Advice Please

Hello to all on this frosty night!!


I have some money to invest, £57000 due to AFCS payment. I have spoken to afew advisors who have suggested Premium Bonds, ISA and a 5 year savings bond.

What im really after is a monthly income from the lump sum in a low risk fund. When i asked the said advisors they were not too sure about it. I was just wandering if there is anyone on here who is fairly clued up.


Regards.

 

invest it in 2 female escorts and some viagra

 

2 female escorts- yes please

Viagra- No thanks, I'm hard like wood!

 

Make out the cheque to me or, better still, make out the cheque to my company called, for short, C.A.S.H.

Send it to me and I will do my best to give you a monthly income. And I guarantee that I will do my best - and I will send you regular updates from my office in the Bahamas!

Looking forward to receiving your cash, er, investment...

Litotes

OK, that was the laugh and a demonstration of how careful you should be!! I will try to keep things simple but if you want to self-help you must spend some time researching the market:

1. Clear your debts except for a mortgage or a debt where you have already paid the interest.

2. Premium Bonds. My long-term return is 3.25%pa. My return since they chopped the prizes last year is just 0.6%pa. You could win the £1m prize - but, most likely, you will win nothing or £25. Not much of a return!

3. Bldg Socs/Banks. Watch the £50k protection limit. Were you to stick your £50k into www.firstsave.co.uk you would currently receive 3.25%pa gross paid monthly. The Investec Bank improves on that with 3.32%. Both are 90 day notice accounts. You will be hard pressed to better those rates.

4. Some banks are offering current/regular savings accounts with good rates. They need management because if you go over £2000, for example, the rate drops from 5% to 0.1%! Look at www.moneysavingexpert.com or www.moneyfacts.com.

5. ISA. The best cash ISA I can find is offered by Abbey at 3.5% fixed for 2 years. I cannot remember the rules for cash ISAs.

6. Savings Bonds. My alarms start ringing because these are sold to people who haven't researched the market. However, I note that NS&I offers a bond with a gross monthly payment of 2.02%.

You need to research the market and keep an eye on your savings.

You also need to be aware that all of the above rates are variable and could vanish tomorrow. They also do not protect against inflation.

Companies such as Fidelity offer unit trusts that invest in money markets in order to offer a higher return (around 5% IIRC). Stick to the big companies and you should be OK BUT you might still lose some of your money if the company gets it wrong! You could invest via companies like Hargreaves-Lansdowne which will rebate their commission.

Litotes

 

I wrote that, switched to Hotmail and my regular letter from www.lovemoney.com had arrived.

Try subscribing to them!

Litotes

 

Believe it or not the Punjabi Bank is offering 4%on for 1 year

http://www.pnbint.com/onlineAccount.asp#

 

This is probably an IFA question, so go and talk to one. £57,000 is enough to justify spreading it around a little but not enough to be life changing. This is discussion only, not advice, get your own advice BEFORE you commit your money.

By the look of your original post you are looking for income. ISAs are not really set up to provide income, so they may not be the most useful place to start. In any event, the amount of money you can put in in any given year is limited to £10,200, (if you are over 50 now) or for the tax year 2010/2011, with £5100 as cash. Any stock & share ISA will have an element of investment risk, so read the fine print.

Premium bonds are not a great place for income as the return has gone down seriously in the last year. www.moneysavingexpert.com has a critique on premium bonds that is worth a read before spending the money. You would be risking the income, not the capital, but your chances of winning the big one are infintessimal!

Bonds will depend very much on your current age, tax status, attitude to investment risk, so get detailed advice. There are bonds available with monthly income and risk levels varying from bank deposit, (safe-ish), to EIS/VCT/direct investment in chinese equities, (currancy risk, political risk, commercial risk), so you pays your money and takes your choice. Some bonds will also offer, at extra cost, guarantees on capital or income. For a taster, look at the Prudential and AEGON web sites. The FSA consumer facing site at MoneyMadeClear is also well worth a visit - if you dig around you will find a basic comparison table for bonds.

In some circumstances, (if you are old enough and sick enough), annuities are a useful source of income, but this involves a sacrifice of capital for an income stream - again , proper advice is needed.

 

The problem is with a 5 year saving bond ,They used to have a good return but in the last ten years the returns are really bad .

I personally would use the money for but bricks and mortar ,You can either live in the property at a later date or rent it out and use the money to pay the rest of the mortgage and repairs for the property

 

Mark3536 ignore chubb

 

Have a look at my post on Alpha72's thread.