Investment ideas?

spongebob89

I have about 40k saved now and would like to hear any investment ideas if my goal is basically happy enough to beat inflation and not save in the banks for years where it will depriciate.

Read a bit into gold but alot say theres better investments but I don't know squat about all these investments such as index etc.

Is it worth paying an investor to diversify a portfolio for you?

topper_harley2

You mention you have no idea of indices etc.........have a read of the other 800 threads that ask the same thing you have asked here e.g.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=103267454
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057719381
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=95975176
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=90253688
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=98214738
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=102965097

Before jumping straight into investing the 40K, you need to ask yourself ALOT of questions, even moreso since you say you have no idea about investing.

Investing is not something to be done in isolation, just because you have the 20K. There could be far better uses for the 40K that you havent considered. For example, is this "play money" and can you afford to lose all of it OR will losing this 40K mean your quality of life is drastically reduced for the next 5 years? My immediate questions when anyone asks about a investing X amount is as follows:

What age are you
What existing savings have you
Why do you want to save or invest (and do you know the difference?)
Have you any high interest debts like car loan/credit card etc
Have you an SVR mortgage
Have you a rainy day fund of 3-6 months salary
Have you a pension
Have you kids
Are you married
Have you any investment property
What exactly constitutes success for any investment portfolio
How long are you happy to be without this money
What would you do if value dropped 30% overnight
What is your tax rate
Are you taxed in Ireland

You need to be able to answer those honestly before investing in anything. Simply giving 40K to a broker, forgetting about it and hoping it turns into say 60K in a few years is not realistic IMO.

HTH

spongebob89

What age are you
28

What existing savings have you
40k

Why do you want to save or invest (and do you know the difference?)
To help grow my savings so many how how little as I know I wont need it for a few years

Have you any high interest debts like car loan/credit card etc
No

Have you an SVR mortgage
No

Have you a rainy day fund of 3-6 months salary
Yes

Have you a pension
No

Have you kids
No

Are you married
No

Have you any investment property
No

What exactly constitutes success for any investment portfolio
How long are you happy to be without this money
2 years

What would you do if value dropped 30% overnight
Except it

What is your tax rate
40%

Are you taxed in Ireland
Yes

You need to be able to answer those honestly before investing in anything. Simply giving 40K to a broker, forgetting about it and hoping it turns into say 60K in a few years is not realistic IMO.

HTH[/quote]

Merowig

How long are you happy to be without this money
2 years

This means you shouldn't invest in stocks in my opinion.

Overall:
1. Get a pension and maximize contributions if possible - check if the employer is matching contributions - otherwise get a cheap PRSA (without contribution charges!) - money is then parked there till you retire the pension fund.
2. Keep a savings accounts for using it later for a deposit for a mortgage
3. Look into the Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) - but money will be invested for 4 years - and you should still be a tax resident in Ireland when the 4 years are over.
4. Look into equities / ETFs (e.g. Vanguard) - but your time horizon should be as well longer than 2 years

p to the e

Investing in a company is putting money into a company that you believe in and want to see grow over an extended period of time and reap the benefits of this growth for years. This involves doing your research before making any decisions.

Over a 2 year period of time you're talking about trading. You don't necessarily know anything about the company but want to get in and out whilst making as much as possible. It's more akin to gambling. You might win big, you might lose big.

If you want to think long term then do your research with the mounds of information available online (I and others could make some recommendations if you're interested), create your own portfolio and your 60 year old millionaire self will thank you.

If you want to attempt to make as much money as possible in a short time frame then save yourself some money and don't pay someone to gamble your money away. Go to Vegas and put it all on black.

Merowig

For trading etoro and other platforms offer as well a virtual account there you can play/train with virtual money to get a feeling. But then you do it on the real platform with your money it will be still different.

Highly risky and very easy to lose money.

gavmcg92

Merowig wrote: »

This means you shouldn't invest in stocks in my opinion.

Overall:
1. Get a pension and maximize contributions if possible - check if the employer is matching contributions - otherwise get a cheap PRSA (without contribution charges!) - money is then parked there till you retire the pension fund.
2. Keep a savings accounts for using it later for a deposit for a mortgage
3. Look into the Employment and Investment Incentive (EII) - but money will be invested for 4 years - and you should still be a tax resident in Ireland when the 4 years are over.
4. Look into equities / ETFs (e.g. Vanguard) - but your time horizon should be as well longer than 2 years

+1 for this. You should seriously consider setting up a pension before you consider investing. If you're dead set on getting into equities then maybe look into a self directed PRSA but you should really start with getting a pension up and running so you can reap the tax benefits.

spongebob89

gavmcg92 wrote: »

+1 for this. You should seriously consider setting up a pension before you consider investing. If you're dead set on getting into equities then maybe look into a self directed PRSA but you should really start with getting a pension up and running so you can reap the tax benefits.

What tax benefits I dont know much about pensions but might be interested as long as I can access it before 60 and not when im too old to spend it any advice on private pensions?

topper_harley2

spongebob89 wrote: »

What tax benefits I dont know much about pensions but might be interested as long as I can access it
before 60 and not when im too old to spend it any advice on private pensions?

Similar to when you mentioned you didnt know anything about indices, if you know nothing about pensions, have you tried to educate yourself first, and then ask sensible questions, rather than "any advice on pensions" - we could be here for a month to answer a question that vague!

Googling "importance of pension Ireland" i.e. https://www.google.ie/search?q=pension+introduction+Ireland+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gws_rd=cr&ei=UvNTWbKpJ4zfwQLYtazoAw#q=importance+pension+ireland gives 1.5 million results, so its fair to say anything you want to know has been answered already. Taking the first two, there is an Irish Times article:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/take-refuge-what-you-need-to-know-about-pensions-1.2059324

And then the pensions authority website itself
All about pensions:
http://www.pensionsauthority.ie/en/LifeCycle/Why_save_for_retirement/The_importance_of_pensions/

Specifically about tax benefits:
http://www.pensionsauthority.ie/en/LifeCycle/Tax/

I would start a pension if I were you, the longer you leave it, the more you'll need to contribute per month. However, you haven't said if you are self employed or PAYE, or if your employer provides an occupational pension scheme, or if they contribute to it on the behalf of the employee, or what your salary is, which is important for the tax benefits. Its impossible to give any meaningful advice here.

lawred2

Investing in a pension is more than likely investing in stocks