Where would you put £10k of savings?

[Bigredriding]

We have about £10k which is doing nothing in a high street bank account. I’ve had a little look at investing in shares and would like to do this, but it looks confusing and as though it would take a lot of time and energy. I’ve heard Premium Bonds are only marginally better than a savings account. We have a mortgage and could pay some of that off, but would prefer to have the money accessible for home improvements/emergency etc and grow it a bit if possible. We’re quite young and have a long time on the mortgage left, so it would be a bit of a drop in the ocean.

Does anyone know anything about buying shares? Or what would any good with money mumsnetters do?

Red wellies you should re check your investments and shift them, that's a long time to be surpressed, I trust you read the spot the dog stuff that comes out yearly?

[quote PlanDeRaccordement]@VanGoghsDog

It's a bit worrying that someone suggesting someone gets one doesn't even know the current limit.

How so? I live in France. So excuse me for not knowing all the details of foreign savings vehicles like U.K. ISAs. At least I know enough to suggest a tax free way for OP to save money in stocks and shares unlike everyone saying “premium bonds” which will cause taxes to be due.[/quote]
No tax on premium bonds. So you're wrong on two counts.

Most of my investments dropped from March last year but have mainly recovered and as they were all above the original cost anyway they are fine.

But, last Feb I bought two funds, £5 k of each. One has miraculously gone up 100%, and gives dividends! I'm a bit in shock. The other one has only gone up about 6% , having dropped like a stone about two weeks after I bought it.

The only way I chose them was for balance in my portfolio.

And if we're reminding people that premium bonds are subject to inheritance tax then we ought to point out that so are ISAs, other than a tax free transfer to a spouse, but if no spouse or bequeathed elsewhere, or on the second death they are also subject to inheritance tax.

And premium bonds wins are tax free, even over the £1k annual limit for interest, because it's not interest, and winnings are not taxed.

@Mull I went through Cushon, work had a savings deal where you got quite low fees. But even without that they weren't big. And you can pick across a range of products.

They have a dashboard and you can spread your investments across a mix of very high right through to low risk.

You put in what you want to invest and which level of risk and it shows you lots of options. Pick one of those and it tracks it every month.
I like the easy format. :)