Best use of £50,000

[summercompanion]

I am trying to make the best use of my £50,000 and would appreciate your advice and recommendations.

ISA: £20,000
High interest long term savings account: £10,000
Investment:£10,000
Normal quick access savings:£10,000

My questions are: is an isa definitely the best place to put the most money?

Is a high interest savings account worth it? I'm thinking one which you can't withdraw from for a while

Is investment sensible? I feel I've got some money - I want it to grow/but im not risking all of my money on it.

I will need the normal access savings for emergencies in day to day life.

Do you think that all sounds sensible?

No… inflation is set to be about 11% so ‘high interest savings accounts’ just aint going to cut it.

Put some in your pension for av20/40/45% cash bonus from the govt. Unless your pension is already maxed out? They need not be high risk funds…

Stocks and shares ISA 20K this year 20K next year.
do you need to access as much as 10K quickly?

Do you pay tax on your interest at the moment? If yes, then Isa. If no, then that's different

How old are you?

Right now, cash isnt great.
So, if you can put the money aside for 3+ (and ideally 5+) years, I'd stocks and shares it - within the ISA wrapper if you pay tax.

Thanks all for your quick replies.

I'm 43, and can probably do monthly contribution of £200 to savings and £200 to investments.

In terms of stocks and shares would you recommend anything for this? I doubt I will have lots of brain space to keep on top of managing this on a daily basis.

£50k is from house sale. Previously had £10k in savings. So don't feel I'd really paid any tax on anything before.

I do want to renovate my house in time, but I want to ring-fence some money for investment, and not spend it all.

I feel my pensions are ok - they could be better, but I feel I don't have that much visibility of them. So in a way, I'd like to keep my money accessible in case I need it at any point.

6 months of emergency fund - is £10k enough for that? Instant access account, or a combo of instant access and NS&I Premium Bonds.

If you know you won't need some of the money until you retire, then add it to pension as you get tax relief added. How much you can put in pension depends on your earned income this tax year and what is already going into pension from you and employer.

S&S ISA for money you do not intend to use for at least 5 years.
Use a simple multi-asset fund with a very low cost provider... for example Vanguard Lifestrategy.
Podcast about choosing a multi asset fund: meaningfulmoney.tv/BW7

Really think about what of this money you will use over the next few years. Cash loses value, especially at the moment with the increase in inflation. So you want to use it, or invest it, but keep some for the unexpected.

Now UK economy is turning into stagflation.

1. Inflation: your cash is eaten up every day by high inflation and the saving interest, or even bond interest, can't catch up the inflation in the sooner future

1. Recession: layoffs will kick off and assets will be sold off. Keeping cash for the worst scenarios and purchasing the quality assets in huge discounts.

Yes it's a dilemma whether to keep the cash or not. I do not see any problem of betting 50 / 50 on both sides, and your current allocation make perfect sense to me.

Interesting first post

I’d pay a couple of hundred pound to see a financial advisor. They’ll help you.
mad everyone has said, cash is depreciating so think about stocks and shares for better % returns.

Assuming you have an emergency fund in place, Ie 3-6month of costs covered.... then what kind of ISA were you thinking? I hope S&S, go for a low cost broad-based fund like Vanguard global all cap. The rest in a SIPP or general investment account. I suggest you get some visibility of your pension, at 43 you have time to get it performing well for your retirement, even possibly earlier retirement.