Investing £10k

[Panicmode1]

Can anyone recommend a stocks/shares ISA - I am so confused by the array of products - I want to just invest it, leave it, reinvest the dividends and hope that in a few years time it's happily been growing...I'm not confident enough to pick my own shares and manage it myself. Can anyone recommend a good Isa provider please?

Really bad time with the FTSE at record levels - leave it a bit. As savings interest rates are negative in real terms, all savers are currently screwed. Sorry!

I'd only do that if the £10k is spare and you have filled up all the other possible ways of earning a crumb of interest (by which I mean current accounts with strings paying 3%).

How about premium bonds, no 'interest rates' as such but at least you get the chance to dream of a big win. My DCs have £1000 worth and they've won £25 quite a few times.

I would second Premium Bonds too. Will probably out perform shares in the sorry term, investment is safe and as pp says you could win a million!

*short

Mine is with Standard Life and in one of their My Folio managed funds. You can do a test to work out your attitude to risk and then choose the appropriate level. Linky here

You should see it as a long-term investment though and be prepared to leave it to recover if the value has gone down due to poor investment performance.

Thanks everyone. Yes, it's a long term investment and I don't 'need' the money for years, so I want to leave it in the stock market - preferably with a global reach, rather than just the FTSE. I haven't done so well with premium bonds, but maybe I'll just chuck £1k into it and see.

remember premium bonds also get hammered by inflation, which is already well over 2% assuming you don't eat i-phones.

odds on winning were lowered this year to fend off too much money coming in.

all you can really do is gamble on a spread of investments. But not right now.

I wou,d recommend Legal & General 'tracker' stocks & shares ISAs. Very low charges, easy to apply online and good long term bet

In a similar position, is it better to pay a chunk off the mortgage?

Look at vanguard life strategy funds. Well diversified, low charges and passive fund of index trackers and you can choose your level of risk . vanguard ls100 is 100% equities. Vanguard 60 is 60% equities and 40% bonds. Needless to say this is suggestion not advice as I am not IFA. That is what we have invested in for our stocks and shares isas. Stock market is high but general feeling is it is time in market which counts. Has to be medium to long term though and make sure you have funds elsewhere should you need cash in a hurry.

I have just started a stocks and shares isa with Hargreaves Landsdown. I did it all online and can login at any time to see how it's doing. I opted for medium risk. I am paying in £4K a month over the next few months as a kind of hedge rather than paying it all in at once. The market is high but who is to say whether it will carry on rising or start falling.

do check the charges on all ISAs. In my unqualified opinion, you might as well stick with trackers.

and if your mortgage rate is higher than what you can get on savings (which it will be) and you will still have access to a few months of living expenses - then yes, I would pay down the mortgage.

Check out nutmeg. Really easy to invest and they manage the portfolio for you. Low charges as well the last time I looked

Thanks Heybebe - I have actually gone with Nutmeg - it seemed to pick a balanced portfolio for me, charges seem low and it was very easy as I'm a total novice investor. We shall see!