£450k to invest - short period - advise needed!

wildeep

what's the best place to invest around £450k (from sale of a house)? We need maximum 30 days notice before we can access the money, and it's not going to be tied down for very long (probably about 6 months).

Any advise would be very much appreciated.

dunstonh

You certainly do not want to be investing for a period of only 6 months. You would be better off saving it instead. I will let one of the others post the interest rate offers available.

wildeep

whops, didn't know there was a difference. Ps, it's not me that's saving/investing it's my parents - hence my naive comment!

masonic

Try the 'Savings' Link in the column to your left.

Stonk

The usual "£3K in a cash ISA" advice won't make much of a dent!

Any one good high-interest internet account would do, but ...

I'd be concerned about having all this money with one institution. Call me paranoid, but I never have more than £35K in each, because of the limits on the amount of deposits you are guaranteed to get back if a financial institution goes belly-up. Sure, it doesn't happen often, but it is not totally inconceivable, and it's not a risk I would take with that much to lose.

masonic

Stonk wrote:

I'd be concerned about having all this money with one institution. Call me paranoid, but I never have more than £35K in each, because of the limits on the amount of deposits you are guaranteed to get back if a financial institution goes belly-up. Sure, it doesn't happen often, but it is not totally inconceivable, and it's not a risk I would take with that much to lose.

I can't imagine what you'd do with £450k, then!

Stonk

masonic wrote:

I can't imagine what you'd do with £450k, then!

Stick it in 13 accounts, I think! Sure, there aren't that many with really table-topping interest rates, but there are at least 7 or 8 decent accounts at 4.75% or above, and plenty more not far behind.

Another reason for spreading the cash around is to diversify in order to hedge against the possibility of a drop in the interest rate on one account. Spread it around and the drop won't hurt so much.

I break my own rule from time to time - I had £70K in ING once when they were way out on top, but that scared me. I'd be tempted to break the rule in this case too, because I have to admit the hassle of opening 13 accounts is daunting.

NinaM

Premium bonds? You might win a million.

urbanfrit

NinaM wrote:

Premium bonds? You might win a million.

Premium bonds have a maximum holding per person of £30000.

Stonk

450,000 lottery tickets? You might win 5 million.