When should Savings become Investments

Consonata

I'm trying to decide at the moment whether it is worth investing a portion of my savings into various ETFs in the hopes of getting a better return than just leaving them sitting in a Credit Union account.

Does anybody have any advice about how much money should be left in savings, and what should the remainder be invested in depending on the amount?

Diarmuid

When you can afford to lose a percentage of them without losing a nights sleep. What your invest in is determined by that percentage.

Skelet0n

1-3 months without income should be saved at least eg. rent, food, bills etc.

Skelet0n

Think if you're only investing money after taking out a years living expenses, there won't be much to invest.

Or maybe there is, don't know how much savings OP has.

Stock market has provided great returns since 2009, s&p500 is now 3 times what it was back then and the FTSE is double what it was.

If you are tempted then invest whatever you do decide on investing incrementally every 3 months or so over the next 18 / 24 months. I'm not a fan of trying to time the market but your potential appetite to invest in the markets is likely going to coincide with the reversal of Central Bank quantitative easing

In saying that, if you are happy to invest the wad for the next 10+ years then you are well insulated against a drop in the market

cooperguy

That's a pretty large sum! If you were permanent in a job you would potentially be entitled to redundancy if you lost it for example. A year is a very big arbitrary number to set.

Skelet0n

For context, hates_the_heat posted that he recommended a year of savings which has now been deleted and the quotes edited out of our posts for some reason.

That's why cooperguy and I look like we're talking to nobody.

djPSB

Aren't gains on investments taxed at 33%?

djPSB

djPSB wrote: »

Aren't gains on investments taxed at 33%?

Capital gains are, over and above €1270iirc.
Dividend income taxed as wages etc are.

Pussyhands

so what do people think will happen in the next 5 years?

I'd like to increase my money (I'd even settle for inflation increase) but I'd also like to buy a house in 5 years time or so.

Would you say put the deposit into a savings account and invest the rest?

been looking at some stocks like amazon and the increase is amazing over the last number of years.