[Closed] What would you do with 30k? - life crossroads content

Travel. Get it out your system.

If you go on a budget, it doesn't need to cost that much either.

Sorry for your loss mate. Without dependents, partner or mortgage I would travel a bit but not blow the whole 30k, maybe just 10. If you travelled and lived frugally you could make 10k last a year I reckon. Have you looked into woofing (wwoofinternational.org) you work for board & food in Australia for example. If I didn't travel I would buy one big treat, most likely a bike & a biking holiday and save the rest.

Do some sensible financial things (pension, house deposit etc.) if you haven't done so already, put it to some good use.

Then one of these...

[img] [/img]

and camper hire if there's enough left over for a trip around the Alps etc...

Spunk 5k on toys and a nice pair of shoes,

Long term invest the rest (compound interest on 30k after 10 years!) or buy a house (if you can afford the mortgage repayments obviously)

Yup for travel.

Spend a few £k on the traveling and you'll return with a better idea of what to do with the rest.

Possibly.

Travel. If you don't do it now it'll certainly be a lot more difficult once you start looking at buying a house/having children/building your career.

£30k might seem a lot now but it doesn't go that far and 15 years from now it's going to seem like the bare minimum you'd need as a lump just to get a few things sorted. Either buy a house or put the lot in a pension. If you don't already have a pension it will be the best thing you can do (and you will get some tax relief which you can then spend on a bike). Alternatively how about going by the school? I spent about that doing an MBA when I was only three years older and it was one of the best things I ever did.

invest half of it in a 95% safe scheme (premium bonds, isa etc) the rest look at a way to generate a future.
House deposit
Invest in business
something else

Has anyone looked at interest rates lately? I was shocked to find most "savings" accounts offering less than bank base rate and couldn't find anything that was really going to earn more than inflation.

Personally, put half towards a house deposit (for when you come back), spend half travelling.

If you're travelling set yourself a budget and come home when you run out of money. May be obvious but go to countries where it's cheap to live - Australia/New Zealand/Europe will burn through your money quickly. Asia/Africa/Central America/India will make it last a lot longer. You've the rest of your life to visit developed countries but it's not often you get the time to explore developing world slowly and it's a lot more fun that way.

Frosty, just had a similar amount willed to us. Dont bother with banks, only investments over 50k will pique their interest. We invested 20k for our 12 yr old daughter with the halifax, 6% in the junior isa. We trawled around and found they offered the best rates without going into stocks n shares.

Difficult decision due to the circumstances.

If you have the travel bug then do it, before partners and kids get in the way. Set aside £10k for that, maybe a bike or whatever.

The rest may make a decent start on a deposit for a house, if you are that way inclined.

Or you be really dull and whack the lot in a private pension plan.

travel a bit, but on the cheap (3-5k max, ime you'll see a lot of the world for that, esp if you're on a bike).

I'd then either get a house deposit (these can be super tough to get otherwise - i'm only buying now because my parents want a better place to invest their savings than the banks), or put it in a shares ISA.

I went through santander, in a medium risk shares ISA. put in 4k approx 18 months ago and it's now at over £5.5k. it's a risk, but so far one that has paid off for me. be prepared to not touch it for a good few years though, and then draw it out if you then decide to get a house. there can be restrictions though (i had to put an equal amount in a normal ISA at the same time, which Ive since spent), but i think the annual limit on ISA deposits has been increased recently.

I've not won on premium bonds for years and years, I'll be drawing mine out soon I reckon.

I agree with the comments above - I'd spend up to 10 grand on travel and invest the rest.

FFS people! Hookers and blow!

I'm in a similar position, most of mine is going on a house, with a small mortgage, then buying a car, after I've learnt to drive, then travel but holidays rather than moving away. The rest is going on bikes and nice things. And hookers & blow. Obvs.

Another +1 for a bit of travel and savings

Spend some on travel. Thailand (and SE asia) is a good option. Lots of cheap places to stay, loads to see. The biking in Thailand is fantastic. Pop the rest into savings. I'd go for an ISA, paid in over a couple of years. Interest rates are rubbish but they will go up. It'll be a handy sum for a house deposit or starting a business once you have a bit more idea.

Max out an ISA (put 5760 into it, or whatever it is atm)

set aside at least 25k of it for house/flat deposit

25k... thats a 10% desposit on a 200k house + legal fees sorted

5k do stuff with.. travel, bike etc, save some perhaps

I echo much of the above, travel/backpacking is fascinating but it wasn't the game-changer i wanted it to be. However, taking up mtb'ing has had a much more profound effect on me over the years. If you want to tour the continent by bike then why not do that - get kitted out for bikepacking perhaps and head out to where the weather's good.

This is probably the only time in your life that you'll have no dependents, be young, fit, healthy and wealthy enough to do something truly special.

Spend it on something that you'll remember for the rest of your life. Screw the savings, nobody gets to the end of their life thinking "I'm so glad I put that money in an ISA rather than riding the great divide trail or sailing round the world or hiking through south america".

Am in similar position to you fr0sty, and i've decided to use it as a house deposit. Mainly because it allows me to buy somewhere decent enough & with an advantageous mortgage interest rate over a basic FTB mortgage.
Boring, but then i'm mid-30s & married, so decided to do the grown up thing!
Expecting to be able to restart affording holidays again from next year, camping doesn't count!

I got a student loan I don't mind you paying for 🙂

I would take the opportunity to ride my bike in some amazing places.

At your age I didn't have the urge to travel, but taking my bike to ciclo Montana last year has kicked off a restlessness for me to go other places riding. Unfortunately, I'm 40 and full of the responsibilities of kids, mortgage and work.

But for these, I'd have sold the house, bought a flat for rental income and thrown the rest into riding all over the world.

It's an overused expression, but - one life, live it.

+1 for travel.

There are few things which will help you develop personally as much as travelling will. 12 months of travelling will change you in a way that you'll be able to reap the benefits of for the remainder of your life IMO.

As mentioned above, you certainly wouldn't need to eat up all that money with a decent travel budget. It all depends what you want to be sitting thinking when you're 60. "Wow, look at the interest I made on that extra £10k I invested when I was 26" versus "I wish I'd seen the world when I had the chance."

Travel, and a deposit on a house I'd say

If you can't face the hassle of a mortgage yet invest at least some of it where it's got a a chance to grow

(Personally Fundsmith has got a fair bit of my spare dosh https://www.fundsmith.co.uk/Home.aspx - make your own decisions though)

How's your job/career prospects. Would a chunk of the money pay for training or startup costs to get you doing what you want/need/wish you could do?

But yes, if you have the travel bug, get a little bit of it out of your system, and think of and thank your parents at the crest of each viewpoint and summit.

I inherited about 20k when I was 18 due to having a rich great uncle and almost now family of my own. I invested it in low risk stocks type stuff and about 5k in a months notice savings account. It made up a few shortfalls in cash during my uni days ( it was cheaper in those days), paid a good chunk towards 6 months bumming around nz and aus, a few cheal cars and then 15 years later it was enough for a house deposit. Like you say when it comes from family you should spend it wisely.

You can save £15k this year tax free in an ISA. I'd stick it in a stocks and shares ISA and just buy into a few managed funds.

My opinion is that If you haven't got a house then put it aside towards a deposit or mortgage. If you have got a house, put it towards your mortgage. £30k is not a life changing amount of dose, no point in saving it or investing in other financial products so the best thing to do is to invest it into your house.

Then go travelling if you want to. You don't need a lot of money to travel, students have been traveling on the change in their pockets for decades. My brother went round the world for a year for a pittance.

If you want to buy a bike then get it on interest free credit. You'd be a fool not to even if you had the cash available.

Coke and hookers

If it were me I'd use 25k for a deposit on a property which I'd then rent out unfurnished for 6 months, take the other 5k and any money I had lying around and go on a trip for that time. Depends on how you're earnng a living currently I suppose but sticking money in property seems to be a good idea.

Sorry for your loss.

I never travelled when I was young and now I'm settled with a family, it's my biggest regret and one that is constantly at the back of my mind, detracting my attention from my family.
If I were in your position, I'd hold back £20k in savings or whatever and then take off on my bike and explore the world. Travel may alter the direction of how you actually want your life to go and give you some perspective.

Get some travelling done. 10k could last you 2 years of cycling around the world.

I'm flying out to Hong Kong in 2 months time and i'm gona spend 10 months cycling back to Scotland via the Himalayas and I've got just over 5k spending money which will go reasonably far in Asia, I've cycled in Asia before and loved it. Best experience of my life and changed it for the better.

I recommend it, it may change your life and make you think differently about how you'll spend the other 20k

This was exactly what I needed to hear, thank you to all the contributors so far 🙂

I need to start lurking on some travel forums to get an idea of just what I want to do really.

Don't know about the property thing - I don't currently own but have no real desire to buy into the area I'm currently living anyway. Property in its-self is a whole other thread! (self build, eco, sandals, diy stuff interests me...)

Keep the suggestions/opinions coming folks. Much love

Stick the whole lot on Red . If you win spend 10k travelling and save the 50K for a house depositor invest it , interest rates will be rising shortly. If you lose just carry on as you were , I'm sure you'll get plenty of mileage telling folk how you lost 30k on the spin of a roulette wheel . 30k isn't much in the great scheme of things .

Traveling is what one does to get somewhere. Once there it's just standing on another bit of the planet unless you do something.

If you like somewhere look for work, then you'll meet people, then you'll start doing things with them. £30 000 at 26 broadens your horizons but it won't change your life unless you consider it a spring board. Life isn't a series of isolated blocks of time, it's a continuity. You can use this money to change your whole life not just the next year or so. Please don't waste it on premium bonds.

I got to 30 flat broke but with a head full of experiences and experience. The experience paid dividends and if you gave me £30 000 now it wouldn't even change my holiday plans.

@fr0sty sorry to hear, I'm 51 and still have both my parents and count myself lucky that it's that way.

Travel definitely, if I have a regret it's that I got straight onto the work wagon without a break. Perhaps take a trip somewhere your parent might have liked to go. Do the bike trip, you can do that quite cheaply, a month or 6 weeks. Perhaps gets some skills (outdoor courses) and see if you'd like to do some guiding / seasonal work or get invoked something out there summer/winter ? Learn or improve a language.

I think what @aa did makes a lot of sense, £5k on hols, £25k into say market index fund (FTSE 100) and see how life goes. You might not want / need a property now but you will in time.

I went travelling for twelve months at the same age as you. We went to Canada, Fiji, NZ and Oz but there was two of us and we bought a camper van in Sydney and just drove around the country. It cost us about £10k and we didn't work - but there was two of us and the exchange rate was better. It was the best experience I ever had and I am so glad I did it (now 37 and settled with family).

I met so many fantastic and friendly people, had some great experiences and don't regret it for a second. If I was you I would take £10k, travel and enjoy it and keep the rest for some sort of investment.