Investment & Investing

Sound Energy.

Multi TCF reserve to be announced next Friday and further results through to Mid October.

Make yourself a few quid!

Investing in property... I know flats/houses etc should be a good investment but any thoughts on garages/lock ups?

I assume they wouldn't rise in value by the same amount as property you can actually live in, but provided surrounding property prices rise you'd hope the non-residential property prices would follow. Plus being a landlord of something where there is nothing to break sounds a lot easier than having to deal with boiler issues, burst pipes etc etc.

Anyone with any experience/thoughts?

no idea about this haven't had a look yet but probably not as good as it first looks

any thoughts on garages/lock ups?

A couple of anecdotes rather than anything really useful....

... but knew someone who back in the day wanted to buy property in Paris, but didn't have the money. So instead slowly bought garages and parking units. It's now a massive portfolio with a good yield and nuts capital growth. Someone else I know of bought loads of run down workshops and small factory buildings in a now trendy bit of London which ended up being developed for flats. They obviously did well too.

In London the key for me would be the mechanics of the surrounding bits and ownership.

Do you buy the garage and lease the land?

What happens if the land is bought / sold for development?

What is the access like? Can someone fuck you to make your plot = £0 to force you to sell to them? Etc.

A lot of the new builds near Highbury that had car parking sold the spots to the first owners. From my searches when I was renting in FP a lot of those people were clearly then renting the parking spots. So I think you have good potential for yield.

First thoughts for places to look would be areas that are on the up/have come up but where the inhabitants might not yet be at the level of wanting somewhere safe to park their vintage Porsche.

With any luck in 15yrs time you'll have a re-run of that crazy Notting Hill garage story.

Also you never know, but there may be a shot at developing them into residential somewhere down the line.

For example I have a setup thus:

Each payday I put a grand into a Nationwide account (Flexsomething) that gets 5% interest on 2,500
The next day I take the grand out and put it into a Santander 1-2-3 account, which gets 3% interest on a maximum of 20,000. This is also my current account.

Does the Nationwide money not have to sit in the account? Or do you mean you have already maxed out £2.5k and just flow the money thought to meet the terms of the account?

If you're batshit into risk there's massive money to be made (or lost) day trading bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Has been my hobby for the last five years or so.

You have to pay in a grand per month, so you can take it out again the next day, along with the interest earned from the previous month.

There are a lot of accounts like this, but the problem is if you've already got a lot saved, there aren’t enough accounts available. This is why having three Santander 123s is so useful, even with the new crappy interest rate.

I guess savings accounts are only useful if you need instant access e.g. house deposit. I am thinking of putting some money in a 1-year fixed bond since I think rates are more likely to fall than rise in my expected house-buying timescale. Not sure though.

Anyone know much about Folkestone for B2L? Places like Margate and Hastings have been on my radar, but I just stumbled on an article about Folkestone today and it sounds lovely - prices similar to Margate, but a bit more for the money and possibly slightly higher rent return. Lots of creativity, which appeals if ever I wanted to sell up in London and move down there too. Also just 53 minutes on the train into town, which kicks the arse of Margate and Hastings.

Can anyone recommend an independent financial advisor?

I inherited some money a few years ago, the majority of which went towards my mortgage deposit. Now I've inherited a bit more and I have a son on the way, so I really think I should be doing something more intelligent with the money.

I have about £40k which, in about 6 months time, will be used for a loft conversion. It's currently sat in my bank earning about 0.5% interest. Any suggestions on what to do with it for the next 6 months?

2 x Santander 123 accounts? one sole - one joint.
Will be 1.5% for the whole 40k

Not a financial advisor but for long term investment low cost index trackers are a safe bet, but timing is key with a lump sum I would try to buy in a dip. This low rate environment savings are pointless, but I would still allocate a portion to it, for easy access if required.
Buy to let was the no brainer of a generation but the tax changes may now mean it's not as feasible. But the right property at the right price is a gold mine.
Good luck, timing is key and I'm kicking myself for sitting out a lovely bull run taking place.

Update on Lloyds Banking Group Share Offer

Thank you for signing up to receive updates about a Lloyds Banking Group share offer.

As the Chancellor announced today, we are withdrawing plans for a Lloyds retail offer. The government wants to get the best possible return for the taxpayer. Due to conditions in financial markets and current share prices, a retail offer at this point in time would not achieve this aim.

More details are available in this press notice

Kind regards,

HM Treasury

What's a trading plan?

Speaking in Washington, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond announced that the government will begin to sell its 9.1% stake in Lloyds via a trading plan, withdrawing the planned retail sale. Ongoing market volatility means it is not the right time for a retail offer.

ive invested in the lotto tonight

2 x Santander 123 accounts? one sole - one joint.

Will be 1.5% for the whole 40k

Do you have a partner you trust? I'd go further and try and pick up a few of the smaller accounts as well like TSB and Nationwide - could give you almost £10k @ 5%. You might not think it's figure it's worth the hassle, but I found TSB very quick.

See here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-accounts-best-interest

If you're going to need it in 6 months I think it would be unwise to do anything other than vanilla bank accounts.

Or sell it all and buy Sterling while it's cheap. Oh wait...

Cheers for the reminder!

no probs buddy!

Thats a 15% handling fee, thank you very much. Ill send over my bank details.

Many a garage is in peoples portfolios. Big commercial LL's like Gerald Ronson (heron tower owner) started out on portfolios like that.

Regarding your question on getting done over if your garage is one of a number on a potential development plot it can not happen. The developer has to strike a deal with all the owners. Only time this is not the case is when it is compulsory purchased and you get market value of the asset.

if its a long lease versus owning freehold check the number of years on the lease.

Cheers @dt and @hugo7 I don't particularly fancy joint account etc but one Santander and one TSB should cover a fair bit (I already have Nationwide)

What's the catch with something like this?
http://fixed-income.investmentopportunities.co.uk/?gclid=CKqw0pWOyc8CFdeRGwod3J4M7w#

What's the catch

The risk.

It looks flaky as - there's zero indication of what it is backed with.

My guess is CLOs.

Good luck getting your money back when the borrowers default.

Previously the government had indicated they'd sell off their remaining stake in Lloyds to the public i.e. a retail offer, but now Hammonds citing post Brexit market volatility etc as a reason to sell down the stake via a share placement directly into the market. By a "trading plan" he just means a private sale where a lead bank, in this case Morgan Stanley, will take responsibility for placing the shares with financial institutions.

Typically placing larger blocks of shares with institutions does produce a more stable share price reaction. Hammond's argument that it will create the best return for taxpayers is debatable, but usually the type of investors who participate in placements are longer term investors, so are more likely to buy and hold their stakes. Whereas retail investors are generally more fickle and likely to pocket a quicker return, for example following the Royal Mail IPO...

I assumed that was what all the stuff about insurance is but that's presumably what they want you to think.

Any traders out there, currency index or shares.
I swing trade the index here and there as I've learnt that, I tried currency and day trading various things but it was a costly learning curve.
There are currently good opportunity in the currency markets with the pounds volatility. I'm tempted to do some but apprehensive due previous burnings. Any one got any ideas or strategies?
Meanwhile our currency is going down and I'm tempted to buy some American shares maintain value apple may be?

I'm tempted to buy some American shares maintain value apple may be?

If you want USA stock then buying in to a tracker i.e. S&P500 might be a good idea.

Buying a couple of specific companies assumes you have the time and expertise to evaluate those companies - and their sector's - long term prospects.... do you?

I read the smarter investing book mentioned a few pages back and I've drunk the kool-aide. In your trading can you beat the market return?

That said I've made a run of offering poor advice here today, so maybe just ignore me :)