What to do with £25k?

I would top off the ISA for the tax year. You can put in up to £20K a year, tax free.
Of the remaining about £7k, I'd put perhaps half into an easy access "rainy day" fund, and use the remaining for a bit of fun.

OP does not say that it is an inheritance.

The inheritance you are due to receive “soon”who is that from?

im following! Thank you OP for starting this thread!

I’m in a similar position. Set to receive an inheritance. Still have no idea how much due to it being through a “finders” firm. We think between £28k and £35k. I’m going to
use it to pay off some debts, buy a semi decent car (nothing fancy) and get all
the jobs that need doing in the house done. We only have a mortgage of £39k now but we’ve decided if we pay off the mortgage we’ll never be able to afford the other things

I have a 7 figure property portfolio and 6 figures in my savings. I don't own a single share in any company and I don't trade markets, never have. Thank for attempting to diminish my experiences with your devotion to the markets. I don't do posh gambling.

@CuarloDeFonza I wonder where you are right now and how well positioned to give advice on investing? I am set. Not wasting my time on you.

@Darkling1 Invest, ISA’s / SIPP, you are young enough to reap big rewards. Home improvements are not the way to go especially given you have a partner.

Who said anything about limiting investments to the West. I suggested investing in a portfolio of globally diverse funds. These could include China and India.

Anyway the OP already has a S+S isa so this conversation isn't relevant to them. Hope it's sunny where you are, have a lovely afternoon

Check out offset mortgages when your mortgage comes up for renewal. You can offset your ISA and savings against your mortgage which reduces the interest that goes on every month. It means you still have the capital at your disposal but it is helping towards reducing your mortgage. I can't remember the minimum amount you need to have in savings to offset your mortgage, it used to be £12K but that was a long time ago.

I’ll just leave this here….

First off, money is a tool to use to get want you want. You said you wanted to use it in a balanced way in your OP.

The investment in S+S isa/emergency fund advice is the most sensible thing to do if you want to grow your £25k and protect yourself from anything unexpected.

But it's perfectly reasonable to use the money to buy/do stuff (ie home improvements) if you're clear that that is going to improve your live in the here and now but not give you future financial returns (assuming you're not adding an extension or loft conversion? But unless your kitchen/bathroom is falling apart even redoing those won't provide a significant return when you sell up)

Consider why you want to overpay the mortgage. And if you'll have to pay fees to do do. And where you see your relationship in 5 to 10 years.
If you put the money in S+S ISAs you can reasonably expect a 7 to 10% return over five to ten years. Would overpaying on your mortgage save you the same amount of money on the interest? You need to find an online calculator to do the sums - try moneysavingexpert. What if you put the money away for 5 years or more, then when you sell or remortgage use that money to reduce the amount you borrow on the next house/remortgage. By that time would you expect to be married to DP?

Overpaying a mortgage is good advice, but it might not be the best advice for an unmarried 20 something, with an inheritance and limited savings.

You need to learn what 'CAPITAL AT RISK' means.

The 10% consistently across 40 years in unrealistic especially in the current climate. The last 40 years the west grew in a post war era, the same is not guaranteed again, indeed the emergence of china and India will see to that.

@CuarloDeFonza you need to learn about compound interest.

I suggest you either do some maths or use an online investment calculator.
If you put 20k away at 10% interest for 40 years you'll have a little bit over £900k. No arguing with the maths!

A deed of trust does not mean bugger all. It is very useful if parties go to court where jointly owned property. You can get a deed of trust drawn up by local solicitors as they would be the ones (not mumsnet) to reassure you.

Grow up and stop taking it personally and your taking absolute shite if you think £20,000 will magic money tree into £900,000. 😂 What planet are you on? Are you Liz Truss in disguise. You obviously someone who hasn't got a pot to piss in but plenty of fantasy advice.

Questions to ask yourself…

1. what is your mortgage interest rate and is it fixed?
2. what are the home improvements you’re thinking about and will they add value down the line
3. what are your retirement goals and are you on track for them now

These are a good start.

Now a little more detail on the questions but here’s where you need to start seeing how the above are related. Please note that I’m American so some of this may not be applicable or different for you and I’ve tried to note where I may not be correct or our systems are different.

If your mortgage rate is 4% and fixed for a long period (I think your mortgages work different than mine which are generally long term fixed for the life of the loan. Mine is 4%/30 year as an example).

You would be better off investing the money in a product like the FTSE 100 (I think that’s the equivalent of the US S&P 500 which is an index fund of the top performing companies but I may be wrong on the name of it so do your research!) which last year had a rate of return of 8%.

If you invest you don’t necessarily have to put it into a retirement fund (I really have no idea how your retirement plans work) instead leave it in a non retirement account then it could also be used as a catastrophic emergency fund.

In other words it’s better to pay 4% of interest on your mortgage and grow your money in the stock market by 8%.

Then on to the home improvements… if your idea is to get new carpet… well that’s nice and you’ll enjoy it I’m sure but you won’t see that money back. But if you added a bathroom that may increase the value of your house when you sell.

The last thing, is to park the money for a while you research your options. It’s better to sit in a basic low interest savings account than rushing into a decision and regretting it.

Exactly - having a payment "noted" doesn't do anything to ensure that you can get that money back in the event the relationship falters.

When it comes to inheritance moneys or any kind of single property (including earnings actually, for anyone who isn't married) the best way to keep control over it is to keep it separate from any kind of joint account or joint obligation and to make very sure that no one is using you as a co-signatory on ANYTHING - including credit cards etc or indeed anything that can be used to run up a debt.

A mortgage on a house might be different as some people can only afford to buy a house if they do so with a partner (and the rent savings can be very beneficial) but even then I would make damn sure that ownership and investment - together with anything put into the house) is secured via legal agreement. Sadly I've had family members (who didn't listen to me - because why would they listen to a lawyer?? urgh) lose loads of money because they got involved with mortgages and their relationship then broke down. And they were the ones who put the most effort into doing DIY/making the house look lovely, spending money on stuff for the house/garden etc etc. None of which they were able to get back when the house was subject to a forced sale.

Even worse is when people don't realise their other half has used them to sign up for debt accruing things like credit cards and maxes those things out when the relationship fails...leaving them on jointly on the hook for vast amounts of debt.

New style ESA is not impacted by savings amounts (with the caveat that it may be impacted by pension amounts). It's based on national insurance payments over time - so your savings aren't reviewed as part of the calculation. It's more complex than that of course, but that's the basic idea.