I've been working for a couple of years still living in my parents home with no outgoings, meaning all my money goes straight to the bank. I've saved around £30'000+ but I'm unhappy with money sitting there as I feel there would be a better way to make use of it such as private equity or investments after some research - could it be used to kickstart some sort of business? I guess my question is: How could this money best be invested for me to improve my revenue / increase revenue streams?
123427
I am in my late 20s, living in the UK, and in my third year of professional work (one year industrial placement, two years since graduating from University). I have very little in the way of monthly expenditure at the moment- living in a house share (with very cheap rent), most bills included in rent, and have pretty much reached the limits on which the various bank accounts I have open will pay interest.  Since graduating, I have been saving using a few different current accounts which pay interest on balances up to a certain limit (a few of which have conditions that you have a number of Direct Debits going out from those accounts in order to receive interest on the balance of the account).  But since I am now at the point where I am earning interest on the maximum balance for most of these accounts, I am starting to look at other ways to save/ invest, but I'm just not really sure what to look into/ what the best options to explore are.  I have already opened: Santander 123 account, Bank of Scotland Classic Account with Vantage, TSB Classic Plus account and a Club Lloyds account, as well as having an ISA and one or two Regular Savers on-going. I am maintaining the maximum balance that you can receive interest on in each of these current accounts. My ISA matured recently (3 years paying 3.75%), and that balance is now sat in a Flexible ISA (earning 0.8%) while I explore what's best to do with it.  I take home roughly 1k per month after tax, rent and other regular outgoings such as food, travel, leisure, student loan repayments, phone/ broadband, etc.  I am at the point financially where I have saved enough to have a reasonable deposit on a house, but am not at the point in life where I want to commit to being a home-owner for a couple of reasons:    My work is contract based, so there's no guarantee that I will be working in the same location as I am at the moment, this time next year (in fact that's looking less and less likely, as the current contract is coming to an end, and there's some uncertainty as to when the client will begin the next contract- government projects). It would not be unrealistic to think that I may be in the situation where I don't have any work at all in a few months time, and so I am currently applying for other jobs. Having gone through the usual cycle of school- university- job, etc... I am thinking that now would potentially be a good time to look into doing some travelling, so I would rather not pursue buying a house for the moment, in case I do decide to do some travelling for a year or so.   I have recently started watching the stock prices of a few companies to get an idea of investing in the stock market, but feel like I need to research this &amp; watch the values for a while before I go ahead and invest in any shares.  I have a credit card, which I pay off monthly, but other than that, the only debt I have is my student loan (approximately £25,000).  So, given my situation, are there any other ways that I can save/ invest that I am not currently doing? Or would it be best to start using any excess funds, that I won't earn any interest on, to pay off my student loan quicker? The interest that my student loan is incurring is currently 0.9%.
92542
I close on my first home October 21. I've locked in a 4.330% APR on a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage and my payment will be ~$800/month. I've put the required 20% down to avoid paying PMI.  However, the $800/m isn't even 25% of my take-home income and it will be &lt; 20% starting January 1st. This is skewed even more by the fact that I'm taking on extra contracting work that will net me an additional $1600/month before taxes.  I'm curious whether or not I should put that extra money into the principal of the home or if I would be better served putting it into a mutual fund. I've noticed quite a few mutual funds have historically had > 4.330% annual return on investment and if I was paying linear interest on the loan it would be no-brainer.  However, since I'll be putting in a small amount of money to the principle of the home at the beginning I'm wondering if I would be in a better position if I funneled that extra cash (We'll say $2000/m) toward the loan instead of investing it.  Is this a good idea?  Thanks.   Edit: Contextual Information   I'm 23 years old. My company does not offer matching, but instead deposits 8% of my salary + cafeteria funds into my 401k at the end of the year regardless of what I do. I have virtually no other debt to speak of (I just paid off my car and I keep my CC balance around $1,000 at any given time). I'm not bound to this location - my reasoning for buying a house is funneling my living expenses into principal instead of having it evaporate at the end of each month. I'm not particularly worried about being unemployed -- My house payment is low enough to where my unemployment check would more than pay for it and I'm in software, which means I can find a job on a whim if I needed to.
39459
I have been in USA for 10 years and most people I know have 30 years mortgage which they do not prefer to pay-off even though they have cash hoping to make money in stock market.  Now, say mortgage rate is 5% and s&amp;p 500 returns 9%(which has been a historical average for last 100 years.).At this rate, some one decides to invest the extra cash that they have in stock instead of paying off the mortgage is basically saying I am going to make those (9-5 =4%) in stock market.   That does not make sense considering that when you use that money to pay-off mortgage then you are making a guaranteed return of 5%(by not letting bank make that money from you). When you invest in stock market instead of paying-off your mortgage you are only making 4-5%(remember its not 9% its 9-5= 4%). Also, that is ONLY IF you make money. Stock market can be volatile(Remember 2008?). Also, you pay 15% long-term capital gain tax on it if you make money on that investment.  OK. so I am from India where people normally buy properties for cash and I have aslo heard rumors about some Chinesse real-estate investors buying american properties for 100% cash.  Which means there are significant number of people in the world who do believe that paying interest to the bank for 30 years may not be best of the ideas.     Why do people choose a may-be 5% as oppose to a guaranteed 5% when   they choose to invest instead of paying off mortgage?
119966
In the area I currently live, we are experiencing massive population growth.  Land and house prices haven't risen as fast as rent, to the point that renting is now at least 3-4x as expensive per square foot as owning.  This makes saving a down payment very difficult while renting.  Given these conditions, would it make sense to buy with 0 down when I can get double the space and pay less even with PMI than my current rent?  Additional info:  rent on a 1 bedroom apartment in my area is currently around $1600, but I can find decent houses in the 175k-225k range.  Financing even with 0 down is no problem to obtain.  I have been unsuccessful in finding any roommates who could split the cost of a larger unit.  To clarify, I am looking for the lowest cost place to live.  Rent continues to climb, where mortgage payments would be fixed.  I do not consider the house an investment, so even if, say after 3 years I had to sell at a bit of a loss, I consider it a win if the total amount paid for the house, upkeep, taxes, selling costs, etc are a lower total than the rent would be over the same period.  I have owned before so am familiar with the additional costs of renting vs owning, and do most maintenance myself.  I guess what I really want to know is, how do you figure out where the line is?  How high does rent have to get so that it would be better to buy?
36905
I am about to receive a considerable(for me, anyway) amount of money- about $100k- and really have no idea what to do with it to make it grow even larger.  Of course I want to pay off credit card debt($6k), and student loans($40k). I would also like to set aside an 'Emergency Fund,' donate to one or two causes I support, and travel(not extravagently, just see everything this world has to offer).  What do I do with the rest, say about $40k? I'm a freelancer, so some sort of financial security is important to me. Also, I'm VERY interested in safe(is there such a thing?) ways to make this small wealth grow into larger sums.  ETA: I am young, just graduated college. I have no desires to ever own a home, or any other large, time and money consuming item. And it's not that I want to necessarily do anything with the money. I just want it to grow so that I can stabilize and brighten my future, I just don't know how to do that.
83336
I am under 18, currently shopping for a car. Like many people, I don't have enough money sitting in my bank account to purchase a good car, around $6,000 to $10,000. However, credit checks have prevented me from being able to lease, and loan, due to my parents' bad credit. I personally am quite responsible with money, but short of emancipating, which has quite significant legal disadvantages, I can't find any ways of breaking free from my parents' credit history. Any ideas?  Note: Rather than making assumptions about my financial background, just assume I am trying to get credit for leverage in an investment but I'm underage and my parents have bad credit. How would I do it?
56998
If I sell my car off at a loss, can I write that loss off against my income to save on tax? Does it matter if the car was used just for personal leisure use, or if I used the car to generate business income? (e.g. travel to work, to attend education seminars, etc.)
5780
I am a 22 year old currently renting accommodation with my partner in the UK, and we are wondering if now is a good time to buy a property, and whether or not we can afford it.  As background, my salary before tax is £70,000 p.a. and my partner's is £36,000 p.a. This year I have a guaranteed bonus of £30,000 (i.e. written into my employment contract) before tax. After this, my target bonus is £10,000 p.a.   We are looking at houses around £500,000/£550,000 in the area just inside the M25 and when we are ready to buy, we will have savings of £55,000 for a deposit and £20,000 for stamp duty and legal fees.   Looking at Mortgage calculators such as provided by , based on these figures it would appear that we may be eligible for a mortgage up to ~£530,000, which should be enough. A mortgage of this amount will require repayments in the order of £2300-£3000 per month. After tax, our joint earnings per month is about £6345, without bonuses.  I am aware that interest rates are currently low, and am conscious that recently 3 members of the Bank of England MPC voted in favour of raising the base rate; so I do not want to miss out on preferential mortgage rates.  Moreover, if we do not buy a house, we will be spending money on rent, probably ~£1500 per month and this will just be expenditure with no assets at the end to show for it.  So my question is: based on this information, should we be looking to buy ASAP, or wait to accumulate more savings and buy a house using a smaller mortgage?
3669
I'm a US resident and I've saved &gt; $100k cash for a home deposit. I expect to finance a home in the next 12 months. Currently the cash is split between Bank savings account and a couple of money market accounts (like FMOXX). Are there higher yield, short term alternatives for this type of saving? Note I'm not after specific product recommendations, but general investment strategies for this type of situation.
75973
I am foreign graduate student in USA. I recently completed my undergrad (from USA) and have a bit of money saved up. I know that F1 students cannot work off campus and other business activities such stock trading etc are prohibited as well. I wanted to know if opening an account in an investment management firm like Charles Schwabb or Betterment is allowed. I would not be working but I will still be earning a small interest on my deposits. If that is not allowed, are there any good and legal ways for foreign students to earn a little interest on savings?
65811
I'm a young person with some money to start investing. I do believe in the superiority of low cost index fund over actively managed fund. But I still freeze up a bit about the timing of when to start my first buy in.  Sure, I understand that there's no way to time the market. But even if I only buy-and-hold instead of day trading, wouldn't the timing of my first investment still matter greatly? For example, a person who started to invest during the 2007 bubble only regained his net worth 6 years later in 2013.  Is this the case of something that does matter but I have no control over so I should not worry about? Or does the timing NOT matter since I'm supposed to invest part of my paycheck every month no matter the economic condition?
20788
I saw  recently where a man withdrew $600,000 USD in cash from his bank.  I'm sure many folks here would advise against this move for obvious (and perhaps not-so-obvious) reasons.   My question: suppose you did this and then, some months later, changed your mind and wanted to re-deposit with a bank.  I assume the gent cannot simply walk into a bank with $600,000 USD and deposit it, right?  Wouldn't money-laundering alarms be raised?  Wouldn't the IRS like to know where the money came from?
49781
Do you find  to be an effective way of increasing the returns on your investments?  This can be either by itself, or in combination with other indicators.  If so, what techniques do you use?    What studies exist which show evidence for whether or not different techniques work?
30339
We currently have two rewards checking accounts.  We are nearing the maximums permitted on each account, after which we receive .5% and .25% APY.  It's within our means to perhaps open another one, but at that point we are looking at using our debit cards 50 to 55 times a month.  I feel that running that number of debit transactions is getting out of hands as it's just the two of us.  I realize there are easy ways to game the system, but I want these things to stay around and another person doing just such that could lead to the ends of these accounts.  We are saving towards a new house down payment.  As such we don't require these funds to be fully liquid, but would still like to remain free of as much risk as possible -- however I realize we are unlikely to find anything near our rewards checking accounts (4% APY interest for meeting various rules: direct deposit, a certain number of debit card transactions, and not receiving a paper statement), but would hope we can get at least half of that.  We aren't fully sure when we will be buying, but we are probably a couple of years out.  For that reason I don't think CDs would work.  Even if we ladder them, when we need the money we will need it pretty much instantly.  Do I bite the bullet and just find the best available money market account?  What other options do I have that let me deposit monthly, and not have a timebomb associated to accessing that money that isn't in the initial lump sum?
107491
My wife and I were planning to buy a house this year, but the plan fell through, so right now we are sitting on the money that we saved towards down payment and renovations (prior to now money was in the Money markets, Savings &amp; CDs). We decided to stop looking for a house for about a year, and resume next February, though if a nice deal shows up we want money easily available. So in our situation what is the best way to make sure we don't lose any principal, but to see that our money doesn't sit idle. CDs are pretty much out of the question: for a 6-9 months period interest is lower than savings. The best I was able to come up with (according to ) were:   - 1.2% + 10% on the interest earned.   - 1.15%   - 1.15%   According to their websites all of them are FDIC members. Are there any other options? I don't really know anything about bonds. Are they a viable option? Final Solution: My boss recommended I check out  ( they are a Texas bank with locations in CA, IL &amp; TX, obviously the website.) They are offering 2.02 % on a 60 months CD - but here is the kicker, if I need to pull the money before it matures, they only take the last 2 months of interest as a penalty. So I think that's a good solution for me. The website says they are FDIC insured and there are a brick and mortar branches not far from me. Update: This bank I mentioned, doesn't seem to exist anymore, through a series of purchases. So scratch that suggestion. Thank you everyone for your recommendations.
1527
Can a wealthy investor invest his money in any company before it goes public / IPO? I am referring to a recent Goldman Sachs and Facebook deal worth $450 Million at a valuation of $50 Billion dollars.   I want to know what is the procedure and how are these valuations made prior to the company going public? Is is possible that an investor could raise capital from investment banks, private equity, or commercial banks to re-invest in a pre-IPO deal at some valuation?  Knowing that angel investors don't provide so much money, can they play their role here with a normal investor?
16906
For the past few years I have been contributing to my company-sponsored 401k just enough to get all of their match, and contributing up-to-the-limit in a Roth IRA.  I've now reached the income limits for the Roth IRA (which seems like a good problem to have), which means that starting now I must find some place else to put the contributions that would have been going into the Roth IRA each year.  Is there any generally accepted advice on where the next best place is to invest money for retirement when Roth IRA is no longer an option? Seems to me like my choices are:   Invest back into company-sponsored 401k Traditional IRA, which offers no deduction benefits Invest on my own in an individual brokerage account.   I understand that no answer for advice can be truly objective or "the right answer", but I'm mostly curious if there is any conventional wisdom on what to do next.