How would you invest £50k with a view to making money

[Tulipsinmyvase]

Let’s say you came into a windfall of £50,000

How would you invest this for a return? (Assuming you don’t want to pay off mortgage/do home improvements/buy ‘things’)

Assuming you have no particular skills/hobbies/qualifications.
You have some time on your hands to learn.

What would you do to invest it? Would it be enough for a business start up and if so - what?

I use nutmeg with a 15 year time horizon in mind.

Do you need income now? What are you goals?

An ETF in a stocks & shares ISA.

I have a Nutmeg account too with my money split into 3 pots with varying risk.

.....such as a Vanguard global fund or lots of alternatives.
There's a good FIRE group on FB - Financial Independence UK - where you could get lots of ideas.

I don't know about Nutmeg, but Interactive Investor is a good low fee platform

Thank you I will look into these suggestions. I’d never heard of nutmeg! I don’t know the first thing about stocks/shares so this would be a learning process.

Is a business start up possible on this amount?

And if so - what?

Hargreaves lansdown would be my suggestion.

Premium bonds

I've no idea whether it would be enough for a business startup, but if that was something you wanted to pursue, I'd stick it (? All) in premium bonds for several months while looking around at ideas. Don't grab a 'business opportunity' just because you can afford it. It's got to be something you are willing to work hard at and live with constantly, not end up feeling tied to or trapped by.

Yes put it into pb initially, whilst researching.
I'd personally not attempt a business start up if its something your not naturally inclined to do, it's so much hard work you really have to be passionate about it.
Stocks and shares isa, start looking up different funds, different risk exposure the vanguard website life stragety funds are a good place to start learning about it all.
Most of mine are in such funds, vanguard and index trackers, then a quarter are in more so called risky funds/trusts eg Scottish mortgage which for me is over 100%, and a few others with fewer more specific holdings.
Never buy large chunks unless the market falls again like it did with corona.. My goodness if you had had you fifty grand last march!!
It would be double now.

You can hold isa through different platforms it's the fees you need to look at.

A business star up is possible on £0. Whether you attract investors is a good mark of whether it is a decent business idea.

When do you want/need the ROI?

I’d highly recommend Vanguard’s Lifestrategy funds. If you’re happy to put the £50k away for 15-20 years, go for 80 or 100%.

Stocks and shares ISAs, though there’s a limit to what you can put in each year - still £15k? Returns are tax free and 3-4% is not at all unusual.

Given that ordinary savings accounts rates are virtually all rubbish at the moment, I’d put the rest into Ernie bonds, which you can cash in (and invest elsewhere) at any time. And at least you stand the chance of a win.

Please be very wary of any scheme offering returns that seem too good to be true (I’ve seen 10% promised recently - some sort of property investment) because they almost certainly are.

ISA allowance is £20k now. Starting a business is probably the single riskiest thing you could do with the money (although obviously the potential gain is huge) - are you willing to risk it all?

We put about this much intoo Microsoft when Covid first started to look like a pandemic. Made wayyyyy more than normal interest. Now have diversified into genomics and synthetic meat products. Beyond Meat is doing well especially. We got in almost at the start and it's lovely to be part of something you believe in.

Would nobody get a buy to let property? I live in a cheap part of the country and my friend was just telling me you need 25% as a deposit.

@earlydoors42 I wouldn’t do a BTL in our individual circumstances as the rent would be taxed at 40% and we’d end up losing money every month. The capital gain over the long term would probably make this worthwhile but I think I’d rather invest in an ISA / premium bonds.

What about a holiday let?

Passive(ish) investment would be various funds to a desired risk level. Probably mostly stock and bond funds, some directly in specific stocks, bit of gold, bit of crypto.

Active start a business make it a job, property flipping. Not renting out, that's super risky until you get a decent portfolio and the laws are only getting worse for landlords. Buy, do up, sell. Hard work but there's money to be made.

I have a Wealthify ISA account (like Nutmeg) Its a robo investor, you choose your risk profile and let them do all the work. If you're willing to do the research yourself then you could probably just buy shares but, personally, I don't have the time or confidence to do that so I'm happy to let someone else do it. I'm currently on 18% ROI.