Inheriting £50k... WWYD?

[MamaFrey29]

Inheriting £50k. What would you do with the money?

@Cahu58 I have the maximum amount of PBs and so far they are a good investment. Most months I win at least £25, I think some months I have won £150 (in 2 £75 batches).

However they're a bad long term investment (unless you win £1m) because you will only get out what you put in. So if I cash in I will "only" get £50k which won't be worth as much in 20 years of course.

If you have spare money though, they're a fun and safe investment

You seem keen on another property. Go ahead, but now is the worst time to buy since 2007. Tenants are struggling to pay rent. No one can view properties. No one knows if their jobs are safe.
Best to do some research.
Personally I would wait and see how thing shake out.

What I would not do is waste it on a holiday, it boils my blood when people waste 10k on 2 weeks they will soon forget but don't have a pension.
I'd buy a house, pay off my mortgage, stick it into my pension, make my future more secure with it.

I would not buy a house now, wait until the prices drop because they will and you will have your pick of the best ones.

But at some stage you've got more money/investments than you'll spend in the rest of your lifetime and you should be thinking about spending at least some of it. There are no pockets in a shroud and there's also no point living an overly frugal life to leave a huge inheritance to your DCs, especially as if you do leave a big inheritance, there will be tax to pay.

If you're financially comfortable with a decent pension, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using some of an inheritance on the holiday of a lifetime, which if it's something that you've always wanted to do, but haven't been able to justify the cost of you're unlikely to 'quickly forget' rather that it's going to make memories to last a lifetime.

@Freeshavocado If you’re saving up to buy your first home then you might be eligible for a lifetime ISA. For every £4 you save the government adds £1, which is much better than any normal savings account. See www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-isas/isas/lifetime-isas-ac6mf6s7r9d5

@ScarletAnemone I already have a LISA with £12k in, not got round to putting £4K for this year in yet but I have £8k in an easy access account so I just need to get round to doing the transfer thanks for the heads up though!

If its spare I would invest in a property.

Nothing wrong with a holiday of a lifetime at all, I certainly wouldn't consider it a waste. We've spent some of our insurance on two very special holidays (one we've had and one that may be postponed because of corona virus). We will remember the one we've already had forever, it fulfilled a lifelong dream and I don't regret a penny of it.

there are no high interest accounts and haven't been any for over a decade. In fact there are no accounts paying anywhere near the putative inflation rate, let alone the real one, and this has been the case for some time.

stock market.

I was gifted 100k about 2 months ago. We put 90 into our mortgage and 10 is in a contingency account.
It’s been a lifesaver. I am not working and having a contingency and our mortgage payment drop from £1500 to £200 per month has meant the current situation is not a financial worry.

6 months living expenses in the bank first which it soulds like you have then I think I would sit tight for a few months to see how things are going
how are your actual pensions as I wouldn't have all my eggs in one basket
we are definitely using some of our rainy days savings just now

"I think we've been beamed back to the 1980s!

Um what high interest savings account would that be, then?

I'd definitely put most of it into UK NS& I premium bonds, until you've been able to do some research on investment options."

Premium bonds interest rate is 1.4%. There are several savings accounts available that pay more than that.

There's no instant access accounts that pay more than 1.3% currently, except limited amounts in regular savers or the Nationwide current account.

You might get a smidgen more in a fixed term account and as the OP has other savings, then she may be happy to tie her money up for a year or two, but she's mentioned using the money for a deposit on a BTL which means she will need the money in the short term.

That excludes term accounts or investment products as options, the latter because you'd be mad to put money in the stock market that you might need back in the short term.

Although if she has £50k somewhere else she could use, and doesn't currently have money in the stock market, it might be worth buying a tracker product with the £50k while the market is low,, with a view to not touching it for decades and if the right property comes up after she's given it a good few months to see what coronavirius does to the property market use other funds as the deposit. But then if the economic fallout of all this is really bad, the stock market might not recover within any of our lifetimes.

The stock market should be ok if you could invest long term though?

I hope so😊

In current uncertain climate I would use it to buy gold and keep it safe.

Property is not a good investment right now - different if you'd bought a few years ago. Prices are likely to fall and the law is changing to give tenants greater protection. There are no tax advantages either - it's a hassle basically.

New Car (not 'new' but get a bigger one than we already have)
New Bathroom
Redecorate spare room
I'd probably have another baby and use a chunk for maternity leave
Rest in savings

I wouldn't invest in property OP. Not right now. Unless you want to play the long game. Property market isn't going to react well to this crisis and I personally think people will be more reluctant to go for a flat. I feel for people in flats during this crisis!

I would go for premium bonds if you want to keep in safe.

Marmite27 'a small patch of damp Derek creates'? Who is Derek? Why is he creating a small patch of damp? We need answers! Lol, hugs

We inherited similar about 8 years ago and threw all but 5k at the mortgage. DH bought a musical instrument with the remainder because it was something he had always wanted but we would never have found the money for otherwise. Took years off the mortgage and I am so glad we did although at the time I was very tempted to do holiday, car etc.

It's always the great dilemma, take some off mortgage or invest.
Debts first.
Urgent household repairs.
6 months salary to cover you for times like this.
Pay something off mortgage without a doubt.
5 grand max on frivolity.. Holidays whatever...

Rest buy into the stock market now!
Perfect timing!
Low cost vanguard funds maybe where you buy a little of everything?
Their life stragety range is very good... Different levels of risk...

Look into low cost index trackers.

Everything is very low right now.

Whilst waiting put it into premium bonds