do you invest?

[whatnow]

I've got £6k in my savings account which I want to start playing with on a 6months -> 1 year investment strategy. I have a feeling I'm getting less and less bothered about risking different bits into different investments, so I figured I'd put all my ideas past as many people as possible before I throw it all away to the dogs

Firstly, I wondered about a small, £1k max, investment into premium bonds. Perhaps they are just not worth it, unless you buy £32k's worth (the max amount). I know about the risk of it being dead money, but the paltry sums i'd be missing from my savings account (5% which would be £50 max lost on the year). Generally, I can't see this realy being worth it?

then there's the stock market, most members of my family have lost on this rather substantially when you compare what's been put in to what they got out. I think i'd be very selective over any investment, and i'd know the company's product(s) well before I jumped in with cash. For example, I wish I have invested in take-two when I was annoyed at missing nintendo. I didn't envisage the ea bid but the gta4 hype was going to pump them a huge profit, and i'd have been prepared to be wrong about it too. I could've put all of it into that.

What else is out there that's worth it? i've just cleared my savings into my current account, so at worsth it's going into either an isa, or one of those short-term high interest savings accounts.

Any ideas before I lose it all to globoplex industries GLOBX on the DOW or something? (if they exist, or do well, u owe me 30%!)

[Mobileman]

GOLD

[DJAd]

Bit late now but gold would of been a good one.

Premium bonds are ok, I think I only have about £100 worth but I've had a £100 & £50 win.
There not very exciting in any way though.

How about a night at the dogs or down the local Will Hill ?

[blacksheep]

tbh to get a significant return on your money in the timeframes you're stating you are going to have to risk it or you're only going to be realising something like 5-6%

[Q-Ball]

Im currently playing the market with a few K, however if i had a 6k lump to invest, i would stick it into an ISA fund for a year. Especially with the maket being quite low at the moment.

Why do you want to invest for 1 year only? Investment should really be considered when the term is 5 years plus.

[blacksheep]

full ISA aint worth it for just a year - especially atm. Worth it for 5+ though

[scruff]

HI, I think you need to look at it on a risk vs reward basis.

Premium bonds are not a bad bet if you have no debt and have maxed out your ISA allowance (or you want to punt). Don't get too excited tho. Look on the moneysaving expertdotcodot uk website and use their premium bond calculator to see what u might get. I've beaten the interest rates this year and it's tax free. Not everbody does.

I've just dumped 5K into Fidelity China as an ISA. These funds can return 50% in a year but as you probably know stocks have taken a hammering recently.

Years ago I put 5K into a Fidelity India fund and lost 20% of my cash in the first week. Over the last few years it's returned about 30%.

I personally don't like individual stocks because the markets are run by market makers not on the results of the companies so "market sentiment" can kill your profits. I work for a big financial company and as a shareholder the returns have been crap.It was only the tax thing when I bought them that made it worth it at the time.They are not worth it now. Investing in single stocks requires a lot of reading/research also.

Short term gains are very hard to make.

Another risky one is try and get a killer product on ebay and get in get out but like all the markets the sharks will get you in the end.

Try and think of how much you would be satisfied with then look at some different products and see what the risk is. 20% on your 6k tax free is 1200 quid. Nice money in a year but how would you feel after a year if you had £4800 in yer bin?

Or you may have bought PB's still have £6k but got no profit.

I think you need to quantify what return you expect first.

My personal strategy is that I don't have enough money to do what I want to do and never will. So I take a higher risk strategy but through respected companies. I don't have any dependants and I want to live abroad later. I'll have a pension and the gaff might be worth a few quid later too. Lots to weigh up.


Good luck. Let me know how you get on.

Regards Scruff,

[hxbro]

I'm putting my money short term into 2 high interest bank accounts (2.5k in each @ 6.something %), the rest in premium bonds, so no risk, the money will be used in 6-9 months when I move house so can't put it anywhere that requires a longer term.

It's not a big return but if the premium bonds come in then it'll be worth it.

[blacksheep]

Short term gains are very hard to make.

Sorry but thats rubbish - if I hadn't been so busy and the funds had cleared quicker than they had I would have made more than the 10% I have in the last 7 days - but 10% isn't that bad for a few days.

You just have to be vaguely aware of what the market is doing and you can make very healthy margins in short spaces of time.

[scruff]

You are right. I should have qualified that. I meant short term gains are difficult to make unless you are on the ball and know what you are doing. I do have friends that day trade the Dow etc and they generally make money but they have to do a lot of homework. I'm not disciplined enough for all that and would rather pay a fund manager 2% to do that for me.
That coupled with the fact that any stock I touch turns to shite. Some of my spectacular investments have included Ferranti and Railtrack.

Regards Scruff,

[blacksheep]

can you give me forwarning before you buy anything

[stamfordblue]

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