Young adult inheriting money - what to do with it?

[UnexpectedlyRetired]

Hi everyone,

A bit of background here. DC is late 20s with a degree, but has been out of work for a couple of years and there seems to be nothing on the horizon. Every now and then she gets an interview (first these were in her chosen field, IT, but now it's more likely to be shop work etc.). She never gets the job. She has too much in savings to claim UC, so basically has zero income.

She is due to get an inheritance of a few 10s of thousand. What would you advise? Is there a way to improve her situation? She is really not entrepreneurial, and neither am I, so I can't help her there.

I've been thinking

• deposit on a buy to let - but it seems the time has passed to do this and everyone is now pulling out. I'm not sure if she would get a mortgage for this with no income, and near us you'd be looking at £200k+ to buy somewhere. She'd have the deposit though, if income wasn't required.
• investing the money in retraining - in what? It would need to be something with a high likelihood of a job afterwards in order to be worthwhile. Are there any fields with shortages now?
• invest the money in ISAs etc - simplest but probably the lowest return, and doesn't solve the overall problem of moving on with her life

Any ideas?

She should sign up to an agency. They would find jtemping jobs for her so she would not have to get through an interview. Lots of people find interviews nerve wracking and freeze so they don't come across well to person doing interviewing. My DS was dreadful at interviews he got so nervous he forgot to tell them about the things he wanted to say. He got a job at an agency. They sent him to several jobs which lasted about 3 weeks or a couple of months each. Then they sent him to DHL as a Driver's Mate. He did well and after being there about 4 or 5 months they took him on permanently. They trained him to be a class 2 lorry driver. After a few years they trained him to be a class 1 lorry driver. Now he earns a reasonable wage and has grown in confidence a lot too. He is very settled and happy. DHL have a good pension scheme too. There is a shortage of class 1 and 2 lorry drivers.

Everybody knows it’s foolish to rely on an inheritance, and in the case here, if it does happen it won’t be for a very long time.

Thanks @caringcarer - I think she contacted agencies some time ago and it went nowhere (like everything else!) but I'll suggest she try that again.

@Tuckshirtin if DH and I died tomorrow she would inherit quite a bit. If we die in 30 years, then who knows? And it's not much of a life sitting about waiting 30 years to inherit some money. I want her to be self-sufficient, and to do something with her life.

Does her IT include AI? If not get up to date with that. Start her own business in IT, if she has skills people might pay for, web site design? I'm a bit out of date on what people want these days.

I don't know where you live OP, but has she thought about conservation as in art conservation, or textiles conservation? Both require a high level of dexterity and a detail-oriented person which you dd, with her Biology degree and IT training, seems to have. There are brilliant courses at West Dean College in Chichester, but there will be in other parts of the country too.

I also second applying for lab work - lean on the Biology even if there wasn't a huge amount of lab work in the degree, there will have been more than the average woman in the street has ever done!

Are you sure she is actually applying for a job?

You need to set some proper ground rules.
-If she living rent free then she at least needs to keep you informed at what she’s applying for.
-Regular volunteering if she’s not working, you say done it in the past ? Why didn’t she continue if she hasn’t got a job?
-she needs to ask for help from a relevant charity eg the national autistic society.

She probably got to comfortable living off her savings. Have you asked her to contribute to the household costs?

Getting some experience doing any job through an agency would at least give a broader experience. NHS or local authority might be a more supportive environment.

Buy to let- she wouldn’t get a mortgage with no job. You would end up having to finance it.

Definitely get her to look into nhs research jobs. Theres lots of research job on nhs jobs

Lab technician work.

@Pettifogg I can’t see the kink with biology and it! Art and intricate crafts, yes. You need a course behind you to do this work.

I remember being told at an NHS careers talk that people who were good at Art/Drawing made excellent surgeons because they had such good hand/eye co-ordination. 😀 It had never occurred to me until they said it.

I would suggest she looks at temping as temp jobs can often lead to permanent positions (mine did), or she could apply for apprenticeships as these usually lead to job offers too.

What volunteering is she doing? If she’s not working at all, I’d expect her to be volunteering every evening at a local Scouts, Guides, Brownies, sports group etc. as a start. Then bulking this out with other daytime volunteering roles such as working in a food bank, charity shop etc. I think that someone out of work for so long will lose confidence and the ability to come across well at interview. With a jam packed schedule of a range of volunteering she will have plenty to draw on at interview.

Ive skipped some of the thread OP so apologies if someone else has signposted has she tried accessing help via Skills Development Scotland.

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/your-career-service?

DD1 is quite a few years younger but in a similar situation, has qualification in a sparse field, has had one time limited internship after college in the field and nothing since. Volunteers in charity and has had short term, retail, hospitality type roles. Gets decent enough feedback when companies will give it but lack of experience or other candidates greater experience is usually cited.
also ND but doesn’t ask for adjustments even though it clearly holds her back in some ways.

I feel for her but there isn’t much I can do, shes currently undertaking another course accessed through work coach to improve employability skills, but every time she attends the staff say they cant see why she isn’t getting a permanent role.

Biology and IT skills. I would look into bioinformatics courses or similar. Would she consider doing a masters or a PhD? Do you have any universities nearby, she could go and speak to a couple of academics that can talk to her about career paths. Programming and data skills in science are highly regarded. I have worked with a few physicists as it's often easier to teach a physicist the chemistry/biology than the chemist/biologist the programming skills.

After 2 years searching, it might be time to have a go over the CV and information she is using to complete applications. You can soon look a bit stale once out of the job market a while. It might be time to switch from a chronological CV format to a skills based format. This can be useful when try to change field or when you are wanting to use various experiences to demonstrate ability rather than this has been my career path look at what I have done.

She needs to be periodically doing things she can talk about in interviews. It's a tough jobs market at the moment. I work in the biotech industry and I have seen 10% reduction headcount reduction in most of the SMEs and half a dozen have had a massive cull or closed their UK branch entirely. The company I worked for has gone from ~40 to ~10 people in 18 months. Those that have found jobs more readily are those the IT background.
Statistician jobs would be something to look into as well. I have a friend that went to work for the ONS and I interviewed for the government statistical service before deciding to take a career break.

In terms of the money.... I'd look at what gives her opportunities, it might be time invest in herself. This could be a short course or someone to go through her CV and application information.

Avoid BTL it isn't financially rewarding anymore and she would lose her first time buyer status which would have a knock on effect once she is ready to buy her own place

Thanks for the comments. @Executrixnotextraordinaire I'm sorry your daughter is in a similar situation. Skills Development Scotland is on the list to look into.

Re some other questions

• yes, she is contributing to some household expenses
• she is still volunteering. One place she was at closes over winter, maybe she'll start that one up again
• yes, she is really applying for jobs. If you don't believe me, there are plenty of articles about others in this position. Someone on another thread, older than my daughter, and already in a job, was applying for other jobs - so far 50 applications, 1 interview and no job offer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rmjnlm94o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1klry2rjm0o https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9397lre3lyo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2307p4jjz4o

Another minimum wage rise is on the way - a bit more pay for those in a job, but there will be more job cuts.

@Superscientist, thanks, yes we have unis nearby and although she hasn't previously considered further study we're encouraging her to look at it now - but only if there is a strong likelihood of a job at the end. 40 to 10 people, that's shocking. I don't know if you've noticed my username, but I lost my job to redundancy recently and decided to retire rather than try and find something fulfilling with an employer that would actually hire me.

Oh, and she's ruled out BTL and I think that's a wise decision.

Sorry to hear your DD is having issues getting a job
i think you’re correct in that being ND doesn’t help. What sort of IT jobs is she looking for? Dh runs his own IT company (managed service provider) and he and his peers are always looking for good people.
On another note, my ND DD was pushed back on jobs until one company was ND friendly and they put in accommodations for the interview - is that a possibility?

Court (verbatim) reporter! I’m not in the UK, but where I am it’s in huge demand, good pay and flexible. I have a friend who does it and she can pick and choose her hours and travels all over (with expenses factored in) because certain judges prefer her to document their hearings, but also there’s demand for transcribers in tons of industries. It’s a tough course to become accredited, however if you have the mind, which she probably does seeing as she’s an IT grad, it’s in high demand, flexible and she could pick her own hours

ETA: check out the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters www.bivr.org.uk

Would she consider primary teaching? She could try doing some volunteering in a school to see if she would like it. Maybe SEN teaching?