What to do with 30k?

[investmentadvice18]

I'm posting under a different name as I don't want to be identified from my other posts.

My DH and I are looking to do something with circa 30k. We met with a financial advisor a while ago from St James Place who seemed great but we weren't in a position to proceed with anything then. I've since read on these boards that IFA's from SJP should be avoided....can someone clarify exactly why?

We are also concerned about investing in the stock market as it's due to take a bit of a dive. However we also don't want to just leave it in savings accounts getting less that 1%!

We can afford to invest this amount long term ish, as it would still leave us with another circa 30k for emergencies and what-not. If anyone has any ideas to share that would be great. We are total novices!

SJP - high charges, not independent

If it long term, just invest it. Yes it will dive, so what, you're not withdrawing

Use Vanguard Lifestrategy 80%. Sit tight, don't sell when it tanks

My dad used SHP , his investment did well, and they were helpful when he died unexpectedly, his IFA said he’d advised against them as he felt they were expensive, said you pay for the glossy magazines and expensive stationery they use!

They do a great sales pitch and I’m sure dad went with them because he liked the pitch and felt happy with them, to him that would have been as important as well as returns.

Thing is the stock market is the stock market. No one knows, no one beats it for long (or very very few). Spend less on charges, keep more. Simple.

Thank you for your advice so far. I think we will just not bother with an IFA and go for a Vanguard fund of some sort. So we should invest now, rather than wait for the dip and invest then?!

I’d buy a house and rent it out.

Wealthify
There's also property funds you can invest in

Speak to an independent financial adviser who will recommend from a roster of funds. Vanguard are one asset manager of many.

If it was that easy to predict the stock market, we'd all be millionaires! Diversification is key (ie don't put all your eggs in one basket).

A good IFA will talk you through the risk-return trade-off and make suggestions based on your life stage and financial goals. (Eg if you are younger you can afford to wait for markets to bounce back).

An IFA won't, not for 30k... sorry, but that's the ugly truth. Or they will but the charge will be too high.

Vanguard Lifestratgy 80% is a very sophisticated tracker (not all are equal), you'll have plenty of diversification - about 10 funds and about 18000 positions.

Look, you’ve no idea what the stock market will do.

With £30k you’d be best to pay down any expensive debt (mortgage? Credit cards?) unless your return on it would be higher than your rate on the debt? Do you own a house? Do you have debt? Children? ISA’s? What’s your lifestyle like? Are you struggling? £30k is not really enough to merit a financial advisor usually unless you want to take some serious risk?

We have no debt, we own our own house but own it outright with no mortgage, no cars on finance etc. Will be starting a family on the next few years and I plan to not work until our child/children are at school. We can live on my DH's salary fairly comfortably, although we may need to dip into the spare 30k. We don't want to take serious risk with the 30k we can invest, but we can invest it long term. Considered a buy-to-let but I don't think we'd make any money for a while as we would have to get a mortgage for it and pay agents fees/high stamp duty etc.

Sounds like perfect reason to invest

I would invest it in a pension for you. It will help make up your pension loss when you take time out of employment.

These people are quite helpful www.fool.co.uk

A pension is a good idea. I am set to inherit a fair amount, circa £1m, but I certainly don't want to rely on that. Where do I start regarding investing in a pension?

I know a person that invested some of her savings into crypto currency and it looked weird to me at first. I've talked to her a couple of times and we have brought this topic up but I cannot say that I got her idea about such income. She mentioned that she owns a contract at hashflare and that she has quite a decent amount of profit using it. I even looked though some data cloudminingpro.net/hashflare/ to check if it is true and it seemd quite real to me. Guess it just takes a lot of knowledge to make it big using this method.

Depending on what other investments you have they always say diversify so property/ isa/ savings account, etc
I'm pretty sure they advise that in case one tanks, then you've still got the others. So maybe 10 in Isa, 10 in tracker fund, 5 in premium bond and maybe 5 in savings account with 1year high interest( as they usually tale off after that) or maybe 5 in crypto currency. It depends when you think you will need the money as you lose interest if you take it out early from savings acct one year, or early from a 5 year bond. And possibly there are costs each time you sell shares in a fund. Your isa can be stock market funds so you won't pay tax if they increase in value. Sorry if it all looks so complex I started with a simple list!