Viewing 30 posts - 41 through 70 (of 70 total)
  • What to do with up to £20k right now…?
  • mboy
    Free Member

    £20,000 credit is better than £20,000 debt.

    Agreed. It has taken me some time to get to this position, from the former one…

    Paid my mortgage off with my 20 k last week, hurrah.

    Awesome! I however have approximately 85% of mine left to pay off…

    Get married, that will cover it

    😂

    We’re good ta… She’s made that mistake once… I have no desire to make it at all!

    Mboy, I’d agree with the others – if the risk of losing 10% of £2k frightened you, surely the only option would be pay down the mortgage and share your good fortune with your gf. My partner and I are very well matched on income and outgoings so 50:50 works fine. If I had that much of a surplus and she had none, I don’t think I’d feel good about sticking to 50:50.

    Why all these assertions that I’m so risk averse…? 🤷🏻‍♂️ I started my own business 7 years ago, rode the good times and the bad, and only jacked it in last year after being back where I was 7yr previously and with a landlord starting to take the piss. I have dabbled with Bitcoin, I am currently a little bit up on it but was 60-70% down for a good while, after being 15-20% up on it for a few weeks… Such a volatile market, and one heavily manipulated by those with the most to gain from it! Still… It’s sat there as an experiment, and after 2 1/2 years of being patient it’s finally worth more than I paid for it again.

    The 50:50 thing is just something both of us are very strict about, neither of us wants to be in a relationship where money is ever a cause of an argument. My GF had a lot of unsecured personal debt when I met her, mostly caused by her ex husband. She still has a few thousand £’s of personal debt too, thankfully these days it is all on a 0% balance transfer card so its not accruing huge interest any more, and she is eating into it at a rate that she will have paid it off by April 2021, so after that she’ll be a few hundred £’s per month better off herself anyway. Fortunately through all of this, and with quite a bit of help planning by me, she actually has a near perfect Credit Rating score! But she was paying interest on credit cards at 24.9% for a while though, which won’t have helped the amount she has had to pay back… Oh and trust me, I’ve offered to pay off her personal debt (it’s about £4k now) and she can then pay me back monthly rather than the credit card company, but she won’t hear of it and now it’s at 0% anyway, she’s especially adamant that she doesn’t want to restrict what I do with my own money given that she has her situation fully under control. She’s not going hungry or going without, put it that way. Neither of us lives particularly lavish lifestyles, I’m just lucky I don’t have the dependants and also have a slightly higher salary with more perks, which accounts for my significant extra expendable income.

    So… Got to ask

    I’m not asking for your pity certainly P-Jay… In fact, with a combined income vastly superior to ours yet you live hand to mouth, ! I guess both my GF and I have learnt the hard way in our 20’s and 30’s what getting into debt does, and what is actually important in life isn’t countless frivolities or keeping up with the Jones’. I’ll admit, these days, I’m pretty tight. Not to the point of money getting in the way of enjoyment, but I have to justify any significant purchases to myself one way or the other. Working in the bike trade has helped with expensive bike purchases, as I don’t generally suffer the initial depreciation on bike related purchases that the average consumer might, though that said, these days there’s far less difference inbetween the trade prices and what the average consumer pays than there ever has been! I only really ride 2 of my bikes too, and I do look after them, so expect things to last me a decent length of time. My GF has her road bike which she loves, but even with the wheel upgrade it stands her in for less than £2500, and that’s the only thing she owns (other than her car) of any note. Our main expense beyond the mortgage in our house, is food! I don’t get how people fritter money away any more… Yes it’s nice to have a new car on the drive, but is it worth £500 a month for 3 years, and £1500 equity in it by the end if you’re very lucky?

    So, I hear your pain… I know many people in similar situations, and I know that both my GF and I are petrified of being in a relationship like yours where one person spends significantly more than the other regardless of whether they can afford to or not. We have both kept our financial independence as much as possible, we have a shared account specifically for bills for which we both have a standing order going into each month from our personal accounts, but beyond that we are responsible for our own spending. What’s probably caused my excess expendable income, is that until 8 months ago, I had spent the previous 6 years self employed and on an absolute bare minimum wage, and I haven’t increased my spending habits significantly since getting a decent job and a wage.

    Out of interest, what does your missus spend money on? I know a family of 4 locally that have a £250 per week eating out budget, on top of their £200 per week grocery budget! Thing is, they’ve probably only got £45k combined income roughly! I guess once something becomes habit, it becomes far too easy to justify your expenditures and very difficult to change them!

    Anyway… I think for now, I’ll put a few grand in Premium Bonds, I have just upped my standing order from £10 per week to £25 per week into my Vanguard ISA. We are scheduled for a remortgage in 5 months time, I’m concerned I may need to cough up a few quid anyway to push us over a LTV threshold unless a valuation is particularly kind, but that said, we both have much better credit ratings than we did when we bought the house so we should be looking at a 2% cut in the interest rate we pay on that anyway, so can drastically reduce our payments each month or cut our mortgage term significantly.

    RAGGATIP
    Free Member

    I’m just lucky I don’t have the dependants

    That’s not luck, that’s skill!

    I’ve been married 25 years in December and separate money is a weird concept to me – we’ve had a joint account since we were 23. I earn 4 x what she does, but it’s all ‘our’ money, we both work hard and it’s not measured – granted, she isn’t a dick and I spend more than she does (and a fair chunk goes on the 20yr old leech / daughter we are blessed with), but there are no rules, restrictions, or splits

    If we split up tomorrow, I’d gladly give her and the daughter the bricks and mortar I’ve (technically) paid for

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    lunar
    Free Member

    If it were me I would fix your mortgage when it’s due at the crazy low rates currently available and max out your ISA allowance, investing via Vanguard. Hold on tight and get ready for a roller coaster. I invested £10k 3 months ago; lost 23% in the first 2 weeks and am now sitting with a nice 15.2% return on my initial investment. If like me this is all new to you, google Mr Money Moustache and get reading. He is US based but the lessons and knowledge are transferable.

    dyna-ti
    Full Member

    Small boat, the rest into premium bond.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    TLDR…

    Get an offset mortgage account where the account is only in your name.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Pension. Not Quite coke and hookers i know. But you have excess cash and need an investment. And I am assuming you are at least a basic rate taxpayer. How much of that 1.05mn personal allowance have you used up. To retire you want to be saving your age as a % of your income into some form of investment.

    biglee1
    Full Member

    Buy a couple of mint Honda sp1 and sp2 bikes, they won’t lose any cash and prices are in the up.
    I bought a BMW Hp2 sport, cast iron cash maker that 😁

    stevie750
    Full Member

    Motocross bike and a van.

    mboy
    Free Member

    Buy a couple of mint Honda sp1 and sp2 bikes

    It has genuinely been considered already…

    Thing is, I don’t have the storage space. I already have too many bikes hence 2 are going. I do have a “useable investment” in the form of an original Aprilia Tuono Limited, one of only 200 made and all in original condition and prices are slowly increasing for these so I’m keeping it low miles an original.

    I guess what I really need is an original Foggy Rep 916SPS, they’re starting to change hands for crazy money and values are continuing to rise! 😂

    Motocross bike and a van.

    Don’t need the van. Have one with work anyway. Have considered an MX bike as I’m local to Apex Worcester and I’m quite good friends with the guy that runs it, but worried I’d be massively out of my depth and/or break myself. I’ve done a couple of Ady Smith’s Enduro days now so getting handier off road, I guess we’ll see, but it does appeal. It may be one for the future anyway, but not right now I don’t think.

    To retire you want to be saving your age as a % of your income into some form of investment.

    Got it… 40% of my take home pay on Coke and Hookers… 👍🏻 That should take care of me ever getting the opportunity to retire nicely! 😉

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    A deposit on a mansion somewhere in the Canary Islands to move to before Jan 2021.

    scandal42
    Free Member

    A new Kona.

    Obviously you would need to find a bit more money.

    philjunior
    Free Member

    I think there’s 3 options

    Work less. Doesn’t sound like you need the money, why not go part time and get more riding/motorcycling/other fun stuff in?

    Trade in your bikes and motorbike for something top end. I know you don’t need to, but you can easily spend £8-10k on top end bike these days without even fitting an electric motor, why not try it out, at least if you have anything a bit racy? Or get a “nicer” motorbike?

    Invest it or put it in savings. But then you’ll end up with more of a “problem” if it goes well, and stress if it doesn’t. An offset mortgage could be an option. Also how is your pension pot? Mine *was* doing quite well until recently, I haven’t got around to checking it as I’ve had more immediate problems.

    alpin
    Free Member

    Canary Islands

    **** terrible place to live…

    Worked there for six months and the size of any of the islands is limiting.

    soundninjauk
    Full Member

    It sounds like you’ve made up your mind, but I’m just going to put another vote out there for more money into the Vanguard ISA. From what I’ve seen, read and experienced (IANAFA) it’s time in the market rather than timing the market. Like other people here I took a hit a few months ago but it’s well up now, and certainly doing far better than the pitiful interest available in regular savings accounts. I reckon it’s that or the mortgage that’ll give you biggest bang for your buck.

    Someone up there mentioned Mr Money Mustache, he’s pretty full on with his thinking but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some good points. For a more uh, British, view on things I quite like Monevator (and also Indeedably and Simple Living in Somerset while I’m here).

    mboy
    Free Member

    So, in the great tradition of ignoring all the best advice given, including my own, here’s where the first £10k went… 😂

    In my defence… I’ve always wanted one, the seller almost certainly under valued it, it’s now a depreciation proof classic (the coupe’s are already appreciating!), it’s a lot more fun to drive than the TT it has replaced, the GF likes it (thank god!) and given the lack of viable foreign travel for the forseeable future, I expect it’ll get used for a few UK mini breaks in the next 12 months at least so all good… I could sell it tomorrow for more than I paid for it, so in that respect, not a bad investment!

    Also managed to sneak a wheel upgrade for my road bike in too (albeit I’ve sold a few other bits to cover the cost of the wheels), so need to get out on that and get some miles in now really!

    As soon as I realise it, the next £10k will probably be going in a mix of Vanguard ISA and Premium Bonds, at least until such a position (hopefully in 5-6 months) when I change my mortgage and can overpay it without penalty. Next mortgage I’ll be looking to save 2% APR anyway, so will be accruing a lot more equity in my house each month than I am currently for a given outlay. Fortunately, mine and the GF’s jobs still appear totally safe even after the govt’s announcements yesterday too, so as soon as I can do so without penalty, will pay off as much of the mortgage as possible whilst I can.

    frankconway
    Full Member

    Nice car but…if parked outside your house, do tidy up the hedge and your neighbour’s foliage is just unacceptable – by STW standards.

    bigrich
    Full Member

    gold

    tjagain
    Full Member

    put the spare money into the property especially if you want to rent it in future. Done wisely this will increase the value of the property and increase the rental income.

    We have a small flat we rent out. Ok it was somewhat shabby but I put £12000 and a lot of my time into it. Doubled its rental value and put £30 000 on its sale value. In 7 years rental I get my £12000 back in increased rent ( or would have done if I hadn’t reduced the rent due to the ruddy ‘rona) and still get the capital increase

    sadexpunk
    Full Member

    i may also be able to save say £100 p/m at the moment. its not a lot but better than my bank account sitting with a healthy balance but doing nowt.

    ive got a HL s&s SIPP, and a vanguard or fidelity (cant remember which) s&s ISA.

    do they cost the same to either chuck a lump sum into, or drip feed a monthly DD into? im thinking that if they charge a small amount for each transaction, then it may be better to just do 1 payment into? or am i mistaken?

    and if theyre both the same, with the same tax implications, which would be better to put money into? (im 55 and want to retire at 60).
    i think i asked this before on a thread but cant remember the answer and in true stw fashion i did neither at the time 😀

    thanks

    godders
    Free Member

    I’ve got a fair few shares in AstraZeneca. Since 2016 they have doubled in price. I don’t really know much about stocks and shares, and understand this could all come crashing down, but to have 80K double in 4 years is pretty good. Will I ever take the money out of the shares is another thing, maybe I see it as a pension, or money for the kids etc, I don’t fully know yet.

    Ro5ey
    Free Member

    Godders

    The first rule if investing is DIVERSIFY … spread your risk man !!

    It sounds like you dont think you’ve worked hard for that doubling of the money and so arent too worried about it … but it’ll be a shame to see it reduce.

    Please get advise…. please please act on this matter.

    And OP

    Don’t put money in the market for 6 months…. Investing, as opposed to saving, is a long term (read really long term) activity.

    Good Luck all

    ctk
    Free Member

    Premium bond rates are shite now stick it all in some type of fund.

    (Though I read recently that the bloke who predicted the sub prime crash is predicting some type of tracker fund crash…)

    Ro5ey
    Free Member

    Godders

    This is what I’d do

    Transfer half over the to the wife, there’s no tax implications.

    Then each sell 12000 worth, again no (Capital Gains) tax implications.

    Putting the funds into pensions to immediately receive 25% (more if higher earning) gain from the tax rebate.

    Do that each year until your single stock holding is reduced to a far more balanced amount

    MAybe one year put the funds into an ISA so you can get at some of it if needed.

    Good luck

    stevemuzzy
    Free Member

    Give it to me. I will pay you back 100 per month. Promise 🙂

    Sensible option is premium bonds. Everything else is risky at the moment.

    thegeneralist
    Free Member

    Lunar:

    Hold on tight and get ready for a roller coaster. I invested £10k 3 months ago; lost 23% in the first 2 weeks and am now sitting with a nice 15.2% return on my initial investment. If

    Can we have an up date on this please.
    Want to know if it’s just me that’s been poleaxed the last four weeks.
    I’m down £2k since April at present.

    mboy
    Free Member

    put the spare money into the property especially if you want to rent it in future. Done wisely this will increase the value of the property and increase the rental income.

    Yes, don’t worry, that’s the plan in future… Can’t at the moment as still got another 5 months on a mortgage that we can’t overpay without a heavy penalty.

    Nice car but…if parked outside your house, do tidy up the hedge and your neighbour’s foliage is just unacceptable – by STW standards.

    Not my house. Was a few houses down from my friends house when I parked it up on the way back from collecting it (she lives close to where I collected it from). I daren’t take a pic on my driveway, as it needs weeding yet again! 😂

    icyseanfitz
    Free Member

    I mean ebike 🤷‍♂️

    andykirk
    Free Member

    Apple shares.

    grtdkad
    Full Member

    NS&I rates have just cliff-edged to 0.01% (from November)

    https://www.nsandi.com/income-bonds

    So, as you’ve got the car, I’m going to say a couple of £5k Gold ingots.

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