What would you do for £30k (with a view to turning it into more money!)

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I'm just about to receive £30k and I was going to pay a chunk off the mortgage, but a few people have been telling me to invest it, to turn it into a larger amount.

It's a big decision for me because I don't often get windfalls like this so I don't have much appetite for risk, I really don't want to lose the money. Are there any safe-ish methods to grow my nest-egg?

What would you do?

On what basis are you giving that advice? How much gold and silver would 15k buy? What is the likely return, where is it kept, special insurance needed if it comes to the housr, storage fees if held elsewhere?

@Gassylady im thinking wear it Mr T style

You can google all of the answers to your questions. When the next crash happens and it will prior to 2030, gold and silver unlike paper money or stocks are the only thing that will be left standing. All of the BRICS nations are hoarding gold.

@PassportPhotosAreHorrific
If your mortgage is £100k and you can pay off 20% I would overpay £20k. I would then keep my mortgage repayments the same as now. This calculator allows you to see the impact of doing this. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/

The remaining £10k I would put in an ISA. ISA interest is non-taxable and gives a guaranteed return compared to premium bonds. As a pp said if you have maxed out your ISA and are earning more than £1k in interest on other savings then Premium Bonds are an option.

Why on earth would you recommend premium bonds to someone trying to actually grow their money? There is very little chance of winning more than the odd £25. Maybe the occasional £100. You can still get around 4% on cash isa which would give about £100 a month guaranteed interest. Stocks and shares even better.

You can DIY. Not sure where you got the idea that you can't.

OP the first thing I would do is ask the question on Money Saving Expert where people actually know what they are talking about rather than on here. Just about every thread like yours attracts the pay it off your mortgage and stick it in premium bonds posters. Take some time to read up on stocks and shares ISAs if you really want to get a decent return on your investment. There's plenty of easy to understand information out there. Have a look at Trading 212 they have lots of information and you can practice before you actually invest anything. There's loads of good information out there but Mumsnets really isn't the place to look for financial advice.

I'd put 20k into stocks and shares ISA (provided you haven't put anything in yet this year) and then the other 10k in April. My rate of return over the last few years has been about 34% so it's def a good nest egg for retirement/insurance for unemployment etc. It does of course carry a risk, but you can choose lower-risk investments

Mumsnet is one of the worst platforms I have seen for financial advice. Reddit is far better.

Yeah OP do rebel finance and use this as a prompt to make a decent ten year plan.

To be honest, if you know nothing about investing and you have a low risk appetite then I'd pay off a chunk of the mortgage (assuming no penalty to do so).
You can then use the savings on a monthly basis to put in an ISA. Saving monthly spreads risk compared to a lump sum
ETA: pay of the max lump sum you can of the mortgage then invest in an ISA. My personal take on PB is that you need max holdings to really get the returns.

Do you have any company recommendations for how to do this?

If a beginner then Trading 212 or Investengine.

4.2% (your mortgage rate) with no risk is pretty decent at the moment. As a pp said, keep your repayments the same and you will pay off the mortgage early.

I would make an overpayment of the mortgage with 20k or as much as you are able to. If you have any money on credit cards or other loans, see if you can repay them in full.

The rest I might have some fun with (like holidays or home improvements or a car) but that might just be me not being 100% sensible with money.

I wouldn't be able to put it on my mortgage without fees as it would be more than the 10% overpayment. It would work better for me to put it into high interest savings or something like that.

I have children possibly going to uni in the next 3-5yrs so it would go some way to helping them through.

Also I would really like a new bathroom...

If I was a 40% tax payer, I would put it in a self-invested pension e.g. through vanguard/HL/fidelity and try to load it up so that any money over my £60000 allowance was added to previous years (you have to fill the whole £60000 for the current year, meaning you have to earn over this amount, to be able to add to previous years).

If I was a 20% tax payer age under 40, I would put £4000 in a stocks and shares LISA towards my retirement for this year and next year and use the rest to overpay my mortgage (assuming I had a 6 month emergency fund already saved).

The returns on cash ISA/gilts held to maturity are likely to be lower or compatible to the interest paid on your mortgage.

If you choose to invest money e.g. in a stocks and shares ISA, be aware that you could be investing when the market is peaking out. You may prefer to hold the money in e.g. premium bonds or easy access cash ISA (e.g. Trading212 where you can withdraw and re-add money without going over your allowance) and either trickle money in over time or dump all money into a stocks and shares ISA when the market dips.

Either way. If you are holding the money in the short term, you might want to hold it in an easy access cash ISA. That way it will be tax sheltered and protected should they change the rules on the amount you're allowed to add to cash ISAs at the next budget.

*comparable

My S&S ISA returned 10.5% in the last 12 months

I have a financial adviser, I'm not rich btw, I got made redundant a couple of years ago and invested my redundancy (got a new job straight away so didn't need to touch it)
I've made 35% on my initial investment and I'm just about to invest an inheritance.
Not sure if I can post the company I use on here or if this will get deleted.
I've been impressed, obviously you need a steady nerve as there are peaks and troughs but I'm what they consider a low risk investor which means I don't want to invest in anything high risk, so it's a little safer?
I have half in a pension and half in a stocks and shares ISA

How and where do you start?!

Go on MoneySavingExpert and follow their guide.

If you have debts (incl. mortgage) it might be worth putting your money in to pay off the debts rather than saving it as it may have more of a return that way.

You'll have to do the sums but IIRC they have a guide on how to work that out.

I had an IFA help me. Using a company called True Potential based in Newcastle. You can choose your attitude to risk. I’m in a Growth portfolio for my SIPP & ISA.

You can use an IFA but be aware that there will be charges for their service, as well as potential charges in the form of platform fees depending on who they encourage you to invest with.

Or you can look at going DIY by following Rebel Finance School. They have an entire series of videos on YouTube plus a website full of articles and a Facebook group where you can ask questions/get advice. It’s completely free, no catches, you just need to invest some time upfront to watch the videos.

Meaningful Money and the Financial Flow Chart are other good places to learn from.

As long as you can avoid withdrawing money from investments immediately after any crash, over time they'll almost certainly outperform cash or paying down low rate debt like a 4.2% mortgage. That includes really big crashes like Covid, the Wall Street Crash and the 2008 credit crunch.

So all investments should be after you have a decent cash based emergency fund, that would pay your essential expenses for a few months and also be available for any expected large purchases like a car or home improvements.

All most people need is a global index tracker fund via a platform like Vanguard (others are available, all I know is that Vanguard are supposed to have amongst the lowest fees but I haven't checked this recently, there will be comparisons online) and the biggest decision is whether this is in a pension or ISA, which depends on your age, how long you can lock the money away for, whether or not you need your ISA allowance for cash based savings and your income tax rate now and what you expect it to be when you retire.

This would depend on your current ISA investments and/or pension investments. Pensions can be complex but can mean 25% (or more) government top ups, so could be worth exploring a SIPP and investing as I've done the ISA below.

Personally, I'd put the maximum into my ISA - so that's £20k.

I'd go for £16k in a globally diversified stocks and shares ISA with one of the big name/low fee providers. Then I'd put £4k into hedging that against inflation with property investments - either via REITs investments via the S&S ISA or via an IFISA with a P2P platform like Housemartin or LoanPad.

For the remaining £10k, I'd put this into a general investment account for stocks and shares globally diversified again. And then shift it into an ISA next year.