If you had a £20k-£50k pot of money, what would you do with it to improve your lifestyle over the long term?

[occasionallychange]

If you had a modest-ish sum of money available, not like a huge lottery win to completely change your life, but enough to make a real difference (let’s say between £20k and £50k), what would you do with it to maintain and improve your lifestyle over the long term?
I’m not really thinking about cutting costs, downsizing or making a one-off purchase. I mean things that could genuinely improve your life, give you more freedom, enjoyment, comfort, experiences or opportunities, and help you maintain a better quality of life going forward, even if that means some hard work initially to get it going.

Would you invest the money, start a business, or something else? Change career to something higher paid? And if so, what business or investment or career?

Interested to hear what others have done or would do — especially ideas that have a lasting impact rather than just spending the money once.

I have had premium bonds since I was a baby and have won a grand total of £0!!! Haha. Think my investment maybe needs to go up to be in with a chance of getting anything back!

You are right about sensible, long-term investments though, and I guess that’s what I’m looking for - not a get rich quick scheme or something that helps in the short term but then the money is gone. And if that ends up being investments then so be it, I was just wondering if there were any other options.

Thank you, I hadn’t heard of them but now following!

I would get solar panels on the roof and air con installed (plan to do in the next 24 months) that would be £15 K and then I would put the rest in a high interest account

Right at this point in time I would buy a campervan and go away every weekend somewhere scenic. But I no longer have young children.
I'm not a massive fan of too much future planning as not everyone in my family even made it to retirement, old age is not guaranteed so I would spend it on something I'd get a lot of enjoyment out of now whilst I have my health.

Solar power + battery. It's only going up further.

I would buy a motor home. I reslly want one but they are expensive. Just somwthing for weekends away and exploring.

I love the mix of responses, from save and invest it for the future to enjoy it now! I think for now will max out isa allowance and then keep thinking if there’s any other options before committing to pension/mortgage payments. Thanks all for taking the time to reply, it’s appreciated

I often think people overlook the potential benefit of investing in yourself.

Could you invest in something that would provide a credible path to higher earnings? Be that retraining, coaching, equipment, or just affording you time to transition to a new role. It depends on your job and your career aspirations, of course. But Damien Talks Money is a big advocate of this idea and the return could be substantial if it drives an ongoing pay increase. Bit of a virtuous circle effect.

Otherwise, you've asked for how to make the money genuinely improve your life. Part of the answer to that will lie in what you are missing. You've mentioned that you'd like to spend more time as a family. So could you use some money to hire a cleaner or buy additional annual leave from work or join a specific hobby club etc?

As PPs have pointed out, you could of course invest for the future or use it for a once in a lifetime holiday experience.

And it doesn't have to be an either/or. You could do all of the above; just depends on the ratio of what you find most valuable. E.g. £10k career investment, £25k long term investments, £10k buying family time, £5k pure enjoyment.

Wishing you luck.

Leave my new job with my unhinged manager.

If you've got some ISA allowance left, you could look into investing for income. There are funds that put your money into investments that are likely to generate steady payouts - mainly bonds and established companies that pay good dividends.

If you use a platform such as Fidelity or Hargreaves Lansdown or whatever, they might offer an income fund of their own. And you can arrange for the dividends to be paid into your account, tax free I believe.

You said ahead of the game @occasionallychange ! I don’t even have SIPPs for the children and here I was giving you advice! Every penny we have goes on school fees, ISAs and travel (not luxury). I would steer clear of rentals unless you can get an utter bargain. My DH keeps talking about buying an income generating business that a baby boomer may be trying to sell off, especially a trade. But given neither of us are practical, I’m not sure this would work!

A lot of holiday homes will be released onto the market in the next few years as most are owned by babyboomers and they will be looking presumably to downsize. This could present an opportunity if you get an utter bargain and it’s in a place you like visiting and it’s low maintenance…I’ve heard smaller places (that allow dogs) are a better deal as you can rent them year round for couples who want a weekend getaway rather than just in school holidays…

I agree with a previous poster on investing in yourself eg if there is a skill you want to develop or a course you want to take. I see St James Place (the over priced find managers!) are targeting women on LinkedIn to take their investment course to become IFAs. Not entirely a bad idea…

There’s a Netflix series How to Get Rich which follows families and tries to help them get that ‘rich’ feeling while encouraging them to rein in their spending. You’re far beyond the ‘needing to exercise discipline’ phase but it might inspire you to look at what sparks excitement in your life and how can you buy a little more of that?

@Traveltartno no it’s all good there’s some areas I feel like yup we’re doing ok and others that I lose sleep over - after a renovation and maternity leave the emergency fund is less than ideal, but we’re working on that! And always good to get other perspectives.

Agree that reducing spending is something everyone can work on, and something I think you need to check in on regularly or the lifestyle creep starts! And yes of course it’s nice to have the odd treat but I don’t think it’s good for the kids to never go without. Or for them to have to make do with a more budget version of something, especially if cutting back in places supports the bigger picture - or like you say, the things that really matter to you. I’ll have a look for that series, thanks, sounds interesting. Being mega rich to be able to buy nice things isn’t the goal, it’s to feel like we are building something that can help give us time back. And if that means we need to spend a bit more now, eg hire a cleaner, then I’m happy to do that if we have a clear goal. Lots to think about!

I also like the idea about investing in ourselves. Leveraging the skills we already have rather than trying to create something new wasn’t really something I had considered, so thankyou for that thought @ItsFineReally

Pension contribution… seeing as I couldn’t use it as part of a one-time purchase.

I will be doing a CAS next spring, 20-50k would (easily) cover that, but I‘m already planning on doing that anyway.

edit: and I’d definitely keep some to pad our emergency fund, if that’s „allowed“ in this scenario.

Definitely! I love that this question has meant different things to different people and made me think about different options. I love the idea of a camper van, for example, I’d just personally like to get to a point where I felt I’d been able to free up more time to use it before taking that step.

Pension is definitely a good option, especially if it means the possibility to retire earlier or reduce working hours as I get older without worrying about it missing pension contributions.

I'd fill stocks and shares ISAs and let it grow for when it's needed - perhaps take a portion of it and put it towards a nice family holiday, or helping the kids with something when they're older. It buys some peace of mind

I had £20k and I chose to invest it in a S&S ISA for the long term and then set up a direct debit of what I can afford to pay into it on an ongoing basis (for me that's £150 a month, so not massive but not nothing IYKWIM.) It's done pretty well for me so far.

DH and I discussed purchasing a small buy to let flat a couple of years ago but I think that is more hassle than it's worth nowadays so we've decided to keep things relatively simple.

I'm 38 and I'm not convinced there'll be a state pension by the time I get there and I definitely don't want to be working for another 30 years so whatever is in my S&S ISA is my bridge to hopefully retiring a few years early. Chatgpt has actually been really helpful working through a few different scenarios for me as to what my returns could potentially look like.

I agree with PPs that other things need to be in place too and you sound like you're doing well to be honest. We are similar in that we pay decent money into our pensions, have an emergency fund, equity in the house, savings and JSIPPs for our children etc. It's hard knowing what to do for the best as nobody has a crystal ball so I tend to hold the view that as long as we are enjoying life, saving some money for our future, chipping away at the mortgage and putting some money aside for our children then we are doing pretty well.

We finished paying off our mortgage in our early 40s with a similar amount of money. We are now both going part time. Yes, we could have moved to a bigger house etc but for us going part time was more important as both our kids have SEND. It has significantly reduced our outgoings and bought us time with the kids, which is something we couldn't have got any other way.

Sounds like a really positive move for you and your family, enjoy the time together.
We would not be in a position to pay off our mortgage but it would take a bit off, at least!

Got a woodburner installed for £5k. Looks amazing and we burn free pallets so even during the col crisis we can have a cosy warm home without worrying about the cost of gas (it’s a 5 bed house)

I'd personally pay down the mortgage to be free of it as soon as possible. You want options in the future if someone is made redundant, ill health, want to just cut back hours amd not having thsy payment makes it so much easier.

So either pay it off or invest it so it grows over x yrs to then pay it off. Or maybe use it to get an offset mortgage when you can renew.

I had a similar amount of money a few years back. Apart from home redecorating and work to the garden, I spent the money on gaining a new qualification which allowed me to reduce my hours in my main job and start private practice a couple of days a week (fitting around school hours). I also got a cleaner as it gave me back two hours at the weekend. I already had a personal trainer, probably the best investment I ever made!

The best thing I ever did was my retirement fund which was invested by professionals I was able to retire 7 years early
As well as not having any debt if possible as in car notes, credit cards, etc.

I would learn to drive and buy a car/van so I could set up the business I have always fancied doing which does really require a car.
The rest in some kind of savings or trust which I would have to get advice on because I don't really know enough.

20-50k is not a game changing amount. I would invest it in a global equity unit trust and let growth and compound interest do its magic.
£50k with 10% growth YOY would be £130k in ten years.

I'd put some aside for when my car dies and carefully budget the rest for travel and experiences, these are the things I wish we could do more of.