it is and so any suggestions appreciated!) Many Thanks!

felix299

A well diversified portfolio of investments in high quality companies held for the long term will give you a very good return

dunstonh

We don't really touch the stocks part of the Isa allowance after losing heavily in tech some years ago

So, you have stopped the stocks and shares ISA contributions on the basis of losing money after investing in an extremely high risk area. Why did you invest so high risk if you couldnt accept the potential losses? After realising your mistake, why didnt you use the lower risk end?

but have an ongoing Insurance Isa of some sort for £80.00 per month each....(Sorry, I should also know what that is too)

Which is now classed as a stocks and shares ISA. Not many did these insurance ISAs. Pearl & Royal London tend to pop up quite opften. Most of these are now pretty obsolete.

Where do we go from here.....?

Not enough info to narrow it down. Based on your criteria there are still around 50,000 options available

Do you want to invest or save? What is your risk profile? what is your tax position? what is the timescale fo the money? how does this fit in with your existing provisions? what will be your uses for this money in the future?

busy_b

A good telling off and so many questions !

Well firstly, yes we were aware of the risk but it's still not nice losing money after seeing it rocket. (We were young and naive and should have took the money and run but didn't, hence the reason we are more cautious now to the point that we have 27k earning Sod all in interest !)

I've been attempting to trace where all our Isa's are and what values they are as we stupidly opened new ones every year with the Best payer at the time and then didn't move them, so roughly we've put the max of 6k per yr away for the past 5 yrs! (We're basic rate tax payers).

Ideally I'd like savings for Holidays, New Car & Maintenance with enough to fall back on if our small business got into trouble and so the Isa's we have already should take care of that.

The 27k and the £400 per month are my main concern as I would use 7k in this years Cash Isa Allowances, put 5k in a Good interest paying account with easy access and then I'm not sure what do with the 15k that's left.

I've since looked at some of the Tracker Products and I wouldn't mind a bit of high risk with a relatively small amount but this is where I'm confused. Do you pay a monthly amount into some kind of product, do I invest a lump sum or does anyone have any suggestions....?

I'm really confused and trying to get my savings sorted once and for all !

cheerfulcat

Hi, busy b,

For long term investments, equities ( shares ) are hard to beat. You can invest through funds, investment trusts or by holding individual shares.

There are also exchange traded funds, which are trackers with a far, far larger selection of indices to invest in than unit trust type trackers ( ETFs are cheaper, as well ). Since it is trackers you are interested in, you could have a look at the ishares product.

Another option you could look at is one or two of the global generalist investment trusts - more about them on the AIC site.

Whatever you choose, but particularly the trackers, drip-feeding a regular monthly amount is probably a good idea right now.

busy_b

That's really helpful Cheerfulcat, thanks, I'll have a browse at those websites and I think I would be more comfortable drip feeding the amounts than handing over a lump sum.

I'm certainly edgey when it comes to Stocks because basically I don't have the time to follow the Markets and wouldn't really understand them if I did !

Thanks again and any further suggestions, greatly appreciated !

jamesd

You might take a look at these to see some of the variation available, or consider combining them in the proportions mentioned while you become more comfortable:

30% BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha
20% Cru Investment Portfolio
20% Invesco Perpetual Monthly Income Plus
20% Invesco Perpetual Income
10% Neptune Global Equity

The first three are quite stable and invest in different ways while the last two are one of the most popular UK funds and a fairly aggressive global fund. The proportions are selected so that it's unlikely you'd lose capital over a year or more, but at the expense of substantially reduced long term growth potential. Still likely to be more than 9% a year though.

This is a sufficiently low risk mixture that you can probably feel comfortable using your stocks and shares ISA allowance with it.