# Basic investing advice for small(ish) amount of money (€7K)



## McMuffin (5 Mar 2016)

I borrowed €7k from my mother to buy a car for new job and now I have it to give it back to her. She was saying to just buy prize bonds for her cause the banks pay basically zero interest and she's in no rush for it. I reckon that prize bonds are just as bad, basically losing to inflation with the odd twenty quid win every few years.

I was looking at five and a half year (AER 1.24%) and ten year (AER 2.26%) state savings from the post office. 10 year bonds aren't too bad, paying 25%, but a decade is an awfully long time to wait for €1750. It's still only 2.26% AER which seems fairly poor anyway.

Anyone have any ideas of any good alternatives. I'm not totally risk averse, but honestly have no clue how to even go about other ways. It's not like she's in a rush for the money so I wanna try maximise it for her, or am I just better off with the prize bonds?


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## vandriver (5 Mar 2016)

Why would you play Warren Buffett with your Ma's money?Just give it back .


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## McMuffin (5 Mar 2016)

vandriver said:


> Why would you play Warren Buffett with your Ma's money?Just give it back .


Basically cause she asked me to. As I said she's not too pushed about just having it sitting in the bank doing nothing


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## moneybox (6 Mar 2016)

Buy her gold, lots of it. What mammy wouldn't love gold


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## McMuffin (6 Mar 2016)

Not sure if your serious but would you actually recommend buying gold? I do remember seeing some online commodity marketplaces that you could buy that sorta stuff at some point


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## Cervelo (6 Mar 2016)

McMuffin said:


> I borrowed €7k from my mother to buy a car for new job and now I have it to give it back to her. She was saying to just buy prize bonds for her cause the banks pay basically zero interest and she's in no rush for it. I reckon that prize bonds are just as bad, basically losing to inflation with the odd twenty quid win every few years.
> 
> I was looking at five and a half year (AER 1.24%) and ten year (AER 2.26%) state savings from the post office. 10 year bonds aren't too bad, paying 25%, but a decade is an awfully long time to wait for €1750. It's still only 2.26% AER which seems fairly poor anyway.
> 
> Anyone have any ideas of any good alternatives. I'm not totally risk averse, but honestly have no clue how to even go about other ways. It's not like she's in a rush for the money so I wanna try maximise it for her, or am I just better off with the prize bonds?



7K in the Prize Bonds should give you 1.2 wins per year, that's not guaranteed just what you could expect, you could win more but the likely hood is your going to win less
and the minimum prize is €50 now. I average about 1% on my Prize Bonds, there are many discussions here and on Boards.ie about them and the returns people get or more likely not get.


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## cremeegg (6 Mar 2016)

You could invest the money in some shares.

Pick 10 companies at random do some research and buy your favourite. Invest €700. Repeat with 10 different companies.

Is this good financial advice, probably not. But I think you would learn a lot, about investing and about yourself.


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## McMuffin (6 Mar 2016)

cremeegg said:


> You could invest the money in some shares.
> 
> Pick 10 companies at random do some research and buy your favourite. Invest €700. Repeat with 10 different companies.
> 
> Is this good financial advice, probably not. But I think you would learn a lot, about investing and about yourself.



OK. If for arguements sake I want to buy €700 of shares in company X, how would I just do that? Not trying to be smart, I genuinely am this clueless


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## Boyd (6 Mar 2016)

Well not trying to be smart either but have you appear to be capable of using a computer.....have you tried typing "how do I buy shares in Ireland" into Google? You can't expect people to answer every single simple question like this. Do some basic research yourself and come back with proper questions.
I'd just give her back her money.


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## moneybox (6 Mar 2016)

username123 said:


> I'd just give her back her money.



I would be inclined to agree.


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## McMuffin (6 Mar 2016)

Ask a stupid question I guess. Cheers for the help anyway


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## McMuffin (6 Mar 2016)

Also I never explicitly said shares, I was just looking for a way to make a medium sum of money that would otherwise be sitting in the bank do some work. Naturally one thinks of shares with this criteria, but I was looking for any ideas really. I thought it might be an interesting thread that many in the same situation could use


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## Boyd (6 Mar 2016)

It could well be. However there are many many identical "what to do with 10k" threads where this had been discussed to death. There is a similar investment thread on boards.ie with even more identical questions.

Eg
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/25-years-old-15k-to-invest.188803/

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/10k-to-invest-for-the-long-term-any-ideas.130697/

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057555977/1/#post98584180

http://touch.boards.ie/search?q=What+to+do+with+10k+invest

Also, you specifically mentioned shares here: "OK. If for arguements sake I want to buy €700 of shares in company X, how would I just do that?"

As I suggested you should do some basic research yourself (just search this forum) and you'll get much more useful info, rather than asking super vague "what should i invest in" questions.  At the moment it sounds a little "I've tried nothing and I'm out of ideas" e.g. have looked at unit linked funds, ETFs ?


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## Easeler (6 Mar 2016)

If it was me I would buy one of the food companys, glanbia or kerry group and forget about them for 10 years what age is mother might be a nice surprise for her than.


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## galway_blow_in (11 Mar 2016)

i think investment grade corporate debt is good value , the LQD fund is paying over 3% NET


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## dereko1969 (11 Mar 2016)

galway_blow_in said:


> i think investment grade corporate debt is good value , the LQD fund is paying over 3% NET


But when they're already asking how to buy shares do you not think this advice might be slightly outside their comfort zone?


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## breakonthru123 (12 Mar 2016)

You should check out linkedfinance.ie or gridfinance.ie. All my 'mini-loans' generate interest at 12.5% APR..

Fantastic way to save. No more money sitting in bank accounts, prize bonds, etc.

Crowd lending is the future


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## Boyd (12 Mar 2016)

Review of linked finance :http://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/linked-finance.187332/


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## galway_blow_in (13 Mar 2016)

dereko1969 said:


> But when they're already asking how to buy shares do you not think this advice might be slightly outside their comfort zone?



sure none of us knew how to buy shares at one stage , the basics are easily learned


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## jim (15 Mar 2016)

is there any specific website that does offer guidance on how to go about buying shares?ill google it now too and feedback if I find anything


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