need some advice...

rotary

hi,
i am 19 years old, but i have been working for the past couple of years, so i have saved up approx. 15000euro. at the moment, this money is just lying in the bank doing absolutely nothing for me, so i have decided to do something about it!
i have been talking to a number of people about it, and some have advised me in buying an apartment, and renting it out, thus letting someone else pay for the mortgage.
my question is, would this be a good idea at my age?? is there much risk involved?? and would a bank, mortgage broker even give me a mortgage at this age?
And if not property, what should i do with the money?

thanks for any replies, all advice will be greatly appreciated

HelterSkelter

I can't advice on a mortgage but the one thing I'd say is make sure you have it in an account like rabodirect otherwise you're missing out on about €450 a year in interest.

rotary

hi helterskelter, i'm sorry if i come across as stupid or naive, but what is a rabodirect account?!

ronbyrne2005

rotary wrote:

hi,
i am 19 years old, but i have been working for the past couple of years, so i have saved up approx. 15000euro. at the moment, this money is just lying in the bank doing absolutely nothing for me, so i have decided to do something about it!
i have been talking to a number of people about it, and some have advised me in buying an apartment, and renting it out, thus letting someone else pay for the mortgage.
my question is, would this be a good idea at my age?? is there much risk involved?? and would a bank, mortgage broker even give me a mortgage at this age?
And if not property, what should i do with the money?

thanks for any replies, all advice will be greatly appreciated

well if your buying a property now the rent wont pay for your mortgage so you would have to add money to it every month,you seem to be a good saver so would you be prepared to keep saving to pay off the part of your mortgage that the rent wont cover? because rents are so low you are only gonna make money if property keeps rising in value,its already very expensive and theres no guarantee it will keep rising especially as interest rates and mortgages will continue to increase over next few years.
i personally beleive that the economic fundamentals suggest property is overvalued and investors are acting irrationally.
the higher the value of property rises to and the lower the rent yield becomes the more likely it is that its overvalued and the more risk there is.
foreign property may be a good investment for you but do a lot of research and only buy something that has a high rental yield and that will be easy to rent and is profitable after foreign taxes etc.
consider investing in a fund which is managed by a professional and invests in equities bonds etc,you can chose a more or less risky fund,investing in shares has given the best return over the past century ,better than property bonds etc.
the best way of making real big money is to start a succesful business,if this is an option for you i would consider startng a small business with your savings and a loan.you can start a franchise which is less risky than a completley new business.

ronbyrne2005

rabo bank offer a bank account which pays 3% interest. this is barely above inflation and isnt a great investment but stops you losing money which you do when you have cash in a current account or in cash

rotary

hey ron, what sort of franchise business would you suggest? any ideas?

ronbyrne2005

check out http://www.irishfranchiseassociation.com/ and http://www.franchisedirect.co.uk/index.shtml
also check out uk and american websites for new franchises before they become available here to give you an idea of succesful franchises.
if you have a skill trade it can make entering a particular area more viable.so if your a tradesman you could get a trade related franchise.

dunkamania

Hard to find value in the Irish property market at the moment.When I am looking at property I will be looking abroad

HelterSkelter

rotary wrote:

hi helterskelter, i'm sorry if i come across as stupid or naive, but what is a rabodirect account?!

No such thing as a stupid question.

Check out www.rabodirect.ie

It's a bank account that pays 3.2% on your savings. It's free to set up, no transaction charges, no minimum deposit and you can get your money out whenever you want it.