£5000? How to get a good return?

[Cheshirechappie]

A couple of observations on investing, gained from experience;

1) The main beneficiaries of Managed Investments are investment managers.

2) Everybody has the wisdom of Solomon - in hindsight. They can all tell you what did well last year. None of them have a clue what will do well next year. Sometimes they guess right, mostly they don't.

3) If you don't have much money, nobody can be bothered with you.

4) If you have a reasonable sum of money, they all want it off you.

5) If you have lots of money, you can pay one group of thieving sharks to protect you from the other group of thieving sharks, but you still end up paying them both.

6) It's mostly luck, unless the economy's booming, in which case it's dead easy.

7) The economy isn't booming, and it doesn't look like it will for some time.

What to do with £5000? Stick it in the best-paying Building Society account you can find - an ISA one for preference if you can afford to tie it up for a fixed period. At least it'll be reasonably safe, even if doesn't earn much interest.

 

[woodbloke]

None of them have a clue what will do well next year. Sometimes they guess right, mostly they don't.

What to do with £5000? Stick it in the best-paying Building Society account you can find - an ISA one for preference if you can afford to tie it up for a fixed period. At least it'll be reasonably safe, even if doesn't earn much interest.

Agreed, but writ bold on every page of the H&L prospectus are the words 'PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT A GUIDE TO FUTURE RETURNS' so they leave you no doubt about what you may be getting into. The better funds, with managers who are market savvy do actually make quite a lot...but you have to be able to pick the funds :wink:
However the OP was asking what to do with £5K to get the best return and stuffing into a building society account or cash ISA is probably not the answer he/she was looking for, safe though it may be...in fact I think it was already in an ISA with a miserable return after 5 years - Rob

 

[Harbo]

The thing is to look around after 12 months and move them to a good interest rate - if you don't they will go back to the BofE base rate!
Things have been put in place to make moving easy?
My wife an I have an investment bond each with widespread shares and medium risk - big increase for first few years but now back to what we had initially invested and that's since 2004!
Would have made more in a good savings account that we had moved about to follow the good rates?
I bought a case of wine in 2004 en primeur now worth 3 times as much!

Rod

 

[OLD]

I go to Martins money site to find the best returns .Does she need a ISA or is her tax situation such that she can get a better rate and fill in the form.

 

[andersonec]

Buy gold, Krugerrand or some other gold bullion coins.

Andy

 

[Matt@]

Any spare that becomes available goes straight into premium bonds, and any winnings also go straight back in. Got at least 50 x more in the last year than I got from my bank in the last 5 years. And always the chance of a 'biggie' without buying a lottery ticket.

No risk. You never lose your money and it's tax free. For me it's a no-brainer.

Roy

I'm dealing with a relatives estate which has £27K in premium bonds. Since January 2012, its produced one win of £50!
What sort of sum have you got in premiumbonds to get the sort of return you mention?? PM if you prefer :wink:

 

[acewoodturner]

Invest it in top end whisky. Whisky has outperformed all isa's stock/shares etc consistently. Thats where all the stockbrokers are putting their money. Some limited edition bottles are doubling in value in a couple of years. One of my best clients is Edrington, makers of Famous Grouse, Macallan and Highland Park. You want to check out some of their limited edition Macallan and Highland Park. Buy it from the distillery shop when it is launched or from specialist whisky retailers. The secret is not to drink it of course! You can sell it in 10 years time at a specialist auction a few years later and then reinvest if you want in more whisky.

By the way I am not qualified to give this advice , its just my observations and a lot of reading up on the subject as well as watching the prices creeping up quickly.

Mike

 

[monkeybiter]

The secret is not to drink it of course!
Mike

There's always a bloody catch :evil:

 

[Jacob]

If you can't think of anything useful to do with £5k then clearly you don't really need it. Why not have a bit of fun and have a go on the horses or something similar? Or give it away.
I keep hearing about peer to peer lending which sounds interesting.

 

[monkeybiter]

I keep hearing about peer to peer lending which sounds interesting.

I'd wondered about p2p lending, I suppose it could have a high potential return, but I used to work in the collected credit industry and I know the risks of zero return and they are very unattractive.

If you can't think of anything useful to do with £5k then clearly you don't really need it.

What sort of provision have you made for your retirement?

 

[Jacob]

....

If you can't think of anything useful to do with £5k then clearly you don't really need it.

What sort of provision have you made for your retirement?

I'm spending all my spare cash on a largish building conversion. When it's done I'll be investing in my own business in the hopes of making a bit more. When I pack it in I hope it'll provide me with enough to buy a little house with a shed and a bit of cash left over.

 

[RogerS]

I agree about what has been said re ISA's...one is foolish not to review rates every year.

Equities chosen for their dividends certainly can pay..well..dividends! LOML is first class at choosing these and I just let her get on with it.

If you wanted to take a punt though I'd buy a load of decent relatively rare timber and store it properly for as long as I can. Then sell it when I needed to.

 

[John Brown]

I have a small amont in Zopa(peer to peer lending), and it has produced around 5% per year. Got to pay tax on that, of course...

 

[johnf]

If you don't need the money solar panels will give you 10% tax free

 

[sue denim]

Hello

Thanks for all the advice so far.

The person in question does have an option of putting said 5k into her pension scheme to boost her entitlement.
The company is Waitrose and I believe that their scheme is a a fairly good one.

Perhaps this may be the best option as she will be at retirement age in the next few years.

Personally I prefer the whisky approach.

Regards

 

[monkeybiter]

I know for a fact that if I invested £5000 in Scotch [or Irish] I would never see my retirement =P~ :lol:

 

[Losos]

Hello
Thanks for all the advice so far.
The person in question does have an option of putting said 5k into her pension scheme to boost her entitlement.
The company is Waitrose and I believe that their scheme is a a fairly good one.
Perhaps this may be the best option as she will be at retirement age in the next few years.
Personally I prefer the whisky approach.
Regards

Reading through all the posts on this thread is interesting, everyone has an opinion which I suppose is hardly surprising since investing money is always based on peoples personal experiences (The whisky one has me wondering about the person :lol: )

I did note a few people are wary of using an IFA (Independant Financial Advisor) and I too would avoid getting involved with them. What ever you do with your money the best advice, which is often mentioned on investing forums (such as ADVFN) is :-

DYOR (Do Your Own Research)