At the end of this month I should be getting around �12,000. Now I'm 20, and this is the largest sum of money that has ever come my way. I want to spend some of it (new laptop, clothes etc), but am looking to invest about �10,000
I want to know what my options are, bare in mind I know nothing about savings/investings/stocks/commodities/etc.
I don't just want to put it in a few ISA's because the interest rate seems a little low.
I'm also interested in 'securely' investing say 75% of it, and then gambling a little with the other 25%.
I live in the U.K., and any advice wil be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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I recently set up a Scottrade account after graduation and invested $6000, which was my first time investing with my own money. Not sure if it would be any different on the other side of the pond, but I'd say create an account with a place like Scottrade, E-trade, ameritrade, etc. If you're not completely comfortable investing it all I'd say put some in a saving type of account and play with some. You could throw some in a CD, usually yield the highest interest of saving type accounts. They usually require a certain time length (6mon, 1yr, etc.) where the money cannot be withdrawn.
There is a ton of information that could be posted to answer your question, but for a summery of investment basics from my Finance classes (and my assumption of your situation), I'd recommend putting a majority of the investment in equity (stocks, etc.) Based on your age and future expected income you can be more risky with this than say a 50 year old who is looking to retire in the next 10-15 years. It's all up to you and your risk tolerance... A general rule in investing though is higher risk rewards higher returns. In the U.S. markets, IMO, its a great time to invest because prices are much lower than they were a year ago and seem like the markets are on the rebound (markets tend to rebound about 6 months before the overall economy)...
Because this is a very large amount of money for you, you may be better off just paying the charges associated with investing through a financial advisor. They will be able to give you all the information you'd want/need, create a strategy that is best for you and can handle all the transactions.
Personally I invested 100% in equity with my money and purchased some individual stocks (I researched and found some that I liked, looked like a good/promising/strong company and are a good bet for the long run), and some ETF's. All my knowledge, experience is based on investing within the U.S. (although a percentage of my portfolio is international).
Overall, the best advice I can give you is to diversify. Hope this helps a little.
