We’ve looked at rental properties we’ve looked at red or black in the casino. Coke and or hookers not really an option whilst maintaining a family man image.

I have no pension as such.

Would like 5 percent return. What’s the options?

You can get 20% or 40% immediate return from the tax man by putting it into a pension.

Timescales? Pension makes the most sense as tax relief immediately adds value, as above. You are then locked in if you want to keep those benefits. You and your wife will both have a 20k stocks and shares ISA allowance, we were in a similar position (but have reasonable pension plans) so have invested in Fundsmith in an ISA, has done well the last 5 years, but you would want to commit to at least that time period and not need to withdraw the money at an inopportune time.

Is it better to put it in a pension than pay down mortgage?

You can get 20% or 40% immediate return from the tax man by putting it into a pension.

Not quite true if you’ve already got the cash.

Stocks and shares ISA is the easy option. Should easily beat 5% and you’ll get the tax benefits on the way out rather than on the way in with a pension (which I don’t think you can do with money you already have anyway). As TomB I have some in fundsmith which has done around 25% per year so pretty good. Even my slow one ISA has done 10%. These are uncertain times though. Buy to let is an option. My last one cost less than that and returns 8% in rent and there should be some capital growth too. I quite like it as it’s more tangible than shares to me but it is a little more work. I don’t think it’s worth paying off the mortgage with rates so low but it’s nice to have it moderately accessible in case that changes. All imo of course.

Spend it all on bikes. By the time you come to sell, they will be worth 5% of what you bought them for.

i haven’t really got the hang of this, have I?

You can get 20% or 40% immediate return from the tax man by putting it into a pension.

”Not quite true if you’ve already got the cash”

Payments into a SIPP will be topped up by 25% almost immeadiately, reversing the basic rate of income tax.

if you’re a higher rate payer, you can re claim the difference on a tax return. So not immediate, but in terms of government ‘giveaways’, it’s pretty darn good. Depending on your income, you can pay in over 2/3 years for maximum relief at the higher rate.

5% return?

🤣🕺🤦‍♀️💦💨

I’d be tempted by premium bonds.  £30 000 should get you a constant return and there is a chance of a big win.

4.3 V8 Vantage – a future classic that’s at its lowet residuals right now.

Well, that’s what you tell your wife.

Decent Land Rover and stick it in a shed

And when the Land Rover is a pile of rust, you can always sell the shed……🙂

3 new 2CV’s.

Secondhand Macan. In brown.

Give it to me. I’ll guarantee you a 15% return* or your money back.

Same offer goes out to everyone else.

*for the first three years.

I don’t have a big salary monthly but get bonuses which put me in to the 40 percent tax band. If everything went tits up I would like some availability to it. I have an 80k mortgage.

My wife doesn’t like work.

Why is 5 percent so emoji laughable bikebuoy?

Buy to let on interest only is still on the horizon but I genuinely don’t know if I can be arsed with tennants after asking on here a few weeks back. Our local town has probably reached its peak property wise so can’t see a massive increase on capital via that vehicle

which put me in to the 40 percent tax band.

Stick it in a SIPP and get 40% tax back on it. I put every spare penny into my pension each year as the 40% tax back is just too good to ignore.

Because you have to lock it away for a year to get 5%

Have you looked on moneysavingexpert webbie? Most rates are 3-4% unlocked, 5% locked.

Fine if you don’t need it, but what if you do?

Lend it to me and I will pay you 6% interest. Email in my profile if you want more details including what security I can offer .

Stocks and Shares ISA and then buy funds.  I have a number of funds just picked more through guesswork than anything else and they’re up 30%.

I’m with Hargreaves and have mainly just bought funds from their “Wealth 150+” list in a variety of markets.

Go and travel the world.

Coke and hookers, surely?

Seriously think about putting at least some in a pension. If you’re a 40% tax payer then if you put in £15k, it will immediately get grossed up by the pension company by the amount of basic rate tax and you can get the higher rate tax back when you do a tax return at year end. That means your £15k contribution (so you’ve still got £15k left over) has actually put £25k in your pension.

That’s £10k for free just by putting it away until you’re 55 (at the earliest).

Then you’ve got tax free gains too. I’ve made a 30% return on mine (#humblebrag) over the last two years by investing in specific stocks and shares (Amazon mostly) and arguably we’re at the end of a long bull market, but even if you get no gain for a few years and hold it in cash in your pension you’ve still made £10k off the bat.

So how do I go about investing in stocks and shares isas, I’m pretty clued up on mortgages etc but have no idea of how to invest in such things as mentioned above. Presuming I don’t pay pal gift it to a random “financial advisor”.

From the last few weeks track record I’d shove the lot on what Robbie Savages mum predicts for the weekends results on his Premiership show on a Friday Morning on five live.

Or when you say no coke and hookers…. surely if you’re selling, not buying……?

So how do I go about investing in stocks and shares isas

Easy way is to pick a well known fund. Most you need to buy through an investment company. Hargreaves Lansdowne are easy to use and have a big list of products. There are some funds you can buy directly such as Fundsmith and Vanguard. We’ve got some with both of these. Very easy to set up online. Almost too easy, when spending that much cash. There is a limit of one ISA per year and a max of 20k but if you use your wife’s allowance too you can buy two funds and up to 40k. Just be careful as shares can go down. Pretty annoying to lose money as soon as you buy. Long term it should bounce back though.

Bloke I work with has £45k burning a hole in his pocket. Me and a couple of others have spotted a nice flat for £50k he could buy. Means he’d not be renting. Flat is pretty good in nice partof town, outside space and great views.

He’s buying a BMW X4. Given that his Yaris has been vandalised 4 times….

A nice flat is £50k and his Yaris gets vandalised? If I had £45k I’d get as far away from there as possible, not be buying property there!

https://www.bike-eu.com/sales-trends/nieuws/2012/10/the-aston-martin-30000-euro-bicycle-10110607

It’s got be be equities via funds for c 5 years time horizon.  You may be in the red for the first 2 years as markets move, but the c 4% divi reinvested starts to protect you from capital falls.  After 5 years you are pretty immune from a crash as 5 years worth of reinvested divis is c 20%, and a crash is defined as a 20% fall.

Or put it in premium bonds and wait for the crash, you can get your money out in 1 month.

Once diversified and you start monitoring it you will be surprised at how much the capital values move around, 1 month some sectors are in demand, the next no one wants them.  Just stay in the market.

Good luck, do it via the isa

Stocks and shares even with brexit imminent? (I have no idea how these things work, genuine question)

That was something that concerned me regarding shares, looming brexit and a loathed priminister. I too have no idea about shares, what if these investment companies went bust or whatever they call it. Do they just swallow your money?

Stocks and shares even with brexit imminent? (I have no idea how these things work, genuine question)

Valid question and the simple answer is that nobody knows. I held back on putting some money in for this tax year while I thought about what to do. 20k invested in Fundsmith in April would now be worth just over 23k. The markets can’t keep going up (can they??) but while they are going up its a good place to have some money. Personally I wouldn’t put every spare penny in there, its good to diversify, but right now I wish I had more in there.

That’s £10k for free just by putting it away until you’re 55 (at the earliest).

While that sounds good, (From other threads, I’m guessing Wrighty is mid fourties?) £15k at 5% for 10 years gets you that £10k – compound interest is wonderful. Plus relatively (within a year) access if your job goes tits up. What rate is a pension claiming to get you, and by how much can you beat that on your own?

Start a pension. It’s the smartest financial move you’ll ever make. 40% extra free money straight away.

I am in the same boat- well actually a slightly smaller boat (£15k) and was going to ask for advice from the STW hive mind so was pleased to see this thread.

Premium Bonds and waiting for the crash sounds good BUT what about the £ dropping in value with Brexit etc?  Wouldn’t being invested in foreign currency/ gold etc be safer?

I have approx £30k invested in Fundsmith/ some other worldwide funds and am wondering if keeping this chunk out of funds might be sensible?

I have my pension in the “ethical” investment option. Apparently it’s quite risky, however it’s increased by 15-20% a year for the past 4 years (on top of mine and my employer’s contributions). I’m happy with it, I’ve not selected it on a financial basis but if it does well that’s great, if it crashes I’ll have to make grandad porn or something when I hit retirement.

If you don’t have a pension, it seems like it’d make sense. Of course it’s totally inaccessible for now. And I now owe my ex a portion of it (she didn’t like work either).

Pensions are great if you can benefit from the tax credit, especially 40%. Stocks and shares ISA also pretty good. Find a setup with low dealing charges and invest around 5k at a time over 6 months (or even smaller/longer) to reduce volatility risk.

This would be (has been) my order of priority

1 – start pension

2 – start offsetting mortgage

3 – Highest grossing savings account

4 – Shares

What rate is a pension claiming to get you, and by how much can you beat that on your own?

Not sure what you mean, they are not claiming anything as Pensions are just a fiscally efficient way of saving/investing. You can pretty much invest the same way as if you didn’t use a pension wrapper but unless you want to have access to that cash before you are 55 you would be mad not to use the pension facility as you would forego a 20 or 40% instant uplift (or quasi instant for the pedantics). This  may not last so get it while you can.