Where do you invest?

**TykeMerc** · 10 December 2008, 14:26

It depends how you feel about risk and how much you can afford to lose. There's no holy grail investment idea that fits all.

For me I keep my savings in cash in a mortgage offset account, it saves me tax, pays a decent rate of return in reduction of my mortgage outgoings and is immediately accessible as cash if i need it.

**xchaotic** · 10 December 2008, 21:43

Just like I wrote before, I am aware of the risks that's why I'd be only investing half of it.

**ChimpMaster** · 10 December 2008, 22:02

If you really want to take a chance, get into the stock market. By a high risk stock like a house builder or a bank and let it sit there for 5 years.

**Turion** · 10 December 2008, 22:09

Invest in a cheap FTSE tracker. Index yields 5% in divis and is real cheap. Should have big capital gains over next 3 years.

**pmeswani** · 11 December 2008, 07:28

Originally posted by xchaotic View Post

I have a small amount of money and it's just idling there on an ISA.

I'm ready to take about half of it and invest aggressively (with the risk of losing some of it). How do you guys go about investing your savings?

Nothings seems like a good idea now - stocks will likely plummet for a while still, so will the houses (besides I could only afford a single bathroom on Iceland).

Joining up with others and investing in start-ups maybe?

Put it in some Corporate Bonds and Gilts. Safe bet. That is what I have done with some of my pension investments (SIPP). No regrets.

**DimPrawn** · 11 December 2008, 08:48

Buy to Let.

Boomed!

**ChimpMaster** · 11 December 2008, 08:50

I think you guys missed the main point:-

Originally posted by xchaotic View Post

I'm ready to take about half of it and invest aggressively (with the risk of losing some of it)

You can't get stellar returns with corporate bonds or a tracker.

If chaotic was experienced enough I would recommend covered warrants or options, to take advantage of leveraging over the course of the next 12 months or so. You can buys warrants in gold too, which is a good bet for the next 12 months.

However, a simpler thing would be to just buy beaten down shares in a company that still offers potential when the economy recovers (you need to give it 5 years).

**Ardesco** · 11 December 2008, 09:42

I used to work with somebody who played with the markets and did fairly well out of it and his top tips were as follows:

Minimum investment amount is £5,000, anything less isn't worth it.
Invest in blocks of £5,000 in different shares and different markets to ensure you don't keep all you eggs in one basket.
Make sure you set up stop losses so that if a stock starts to dive its auto sold. You may lose a bit on some stocks but if the dot com bust happens again you won't lose it all.

Seems fairly sensible to me, but then I know not a lot about the stock market

**DonkeyRhubarb** · 11 December 2008, 10:33

Risk and Return

People often assume high risk = high return but unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that. High risk offers the potential of higher return but also a greater risk that a higher return will not be achieved. There are no guarantees.

I have taken a very high (calculated) risk with a small personal pension and invested it all in a BRIC fund for the next 20 years. I'm not dependent on this pension so it doesn't matter if it's worth a fortune or peanuts in 20 years.

To give you an idea of what high risk means, this fund has fallen almost 60% since the beginning of the year.

Where do you invest?