You're money and how you invest it

With the government now taxing interest on your savings of over £1000 and interest rates falling.

How do you invest your hard earned cash?

Do you take a safe option like an ISA or invest in a more risky market...if so what ?

I have heard lots of talk regarding gold but honestly wouldn't know where to start with this...!

 

Crack cocaine and dodgy crypto.

 

Platinum

 

Best thing to do is hide your stash or bury it somewhere away from yardies or travellers. Don't tell a soul where its at.

 

seriously though, I dont call all of these options an investment, more of a big risk and chances are theres some smartarse has set up a scam to take your money.Its like my old mate Adam, he would tell us how much he won on the fruit machines every week all buzzing, youd think he was a genius the way he beats the system but hes not telling us when he loses thats the thing

 

Silver

 

ISAs and an investment in a spread of stocks. Everyone with savings should be taking advantage of the tax free ISA allowance.

 

I plough as much into my pension, looking forward to reaping the rewards at the end of the year when I turn 63 and retire.

 

I ploughed everything for the last 5 years into the mortgage. Actually really helped when we got * over with the interest rate rises after the fix ended.

 

When interest rates took a hike I did the same, luckily I had enough to pay it off so I'm mortgage free .

I also cashed in a pension I never knew I had after I received letters every year after turning 50.
They taxed me 6k on it.

I have two cash isa's with max amount on 5.14 and 5.12 .

So I'm making more from that than stashing it under the bed.

 

Aye, my plans to wait until the rates drop a bit more then move. Finally get away from having * attatched to us making noise. A nice we detached silent dilapidated box for me to fix up. Bliss.

 

Fair enough if you don't die first...haha

 

Everything in life is a gamble!

 

You can do a stocks and share ISA which will let you invest in the market without paying tax

 

When interest rates increased I also moved all my savings to an American bank 'chase'....really easy and they're customer service is very good.
I still have a good whack in there but interest rates falling sharp it could be time to move it, however I really like the simplicity on their app I'm reluctant to move away.

I always ask mates who they bank with and can't believe how many are with RBS or BOS.....terrible interest rates although BOS ISA is ok and I've had one with them for nearly two years come July.
I'll see what's out there and probably move that to a higher rate elsewhere and bank the interest depending what it is when it matures.

 

Yes, been reading up on those but they seem to be a very long term investment with capital being worth less than than when first invested....I don't think a stocks ISA is for me.

 

After your post I did a bit of research there...very volatile but the gains are and seem to be steady/good if you don't press the panic button when it dips.

 

Folk dropping like flies these days....but I agree with you in principal

 

A few of us on here work in finance so feel free to ask any questions. I will try my best to answer.

@Sonic Reducer if you're not invested in anything else and youre a basic rate taxpayer then you're 1k tax free allowance means you could invest 25k at 4% without strictly needing a cash ISA as you're not taxed on that 1k interest. The benefit in an ISA this case is allowing you to accumulate savings in an ISA and means if you become a higher rate tax payer in the future you don't need to worry about being taxed (your allowance falls to 500 as higher rate tax payer).

If you're saving for the long term, you're better off buying a stocks and shares ISA and investing in a cheap equity tracker. You need to accept risk of loss but in short the longer you plan to hold the less of an issue that is. Any savings you expect to hold for over 10 years as a rule should be invested rather than saved in cash.

All this stuff is very dependent on individual circumstances, but as a rule keep enough in savings in cash to fund your life for 3-6 months in case you lose your job, or another financial emergency, then start investing after that.

 

I’m not the most clued up but @Sween and others will correct me if I’m wrong.

The S&S ISA itself isn’t tied to any particular type of investment. So you can invest in a less risky stock that is more likely to go up but will take time.

But you could also invest in riskier stock that might deliver profits quicker but obviously could also drop.

One thing a lot of people do is follow S&P 500 and similar World trackers.

The S&P 500 is up 15% in the last 6 months, so that’s a pretty decent return if you fired money in 6 months ago, 20% in a year and 46% over the last 2 years. I think on average it has returned 10% per year.

I only mention that to say it’s not necessarily true your capital is suddenly worth less. Of course before anyone shouts at me, past performance doesn’t indicate further performance. It could start dropping for the next 3+ years for example, so you need to at least be prepared for the long game.

I’m pretty risk averse so what I do is have most of my savings in savings ISAs, but I contribute to S&P-style trackers in a managed way through a Nutmeg S&S ISA.

Nutmeg is part of JP Morgan, so it’s got nice integration with Chase if that’s what you use. You can also get one year of no fees, so you could put a small amount in that for a year and see how it goes.