Best way to invest £500 a month

[MonkeyTennis34]

We would like to save £500 a month.

It doesn't need to be an easy-access account/ISA just one with good interest.

Any suggestions?

Do you mean save or invest? Do you want a saving account that pays interest or do you want to invest in stocks and shares?

Do you want to save or invest? I.e cash or stocks and shares?

Tbh I'm not sure.

I just know that we can currently afford to save this amount.

What do you want it for?

If its e.g. to pay off a chunk of your home next time you remortgage then you want savings. If its for early retirement you want investment.

A sensible approach might be 250 in cash ISA and 250 in a very low fee fund in stocks and shares ISA. That way you’ve got tax free savings and some investment

212 Trading is top recommendation from Money saving expert offering 5.2% on cash and they have low fee funds (inc the vanguard funds which are pretty popular passive funds). If you want to find a fund have a look at pension craft channel on YouTube (there are other trusted explainer channels but this is a good one off the top of my head recommended by mumsnetters)

Mortgage has been paid off.

It's more for the future...we're both mid-50s.

@WannabeMeeeeee

Sorry for being thick ...the ISA would be a fixed rate interest and the sticks and shares would fluctuate?

Yes that’s right… although the interest rate can go up or down. I’m not sure if it’s fixed and how long for- you can look on MSE under savings for comparison. But 212 definitely top. I use them and am happy so far, they are covered by the £85k loss banking guarantee

The S&S ISA will fluctuate daily. It’s been volatile recently due to US economic forecast. I’m looking at this as a 10+ year investment- over the long term S&S outperform savings but obviously if you need to sell in a market downturn you can lose some of your initial investment. It’s all about weighing up your risk and return.

I havent even mentioned SIPPs which are another great option as the government tops up 20%+ whatever you put in instantly. It’ll be made up of the same funds as S&S ISA but you need to be earning enough money to pay tax to make it worthwhile and it’s a pension so can’t withdraw until 55 I think… you will get taxed on it if over threshold if you’re earning (ie job or other pensions) but it will grow quicker cause there’s more going in.

For SIPP pensions check out Vanguard

if you have multiple private pensions from previous jobs you can transfer them in. I did this and was astonished how much me and DH were paying in fees- it effectively ate away at our investments. In 2.5 years with vanguard they’ve grown significantly- whereas we used to get a piss poor return on the little separate pots. I’m so glad we took control rather than let all the big pension providers cream off high fees for doing nothing. The passive funds tend to outperform managed funds 9/10 times. This has only been possible in recent years thanks to Vanguard and other challengers . YouTube is your friend in opening your eyes… just be careful and do lots of research.

If you're looking to have some fun and a guaranteed return look at investing in gold.
We started doing this around 8 years ago.
Buying sovereigns, guineas and some limited edition gold coins.
When we started we were painting £180 for a full sovereign. They now sell for around £450 - £550. Also there's a whole load of history with coins and we have been lucky to buy some rare coins worth much more than we paid.

Well done for paying off mortgage.

Do you have an emergency fund? That would be first before investing.
Then I would look at pension and stocks & shares ISA, for mid-long term investing.

if you know you have a high expense coming up in a year or two, then for that I would use a cash savings account.

Investing is long term, so look at it being 5+ years before you would access it.

A podcast from Meaningful Money which may help about investing for medium to long term goals: meaningfulmoney.tv/OS8

Put it in your pension - most people severely underestimate the amount they need to live comfortably in retirement.

We are paying into a Vanguard pension.

We have almost the maximum amount in Premium Bonds which I guess is our emergency fund.

They've been doing well...we won £750 last month!