Hi all,Bit of advice please. If you had £20k, how would you invest it to get a fairly safe return, assuming you had no major debts already?Not looking to buy a house yet, but with interest rates so low, I can't find anything very appealing.Thanks a lot.C

Well, firstly I would set up a decent cash ISA.Then I would put a regular sum of money into a First Direct regular saver - At 8.00% AER/gross fixed for 12 months, it's not your regular savings account. LOL. http://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/savings/regular-saver-account;jsessionid=0000ZtCkVhmWoF-U1SFWzVm9c27:11qmofn39Then I would set up one of these (2.99%)http://www.nationwide.co.uk/savings/mysaveonlineplus/landing-page.asp?cmpid=Aggregators_80BUT REMEMBER, This is Not Financial Advice, MoFo. LOL ;)

First direct suggestion isn't a great one, it isn't an account you can make a lump sum deposit to and attract that 8% - i suggest you read the t&cs...http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ is a good starting point

It's a great place, in my opinion, to put the first £300/month of your savings into.For the lump sum, I'd still keep looking at that Nationwide account. Unless you're able to find one that pays more with no commitments?

the FD monthly saver would get you around 90 quid after tax..... hardly worth the effort...

It took me about 1 minute to set it up (I already bank with FD). That's equivalent to an hourly rate of £5,400. LOL.Every little helps in these cash-strapped times, no matter how rich or poor you are. Plus I see it as a little 'vote' to get the banks offering better details rather than the "Super Gold Platinum Plus Bonus Extra Premium Saver" accounts that offer 0.001% gross.

Premium Bonds.Many many take the p*ss but my father in-law encouraged me to put all of surplus cash in to Premium bonds and I win enough to beat any interest rate or ISA at the moment.This won't always be true, but it is now. I currently have £26,200 in PB's, this year I have won £1180.

Premium bonds look poor:http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds

Hehe, I always think of old grannies when I think about premium bonds. What a quirky little savings vehicle.

My Father In Law is a gambler. An absolute expert on odds and he calculates that the optimum amount to have in premium bonds today is £22,500.Obvioulsy there are no guarantees in life, but the thing is, you MIGHT win the big prize but you will definitely get a few hundred over the year and of course, you can cash out whenever you want.Seriously, stick it on a spreadsheet and do the maths, it stacks.It has to be better than the banks....

I've had between 10K and 22K in PBs over the last ten years or so - you will not 'definitely' get a few hundred a year, depends where luck puts you on the bell curve. Best year for me was maybe 300, more typical recently has been about 100 - pretty poor return, but I keep them just because of the chance of a big one.

Isn't the return ont he premium bond prize fund something like 1.5% at the moment? Which is pretty crap? Anything an individual receives over that is just luck. On average, you would expect just 1.5%.

Using the Premium Bonds calculator on MSE, it tells me that putting in £20k for a year only gives a 1 in 137 chance of getting £1k+ per year.Only 22.7% chance of over £350.

Corona,Have you tried investing in Investment trusts and Mutual Funds via the Stock & Shares ISA route? Given the limit is just above £10k, if you have a time frame of 2 plus years its the best place to make handsome returns.Avg returns from 4 and 5 Star Funds have been above 20% for the past 2 years as the world comes out of the entire mess but even over a 5yr time frame, avg returns have been well over 10%. Couple that with absolutely ZERO Capital gains tax and a minor AMC charge, its the best way forward.Caution - As is standard with all market linked investments, there is always a chance you may end up losing money if the markets tank again.So hedge your bets by parking the remaining 10k in a low yield deposit and take an educated risk in the market !Aces

You're all correct of course, that PB's are a bit hit and miss, but they are SAFE at least.And you might win big.

For me "safe investing" excludes anything with annual management charges or index-linking, where risk is divorced from the manager's rewards.The famous analogy is being asked to board a train which you were convinced would crash at some stage in its ten-station journey. The optimal strategy may be to stay on board for five stops or so. But if your main concern is safety, you should not board at all. Meanwhile, your train driver has decoupled about 2% of your money and parked it somewhere else. WTF.

Well put Someguy and agree that for absolute safety its best to stay away from the market.If one does have a min ime frame of 2 to 3 years, I'd still suggest Investment Trusts and Funds. Even if the Maintenance Charge lies b/w 1.5% to 2.5%, I'd be more than glad to pay if the fund gives me returns in excess of 15% - Its all speculative and risky but if time is on your side, then there's a lot of money to be made.Aces

@Aces: yup, assuming the OP's profile (young, some savings and no mortgage / major debt), a couple of managed trusts / funds in the ISA would be a good bet.

Thanks for the replies. In response to the last response, I'm 26, no mortgage and only student loan debt which is automatically taken from my salary.Cheers, C

large cap stocks that pay dividends....hsbc/vodafone

You could set up several Halifax reward accounts which pay a £5 bonus every month that you put at least £1,000 in the account. You don't have to leave it there to get the bonus, just move it in and out - so we have the same £1,000 automatically moving around these six accounts each month and earning £30 a month. Might sound like a bit of effort for not much return, but that £1,000 is earning 36% interest a year. I defy anyone to beat that as a risk free investment.

Why stop at 6? Why not have 999999999 of those accounts?Surely there's some 'rule' from stopping you opening several of those accounts?