Investing Money

[rocktrials]

Ok, started to have some spare cash lying around and was wondering is there any good way to invest it? Anything to invest into? ISA's? Stocks? A Beatle's Vinyl?

Any ideas? Any input from people already investing?

Cheers!

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

How much are we talking?

[Papa Manual]

It all depends on how much you want to invest and how much risk you'd like to take. Generally speaking the higher the risk then the higher potential return. There are a few low risk investments kicking about with reasonable returns mind; I'd check out the one year fixed interest bond from HSBC. It's worth taking into account that a 'headline rate' is what the overall bond is likely to increase by and not a guarentee of what you'll get back individually. Normal savings accounts, current accounts etc aren't doing especially well at the moment as the Bank of England still have interest rates fixed really low because of worries about inflation and the recovery of the economy in general.

Stocks and shares tend to be the riskiest investments going and are only worth going near if you're willing to put a good deal of research into companies you're potentially thinking about. I've made £250 in a day and then lost £300 on the same investment the day after that. Not cool! I learned by that mistake to do my research.

If you're interested in stamps, collectables and stuff like that, check out Stanley Gibbons. Whilst you're not going to become a millionaire overnight, they boast impressive returns and most of the investments are dead safe (pretty interesting too) and are very unlikely to go down in value.

One thing that f**ks me off premium bonds. Loads of people rave about them and think they're a great deal just because Alan Sugar was on the adverts. You'll get more back in a decent savings account than you will from premium bonds; it's the psychological aspect of winning tax free 'prizes' and the potential to win a million in one go that draws people in I don't know a single person who has made any decent money with 'em.

Anyway, yeah, I can ramble forever about this sort of stuff so let us know how much cash you've got and how risky you want to go.

[tomturd]

One thing that f**ks me off premium bonds. Loads of people rave about them and think they're a great deal just because Alan Sugar was on the adverts. You'll get more back in a decent savings account than you will from premium bonds; it's the psychological aspect of winning tax free 'prizes' and the potential to win a million in one go that draws people in I don't know a single person who has made any decent money with 'em.

My mum won 10k a few years ago.

I've got a bit of money in them, and you're 100% right - its the idea of winning that drew me in. So far I've 'won' £50, which is about what I'd have expected to make in interest if I put the same amount of cash into a savings account.

I wouldn't mind something a bit riskier though..

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

My mum won 10k a few years ago.

I've got a bit of money in them, and you're 100% right - its the idea of winning that drew me in. So far I've 'won' £50, which is about what I'd have expected to make in interest if I put the same amount of cash into a savings account.

I wouldn't mind something a bit riskier though..

They do say that the average 'payback' works out at something along the lines of 4-5% which puts it fairly equal with ISA rates, though I'm sure there are plenty of people who get far less than that to make up for the one a month 'winning' a million.

[Papa Manual]

That's the highest winning I've heard of, although a couple of friends reckon they're doing better than the average interest rate. Check out this premium bond calculatorif you want to be depressed, especially considering they claim that premium bonds generate £40 billion for the government per year. I accept that the calculator might not be entirely representative of what you'll actualyl get, but £400 in winnings likely over a one year period with a £30,000 investment; seems to me like the government is skimming off most of the gain on your cash .

[shamus]

A friend of mine had his parents bar him from investing in Liverpool football club many many years years ago. He was going to invest his 3k inheritence. very risky business. However they'd now be worth something like 60k

But he could also have lost the lot. If it's your own hard earned cash I'd be reluctant to go with something that risky. ISA's etc are a much more safe and easily monitored form of investing!

[rocktrials]

Well, at the minute, I got 2k sat in my savings account which has 4% interest, and I'll top it up with about 1k each month.

IM PLAYING THE LOTTO EACH WEEK

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

A friend of mine had his parents bar him from investing in Liverpool football club many many years years ago. He was going to invest his 3k inheritence. very risky business. However they'd now be worth something like 60k

I thought all football clubs were hundreds of millions in debt and a complete financial farce...

[Papa Manual]

The owners of Liverpool F.C. are in debt a quarter of a billion quid to RBS. Looks like it'll be governement owned soon if they can't shift it off! Not so sure how much those shares would be worth .

[Simpson]

12% guaranteed interest rates ***! haha although since the downturn all "new monies" only gets 10% interest, but this is through work and family business and is invested in residual investment in assets so is pretty darn safe.

May be worth looking into.... i imagine its fairly risky if you don't know what your looking for though.

[The Foamoi Refresher]

Well, at the minute, I got 2k sat in my savings account which has 4% interest, and I'll top it up with about 1k each month.

IM PLAYING THE LOTTO EACH WEEK

save 10k, but a 60's fender, they just keep going up in price considerably fast. any big brand musical instruments from the 60's are becoming very valuable. even instruments that were for budget players at the time are now worth alot of money. id say get a pre 1963 stratocaster, before 'CBS' took over from Leo Fender, these are said o be the 'holy grail' of strats. keep it for a decade, then sell it off to a collector.

or try and find a gibson '59 burst . . . but good luck

[Fish-Finger-er]

depends what kinda risk, for what kinda reward your after. for example you could take a fairly safe constant share, and just sit there skimming the dividends off the top, till you got bored, or you could take something more volatile and risk losing more, but making more.

Its also about how long you want to invest for, and how much involvement you want, if your someone whos happy to kill 5 or 6 hours a week reading and researching, and making a couple of trades a month, or if your someone who wants to buy now, forget about, and then sell in 6 months.

Does your company (are you not working for activision blizzard?) have a stock/share program, if so, take a look at that. I know with my current employer, we get sharesave plans where we agree to buy shares with a monthly contribution on a 3 or a 5 year term, with the price fixed at the start of term, at 10% below market value for 3 year, or 20% below markets value for 5 year.

Ive currently got 3 of these plans running, one buying shares at 68p, one buying shares at 61p, and another buying shares at 116p, and company shares are now at around 140p. If we cancel at any time we get the money we put in back, and if if at the end of the plan the shares are worth less than we payed we get the choice of taking the shares, or getting our money returned.

Other think they allow us to do is to buy £125 per month of shares direct out of our pay, pre tax and national insurance, so its effectively 30% below market value, if we sell within the 5 years we have to pay tax and national insurance on them, if we keep it longer than that, there just ours to sell. and in that 5 years we earn dividends on them.

I know loadsa other companies do similar schemes, so its got to be worth looking into.