[Archived] Investments

[Guest Kamy100]

I have around £3000 sitting in my reserve account doing nothing. Thinking about putting it away in one of these risk free guranteed investment plans for upto 5 years. However never done this type of thing before so would appreciate some advice or tips from people on here.

[Cocker]

Is it really risk free? I would be thinking there must be some sort of catch?

[Guest Kamy100]

Apparently so Cocker, the money that you put is protected and you are guranteed to get that back at the end of the plan.

[Cocker]

Ah ok so the only risk is that for the 5 years your 3k might not grow but you will get it back. The up side is that you could end up getting allot more than putting it into a savings account - interesting.

[The Gull]

You can invest £3,600 per year tax free in an ISA which should give you returns up to 7% per annum depending on where you go for it, the higher rates may be fixed for a certain time and then reduce later in the term.

Otherwise at the minute it is hard to tell which are the so called "safe" options due to the economic climate, even the perenial good achievers are struggling at the moment when in previous problem times they have not really been affected.

The old reliable is gold, you can actually buy gold shares and they have been a good bet for many a year.

This time last year it would have been teh currency markets but the pound is too weak at the minute unless you get paid in Euros or Dollars, in which case buy, buy, buy!

Be careful of entering in to schemes as the managment fee would normally take care of big chunks of your profits unless you get a very good scheme.

[Robertson]

You can use your ISA allowance on investments as well, ones we do will give you back a your capital and a certain percentage if the stock market doesnt go down by a certain amount, similarly you can get more back if the FTSE is up by just a point in 5 years time for example.

The way the market is now you have a very good chance of getting a good return, all wrapped in an ISA as well!

[ABBEY]

ask hughsey

[colin]

I've used this lot in the past

ethical investors

I've always found them to be a friendly bunch, and you'll know that your savings are not going towards porn; third world poverty exploitation; the arms trade; or the tobacco industry.

They can't isolate you against general market collapses, ( my couple of grand plummeted after 9/11) but at least you can sleep at night.

[Hughesy]

ask hughsey

Shares on day to day trading

[Mike Graham]

invest in the nuclear industry, it is the only real growth industry in this country (apart from debt collection !!) and those involved in new build (construction) and nuclear generation will be a good bet.

[LeChuck]

Ponzi schemes are where the money's at...