I have dabbled in the stock market a little before but not with much success, eircom / vodafone, Irish bank shares, Rabo direct funds etc all went in the wrong direction never to give returns in my life time.
Yeah a lot of people in Ireland have a dim view on the stockmarket after eircom, Anglo Irish Bank etc. But I'd really encourage you to give it one more try. The fact you're on here asking the question about investing, and not about where to get the best deposit rate, puts you ahead of most people.
I find the thoughts of navigating the stock market too risky and daunting.
I think the trick is don't try to navigate it. Just buy an S&P500 (as you suggested yourself) ETF and if you want some geographical spread, a European index ETF and leave them, check the price once a month at most if you're curious.
How liquid is your mutual fund though that tracks an index, what happens if the company selling the fund goes out of business?
ETFs are extremely liquid, just like a regular share. The companies that manage these are generally very big stable companies, Blackrock for example has $150bn under management, so while it's possible they could go out of business the likelihood is very low. But there are lots of them out there, so if it gave you more comfort you could buy and S&P500 index ETF from 3/4/5 different providers to spread the risk, there's little downside to doing so other than a small bit more paperwork when calculating your tax.
and even how does one buy such a low cost index tracked mutual fund? and then what are the tax implications? As messy as property can be I believe the stock market for those without expertise and even for those with expertise can be just as risky and complicated as a property investment.
You can buy these ETFs very easily, any stockbroker will be able to buy them for you. All you need to do is pick a broker, fill in a form and send some ID, a week later you'll be able to log in and do a bank transfer of some funds to your account, then search for your preferred S&P500 ETF and click Buy, choosing the amount you want, you're done. Yes there will be some tax admin required, but it's not complicated and would be required if you become a landlord as well. You could get an accountant to do it for you for a few hundred quid if you'd prefer.
Looking at all the comments so far I am thinking the best thing to do is leave the money on deposit or bonds earning next to nothing. I was hoping askaboutmoney would provide me with some better solutions....but thanks to everyone for their comments to date.
Just a couple of data points for you. If you had invested in an S&P500 ETF 10 years ago you would have nailed the crash and lost ~40% in that first year, about as bad as it gets, but the market recovered and over those 10 years your return would have been 8% per annum. If you'd invested 20 years ago you'd have entered the market just before the dotcom crash and you'd pick up the 2008 crash as well, but the market recovered and you'd still have made about 8% per annum if you stayed in. 8% would be a tough enough return to make in the property market with more work required (saying this as a landlord myself). 8% is a 4-500% better return than you'll make in a deposit account and 2-300% more than you'd make in Irish government bonds (given they're tax free).
Even if you're not comfortable putting all your money in (totally understandable), I'd strongly encourage you to setup a stockbroker account and stick €10k in just to get a feel for it, it will stand to you greatly in the long run.
