Where should I invest 5,000?

[fogfurn]

hi hope this is the right place for this but i have 5000 of which i would like to put away long term and just wandering if its to small of an amount and if not any advice on how or where to invest/save i dont mind 5/10/20 years just would like to have a lump sum in a few years time

 

[Boyd]

For long term savings, check out the best buys for fixed term accounts: http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/term-deposits-fixed-lump-sum-savings.101813/

Regarding investments, you dont give enough (i.e. any) information about why you want an investment portfolio, what you are trying to achieve, what are your other financial priorities/circumstances etc.

If I were an advisor I'd be asking:

• What % of your overall wealth is this 5K...is it 1%, 10% or is it your life savings
• Have you any high interest debts like car loan/credit card etc
• Have you an SVR mortgage
• Have you a rainy day fund of 3-6 months salary
• Have you a pension
• Have you kids
• Are you married
• Have you any investment property
• What exactly constitutes success for this investment portfolio
• How long are you happy to be without this money
• What would you do if value dropped 30% overnight

Most people when asked why they want to invest generally say "I want to get better return than in normal bank account"......that is not a goal, thats a vague pipe dream that you cannot quantify.

There are lots of similar threads on this forum (and on boards investments forum), I'd suggest having a good read of them as well before deciding what to do.

 

[galway_blow_in]

For long term savings, check out the best buys for fixed term accounts: http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/term-deposits-fixed-lump-sum-savings.101813/

Regarding investments, you dont give enough (i.e. any) information about why you want an investment portfolio, what you are trying to achieve, what are your other financial priorities/circumstances etc.

If I were an advisor I'd be asking:

• What % of your overall wealth is this 5K...is it 1%, 10% or is it your life savings
• Have you any high interest debts like car loan/credit card etc
• Have you an SVR mortgage
• Have you a rainy day fund of 3-6 months salary
• Have you a pension
• Have you kids
• Are you married
• Have you any investment property
• What exactly constitutes success for this investment portfolio
• How long are you happy to be without this money
• What would you do if value dropped 30% overnight

Most people when asked why they want to invest generally say "I want to get better return than in normal bank account"......that is not a goal, thats a vague pipe dream that you cannot quantify.

There are lots of similar threads on this forum (and on boards investments forum), I'd suggest having a good read of them as well before deciding what to do.

i think its safe to assume if someone asks about investing 5 k and shows a willingness to leave it invested long term , they are not really thinking along the lines of a savings account

OP , 5000 is not too little to invest , while its impossible to time the market perfectly , certain sectors and certain markets are better value than others , the overall market in the usa is very expensive right now , europe is cheaper but has always been cheaper and has numerous problems , emerging markets are harder to value but appear a lot cheaper relatively speaking than developed markets right now

if it was me , i think i would put that amount of money in one of the emerging market funds based on current price multiples

 

[johnny1234]

Putting money in to funds is subscribing to a heap of Management charges and other unseen expenses. If you want you should have a look at an ETF in the sector you prefer. In most cases the ETF are run by professional firms at much lower costs than funds that are mentioned.
I'm no expert but am quite willing to give an honest opinion, based on investing in funds in the Irish market. Otherwise, keep your money in your pocket.

 

[joe sod]

i think its safe to assume if someone asks about investing 5 k and shows a willingness to leave it invested long term , they are not really thinking along the lines of a savings account

OP , 5000 is not too little to invest , while its impossible to time the market perfectly , certain sectors and certain markets are better value than others , the overall market in the usa is very expensive right now , europe is cheaper but has always been cheaper and has numerous problems , emerging markets are harder to value but appear a lot cheaper relatively speaking than developed markets right now

if it was me , i think i would put that amount of money in one of the emerging market funds based on current price multiples

You seem to be now agreeing with what i was saying back in January, galway. I agree with most of this, maybe put half into a european etf and half into emerging market etf. For what its worth I was investing in emerging markets since 2014, they were cheap back then unfortunately for me I was too early and they got a whole lot cheaper with the big sell offs last year. If I had of invested in a general emerging market ETF rather than picking individual shares I would have done better and not suffered such a big sell off in 2015. Thats the lesson I learned Im better off with ETFs and investment trusts that specialise in sectors rather than trying to pick individual shares. Generally despite their bad press fund managers are better than amateurs like me. I have recovered all the 2015 losses but i have got a whole lot humbler now

 

[galway_blow_in]

You seem to be now agreeing with what i was saying back in January, galway. I agree with most of this, maybe put half into a european etf and half into emerging market etf. For what its worth I was investing in emerging markets since 2014, they were cheap back then unfortunately for me I was too early and they got a whole lot cheaper with the big sell offs last year. If I had of invested in a general emerging market ETF rather than picking individual shares I would have done better and not suffered such a big sell off in 2015. Thats the lesson I learned Im better off with ETFs and investment trusts that specialise in sectors rather than trying to pick individual shares. Generally despite their bad press fund managers are better than amateurs like me. I have recovered all the 2015 losses but i have got a whole lot humbler now

i made quite a bit of money in 2010 , 2012 and 2013 , i have lost money in 2014 , 2015 and 2016 though luckily i took a fair bit of money off the table towards the end of 2014 , it was easy to pick winners a few years ago as we were barely out of the crash , had i simply invested my money in an etf which tracks the s+ p from the start , id be better off

like most people , im not smart enough to beat the market , thats a valuable lesson ive learned , when you loose on a few trades with individual stocks , you are prone to begin chasing losses by taking on more risk , you then end up loosing more

 

[Boyd]

i think its safe to assume if someone asks about investing 5 k and shows a willingness to leave it invested long term , they are not really thinking along the lines of a savings account

OP said "invest/savings" in the post, i merely answered their question by giving all options. Some people happy with ten year state savings, lots of people in fact.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

What about your pension?

€5,000 of your own money could deliver up to €8,300 for you to invest, taking the tax relief into account.

 

[joe sod]

i made quite a bit of money in 2010 , 2012 and 2013 , i have lost money in 2014 , 2015 and 2016 though luckily i took a fair bit of money off the table towards the end of 2014 , it was easy to pick winners a few years ago as we were barely out of the crash , had i simply invested my money in an etf which tracks the s+ p from the start , id be better off

like most people , im not smart enough to beat the market , thats a valuable lesson ive learned , when you loose on a few trades with individual stocks , you are prone to begin chasing losses by taking on more risk , you then end up loosing more

I hope Im not hijacking this post but Im just giving my experience of investing and the pitfalls I fell into. I was not that affected by the 2008 sell off because i had not big money invested at that stage. Luckily for me what I was reading back then was spot on and I made alot of money from investments upto 2011 when I sold my best investment after making a killing. After that you think you know more than you do and get over confident. If at that stage i had put everything into a world stock market etf or something similar I would be a whole lot better off. I did not do too badly but 2015 was a horrible year due to being too heavily invested in oil and emerging market stocks. At one stage my total investment portfolio was down 30% from the start of 2015. Yet in general 2015 was not a bad year for world stock markets. Thats the big lesson I learned its ok to be wrong and wait out the cyclicality for example if you invest in a general emerging market etf, however if you invest in the wrong individual stocks in emerging markets it can wipe you out. Thats also the hard lesson from the 2008 financial crisis. If irish investors had bought the irish index or a general financial etf rather than piling into irish banks they would have recovered from the 2008 crisis. However by buying Bank of Ireland and AIB they were wiped out, there is no waiting out cyclicality.