where to invest ???

doniemaca

I have 10 k that i can afford to put away or play with for a few years .anybody got any advise on where to invest it with security within reason ???

cgarrad

http://blog.kimblechartingsolutions.com/

tech

www.qwm.ie

Bizness

doniemaca wrote: »

I have 10 k that i can afford to put away or play with for a few years .anybody got any advise on where to invest it with security within reason ???

Depends what your risk profile is and how knowledgeable you are about investments. If not too knowledgeable, you could talk to a financial adviser, but beware, the majority are on commission based sales for financial products and will more than likely try to push you into one of products, and you are not going to be the one sailing the yacht at the weekend. (In the UK, commission based selling of financial products banned since 31-Dec-2012, our regulators here have been lobbied hard no doubt not to ban it).

Stocks, bonds (corporate, government), saving bonds, cash, prize bonds, property, commodities, precious metals etc. Self administered pension or just straight investment.
Don't invest through the Irish banks in their investment products - total robbers barons imo (same would probably apply to insurance company providers investment packages. They list their Annual Management charge as typically 1-1.5% per annum, but do not include anything about Total Expense Ratio (TER) or the ultimate Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - TCO includes all the cost (commission, dealing, brokerage charges etc) for the investment product - ask them for it for the craic, and see if they even have it listed, it is probably coming to something like 2-3% per annum :mad:. Again you won't be the one sailing the yacht at the weekend....

I suspect you are thinking of stocks or something.
Are you a higher or lower rate taxpayer or retired etc. If a higher taxpayer, the dividend tax is eye-watering in Ireland now (53 odd % - some of us feckin eejits have to pay for this thing called the bank bailout, capital gains tax is eye-watering too at 33%, can spread-bet to avoid it, but I wouldn't recommend this for the majority of people, due to lack of discipline, patience etc on most people's behalf.)

If no clue about stocks, then a cheap ETF or index fund perhaps - I am sure they have been discussed on this forum or on ask about money etc.

However, individual stocks may be more fun for you - you can even rock up to the annual shareholder meeting for tea and biscuits and ask the management any awkward questions, or vote against their big fat cat renumeration - not that your vote will make much difference, pension funds, institutional investors don't want to rock the boat!

If you want to be relatively safe, then perhaps 3-4 stocks of a defensive nature, e.g. utilities like power, water companies, pharma companies, oil majors, tobacco companies (if your morals are suspect - come to think of it, your morals might need to be questionable for the majority of the company sectors above!
The above type pay good dividends and are relatively safe (for pharma, I mean the big companies, and not the single drug type companies or penny stock type ones). Pharma, oil majors should have some growth prospects too, utility equity price should be at the very minimum meeting inflation growth.

Food companies should be ok too, if China, India etc continues to switch to a more Western type diet, and issues remain with food security, but one screw up can do some damage as well to a company, e.g. dairy group Fonterra in New Zealand last year and their botulism scare.

If more higher risk, then try to pick shares with a better prospect of share price appreciation, or even have a riskier type share in among your defensive lot (e.g. a bank in Ireland or the UK, Europe (there is only one bank in Ireland that I would punt on long term, 3 or 4 in the uk), a commodity stock, or a small cap company with a good business model, an oil exploration stock, technology etc).
The list is endless so it is hard to advise specifically.

However, beware that central banks will likely be withdrawing the punch bowl soon (the punch bowl being low interest rates and quantitative easing - only exception might be the ecb, they did not add quantitative easing to the punch bowl yet and they may well have to, to combat deflation, if they can convince the more conservative northern countries like the Germans and the Dutch etc) - withdrawing the punch bowl is never good for equity markets.

So don't just buy all your investments in one go, if buying stocks, I would watch the market and try to buy over time if opportunity allows (i.e. try to buy on weakness), or wait for a meaningful correction - stocks have been well bid up since 2009, and the party won't last forever as that punch bowl is going to be taken away at some stage - see the crazy valuations of internet type stocks like Twitter, Whatsapp and the sky high IPO's of retail type stocks for some indication of froth.

Also, bear in mind that most of your stock market return over the long term is via the re-investment of your dividends. Some of the companies offer a scrip or drip type dividend re-investment plan, where instead of taking a cash dividend, you invest in more shares of the company. You still have to pay the tax on it however, as if you took the dividend in cash.
If you want to spread the risk more, then can buy a separate company again with your dividend income.

Sorry if that is all a bit long winded but it might be a start for you!
I could list a few stocks for you, but other people might beg to differ on them.

doniemaca

Tks v much for taking the time to reply !!