Anyone else thinking of moving their £20k from a 1-2-3 account.... and if so where's good to move it.
The reduction in interest from 3% to 1.5% starts today. Maybe there's no better alternative. What have others on here decided?
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Depends on your aversion to risk and the returns you are looking for.
I'm tending to go for P2P lending platforms now as the returns are far better, although not without risk
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Premium Bonds?
I had quite a lot in my 123 account, but since quitting my job in May '15 and being overseas on 'big trips' almost constantly ever since its not something to concern me these days. Glad I did in view of exchange rates!
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>> Premium Bonds?
Already got those. They aren't doing so well either. And I know the draw is the big win (you're unlikely to) but the smaller prices are much reduced now too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 2 Nov 16 at 09:18
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Had a statement for my stocks & shares ISA yesterday that showed it had increased in value by 7% over the last six months.
It had decreased in value the previous six months!
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I had a prod about at this the other day but lost interest, as it were. All the other accounts that don't lock you in for a million years seem to offer a tiny bit more interest but only on the first few thousand, so the actual amount of extra interest is titchy enough not to outweigh the hassle, for me.
And all the options that DO lock you in for a million years are either at a risk level higher than I care to play with or, of course, offer again only a tiny bit more actual cash for the loss of easy access.
So at the minute, I'm just leaving the Santander be.
It will be fun, when I have time, to do that "move stuff from account to account" game, and maximise my 5p a month to 6p, but at the minute life is too short.
We do throw some monthly money into a dead simple Virgin stocks and shares FTSE 100 thingy, and that makes some money. I know it could all vanish tomorrow of course, but over the past few years it's been ok, even after the management fee (which I think is about 1%).
Edit - looks like the FTSE 100 has yielded (on average) 3% annually since 2005, when we started. If my sums are right.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 2 Nov 16 at 09:32
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Just checked my premium bonds for this month - £300 winnings. That's the most I've ever seen in a month.
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I only got £25. £300 is way above anything I have got since starting in 1967. However, it would be less good if you had the full allowance invested.
Personally I treat them as my rainy day fund and put up with their average yield of about 1.25% in return for emergency accessibility, security and the "flutter factor".
There are plenty of fixed interest bond and preference deals on the market that offer high yields and *relative* security.
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If that 20 k is still earning 1.5 percent then I would stick with it in the Santander current account for the moment. I looked at the Santander account a while back and decided it was not worth changing from the Nationwide flex account we have which has also just reduced the interest it pays.
If you can afford to tie it up for a year or two then you can get better deals but it depends very much on how much risk you want to take.
Depending on how close you are to retirement and your income tax levels I would consider putting as much spare money into a pension as possible to get the tax relief.
I have to say however that you are probably going to be better off asking advice from proper financial adviser rather than on a motoring website......
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>> ........or buy gold.....
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An if you had bought gold 5 years ago you would have lost around 20% of your capital and earned no interest at all
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Father in law has nearly the max in premium bonds... he's never had nearly as much as £300. Normally £25-£50 a month. Which on the sum invested is not great is it. Some months nothing.... like this month.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 2 Nov 16 at 11:56
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Buy to Let properties
=:-0
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>> Father in law has nearly the max in premium bonds...
>> Some months nothing.... like this month.
>>
martin Lewis is very anti premium bonds.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds
www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/bonds/martin-lewis-this-is-why-you-should-dump-premium-bonds/
When researching savings etc. options, I always include MSE as one of the sources of advice.
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>> Father in law has nearly the max in premium bonds... he's never had nearly as
>> much as £300. Normally £25-£50 a month. Which on the sum invested is not great
>> is it. Some months nothing.... like this month.
It was exceptional. I recently realised I hadn't received a prize cheque and I have to say NS&I were brilliant in replacing it.
I now have any prizes credited directly to my bank account and receive emails to inform me of such.
Mother-in-law complained she'd never won anything on premium bonds and when I asked if she'd informed them of her change of address...........................................
I dug out her details and was 'golden boy' when a £25 cheque arrived.
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Well someone does win the top prizes. Statistically unlikely to be me.
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>> Well someone does win the top prizes. Statistically unlikely to be me.
The odds against winning the premium bonds £1m prize make the national lottery jackpot look like a certainty.
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>> >> Well someone does win the top prizes. Statistically unlikely to be me.
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>> The odds against winning the premium bonds £1m prize make the national lottery jackpot look
>> like a certainty.
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According to BT:-
Quote
"Premium Bonds odds
So what are your odds of winning with Premium Bonds?
NS&I will tell you that you stand a one in 26,000 chance of winning a prize for each £1 bond you own.
But those odds are for winning any Premium Bond prize, not just the million.
If you look at winning one of the two million pound Premium Bond jackpots the odds lengthen massively to an astonishing one in 27 billion. To put that in context you are far more likely to be killed by a vending machine – the odds for that are one in 112 million.
The main National Lottery Lotto draw now has odds of 45 million to one for winning the jackpot. If you want to win more Euromillions offers bigger jackpots but far longer odds at 116.5 million to one, due to the fact the whole of Europe can take part.
If you want shorter odds go for the smaller prizes. The National Lottery’s Thunderball game has a jackpot of £500,000 and your odds of winning are eight million to one. Making it eight times less likely than you being killed by falling off a ladder this year.
Play the Health Lottery and you have a one in two million chance of taking home the £100,000 jackpot. That means you are more likely to win – so long as you buy a ticket – than be killed by lightning. The odds of death by lightning in the UK are one in three million.
So your chances of winning any big prize draw are pretty slim whether it’s the Euromillions or Premium Bonds. But just because the odds are long doesn’t mean it won’t happen".
End quote.
The difference with Premium Bonds, is, of course, that you keep your money. With all the other draws, you lose your money.
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But we are not talking about 5 years ago CGN....
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What makes you think gold prices will rise rather than fall then. A long term investment perhaps but decidedly risky short to medium the and not something to replace a bank account for a small investor.
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>> An if you had bought gold 5 years ago you would have lost around 20%
>> of your capital and earned no interest at all
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Gold prices www.bullionvault.com/gold-price-chart.do
For UK, it is the £/$ rate on the day that affects price in £ sterling.
Today's gold price is nearing record 20 year high in £ sterling terms.
nearly five years ago
2nd Dec 2011: £35178/kg = £1094/oz (chart does not show price for 2nd November 2011)
Today
2nd Nov 2016: £34071/kg = £1060/oz
I won't be betting on gold increasing in $ terms enough to offset any losses due to the £ gaining against the $ from current historic lows.
EDIT: I think this is a better chart as it does show 2nd November 2011
www.bullionbypost.co.uk/gold-price/5-year-gold-price-chart/
Last edited by: BrianByPass on Wed 2 Nov 16 at 15:48
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>> Anyone else thinking of moving their £20k from a 1-2-3 account.... and if so where's
>> good to move it.
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£15k stocks and shares ISA, invested in high yield FTSE100 and/or FTSE 250 shares, or in ETF index trackers. Limit to no more than five stocks to keep easy tabs and costs low. Yields of 4% to 6% easily found in some solid companies.
shares.telegraph.co.uk/indices/fundamentals/index/UKX
advantages: tax free income and liquidity for quick access to cash if needed.
Last edited by: BrianByPass on Wed 2 Nov 16 at 15:55
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Santander have a Monthly Saver Account paying 3%.
Only runs for 1 year.
Max £200 a month.
Earns about £38 PA
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So not worth it.... with only £2400 in it by the end of the year.
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>> Earns about £38 PA
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Don't spend it all at once. ;)
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>> Anyone else thinking of moving their £20k from a 1-2-3 account.... and if so where's
>> good to move it.
It all depends on how long you are saving for and what you are prepared to risk to get the returns you want.
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You can either have all the gold in the world, which would be a cube with sides of 20m length (not much, is it) or...
You could spend the money. About $9.6 trillion, when Buffett wrote his article in 2012 (only $7.5tn at the moment).
Or you could have sold the gold and bought:
ALL the farmland in the USA.
AND 16 Exxon Mobils
AND you'd be left with a trillion for day-to-day spending.
Or, remember, you could have all the gold in the world; I know which I'd choose.
Gold is pointless. Companies and people spend a lot of money digging it out from the ground, refining it, and then putting it back under the ground in bank vaults.
Why?
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Because people perceive it to be worth something.
Why is anything worth what its worth?
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Tesco are offering a current account with 3% interest on the first £3,000. They allow you to open 2 accounts so that's £6,000.
Of course they haven't had much luck keeping accounts secure at the moment.
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If Donald wins there might be plenty of share buying opportunities tomorrow morning. For the brave. Or foolish.
I fall into the latter category and sold a fair few today in expectation...
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>> If Donald wins there might be plenty of share buying opportunities tomorrow morning. For the
>> brave. Or foolish.
>> I fall into the latter category and sold a fair few today in expectation...
I have a sinking feeling that you are probably going to be right, but I have a poor track record on market prediction so I have stayed invested - fairly defensively on the whole.
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At one point today the FTSE 100 was temporarily positive. Impossible ( for me at least) to tell which way the markets will go, so I'm sitting tight. I've lost enough already and it's like catching a falling knife.
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Just had a dabble in SPG. Results tomorrow.
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I just looked at three mixed portfolios, totalling about 200 holdings all told. The news has been good for bonds and trusts, bad for equities.
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FTSE is -0.3% now, was positive about 40 mins ago so doesn't appear to have shaken the market that much.
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I am often amazed at how little attention the market seems to pay to often catastrophic events.
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Not saying that things don't move dramatically (see sterling v. other currencies post BREXIT) but the media do like to "big it up".
I do get the impression that the markets are made just by a bunch of gamblers, albeit on a big scale.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 9 Nov 16 at 11:11
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>> FTSE is -0.3% now, was positive about 40 mins ago so doesn't appear to have
>> shaken the market that much.
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It was down to 6514 in out of hours trading at around 5am - if you had the balls to jump in then you would have made a nice few quid today
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FTSE 100 and Dow both up around 1% about 20 minutes ago.
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Just looked at how I finished the day re SPG which I dabbled in earlier today. Should I have sold at close, I'd be £18 down.
Less than the cost of the bus and taking light refreshment with chums in KL this afternoon
Isn't semi retirement wonderful !
Last edited by: legacylad on Wed 9 Nov 16 at 22:12
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I see each of the major US stock market are up at least 1%
DJIA 1.53%
Nasdaq 1.02%
S&P 500 1.22%
Russell 2000 3.17%
So let's hope Asia recovers last night's losses.
Happy to see that the biotech sector (in which I have quite a lump of part of my pension, and forgot to get out before yesterday) seems to have gone up by 9%!
Source: markets.wsj.com/
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Our biotech investment went down a fair bit after we bought it earlier this year. Then around 6 weeks ago it was up around 15% since purchase..... then it plummeted in the last week. Back up again and then down again.
Compared to purchase price it's around 3% up. Nowhere near the 15-16% seen recently.
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I meant SGP. Up around 9% today, but as I only dabbled yesterday, and taking into account the spread and 2x £11.95 commission charges, my paper profit is only around £100.
Now if I'd gambled one decimal point to the right, it would have been a good 36 hour profit!
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Howls about futures, anybuddy look into those?
Byrd-on-the-wire (less) reckons she made a bucketful of cabbage due to Trump's triumph.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPUu-rMpWA
(*_*)
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I understand that the smart money is on Mexican construction companies and that Trump has taken a major position.
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Buy bricks they are going to be in short supply!
(Oddly Apple suggestions suggested the sentence above perfectly!!)
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Looks like banks were the bet of the day - RBS, PRU and Barclays up 6-7% ish
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>> Looks like banks were the bet of the day
Still well down from their June prices, though.
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Santander 1-2-3 Alternatives - mikeyb
