Looking for some facts on savings & investments

purerandom

hi,
My wife and I have been saving like mad for years now.
we have 25K ready to save\invest. we can go long term here, no problem.
we are also at a stage where we could probably put away 1500 euro a month.
I dont want to upset anyone asking for advice but some facts would be appreciated. for example what is the best savings account out there at the moment for our 1500 a month?
What seem to be the best areas to invest a some of 25K in?

Thanks for any comments posted.

sideswipe

Think the key at the moment is security, there is a lot of mistrust out there, very understandably when it comes to banks. I am no expert but personally I have recently opened an account out of the state as it seems as a nation we are financially ruined so I don't see what use the government guarantee is if the country does go bankrupt.

Jim2007

purerandom wrote: »

hi,
My wife and I have been saving like mad for years now.
we have 25K ready to save\invest. we can go long term here, no problem.
we are also at a stage where we could probably put away 1500 euro a month.
I dont want to upset anyone asking for advice but some facts would be appreciated. for example what is the best savings account out there at the moment for our 1500 a month?
What seem to be the best areas to invest a some of 25K in?

Thanks for any comments posted.

Before doing anything else, you should determine what your investing objectives are, be it saving for early retirement, home ownership or whatever so that you have a good idea of how much you need to accumulate to reach your goal and of course the time line for doing so.

Next take a good look at yourself, who do you deal with risk, are you able to stay the course when seeing your investment drop say 50% or will you jump ship... how much time do you want to devote to managing your investments.

The whole key to successful investing is to never loose site of your goals and never take on more risk that is necessary to achieve your objectives. And in this respect always remember that the promise of greater returns always means more risks no matter who it is dressed up by the investment advisors.

Once you have done this, you should have a good filter for examining the various options open to you. My suggestion would be to start with the government solidarity bond as your base line, it offers a guaranteed return at fairly low risk rate. Would this meet your needs?, if not then look to another product, examine it's risk factors versus the bond and so on until you identify a suitable mix that have a good chance of getting you to your goals.

Unless you are willing to put considerable time into managing your investments I would avoid investing in individual companies, commodities and so on, as to be successful in these areas requires a big time commitment - more that the average person is willing to do!

It is also important to review your investments at least once a year to ensure that you are still on track. Perhaps you'll be luck and discover that things are working out better that expected and so you can reduce your risk profile.... or perhaps you'll discover that you need to up the savings rate as things go bad

Finally remember that nothing is guaranteed in investing so be prepared to take some set backs along the way.

Good luck with that,

Jim.