Best way to invest £40K cash?

[BestestBrownies]

Having never previously been in a position to invest, thanks to EXH constantly frittering away any savings I ever made (just one of the reasons he's an ex), I am now in the position to invest £40K of my hard-earned savings, but utterly clueless as to how to go about it. At the moment it's just sitting as cash in the bank attracting a piss-poor interest rate (part matured ISAs, part current account).

Anyone?

Should I go down the buy-to-let route or perhaps a stocks & shares ISA? Or is there another solution I'm not aware of?

Do you have a mortgage? You could move to an offset mortgage. That way you keep £40k in the bank if you need it quickly and save a fortune on mortgage

Max out an ISA and then open a bond?

Buy to let's aren't the easy money making thing people think.

I've just bought my first one and I've only had to take out a 35k mortgage. I've paid cash for the other 100k.

My mortgage repayments will be £250 a month. I've borrowed 35k off dh and will pay him £200 a month back. Rent income will be £600 so you'd think that would leave me with £150 a month? Well I have to pay tax on the £600 so that's £120 a month gone on tax. Which leaves me with £30 to pay landlord insurance and building insurance which comes to about £40 a month. Plus I need to save money for repairs. The tax may not work out quite that high as I can off set expenses against tax so it may be a bit less but I'm worried about making a loss on it. And that's not considering letting agent fees which I won't be paying as I'm managing it myself. But empty rental periods are a concern.

Once money is sunk in property it's mostly illiquid. Shove it in an isa

Thank you all for the replies.

I don't have a mortgage. Have never had one, so would be a first-time buyer. I thought getting my foot on the property ladder would be wise, but maybe buying-to-let isn't the solution if I then have to pay tax on the income. 40K won't go very far as a deposit in London, where I have to live (and rent), for work.

The ISA interest rates are just so disappointing at the moment . I'll have a look at bonds, thank you

Self-managed Stocks & Shares ISA.........careful selection of funds should beat cash ISAs. I've managed my own for 7 years and always been ahead of cash ISAs - even in the grim days of 2008/9