# Conservative investor with €30,000 looking for advice.



## Fredsheep (25 May 2014)

Hi all, looking for advice re investing 30k. I am a conservative investor and wonder about long term future of banks, gov bonds, etc. I would be happier with no return to ensure safety of investment rather than lose it. Any advice appreciated, an obvious "green investor". Thank you


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## Steven Barrett (26 May 2014)

Hi Fredsheep

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration first. 


What are you trying to achieve? 
What is your investment term? 
What return is required to meet your goal?
What emergency fund do you have? 
Can your financial situation withstand the worst case scenario for the type of investment portfolio you go with?

When all those questions are answered, you should look at a diversified portfolio of assets. 

A word of warning though. Reading "I would be happier with no return to ensure safety of investment rather than lose it", the words STRUCTURED BOND screams out at me. Avoid these like the plague as you are most likely to only get your money back under these bonds. If inflation increases in the 5/ 6 years your money is locked away with no access, you will lose money in real terms. 



Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## jamiesmoney (26 May 2014)

*Stay Clear of Bonds*

Banks and bonds will be the riskiest investments in the near future. You will have to look elsewhere for safe returns. You need to understand risk and also the other investment types that you can diversify in.

Jamie
jamiesmoneyadvice.com


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## Fredsheep (26 May 2014)

Thank you Jamie. I don't want property or shares so don't know any other options open to me. Thanks again


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## Fredsheep (26 May 2014)

Thanks for reply. To answer your questions I am looking for safe place to invest with capital secured and no risk and reasonable return.


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## robert 200 (26 May 2014)

Post Office @ 3 ,5, or 10 year fixed . Capital guaranteed and decent return.


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## Steven Barrett (26 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> I am looking for safe place to invest with capital secured and no risk and reasonable return.



Are we all  If you find it make sure you tell the rest of us because in all my years working in finance, I haven't found something that gives you all those things you are looking for. 



Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## Fredsheep (26 May 2014)

I'm not being trite. Have been burned by Eircom shares, BoI shares and AIB shares in the past. All "gilt edge". I'd be happy with small return and have no term constraints. Thanks, SBarrett


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## Fredsheep (26 May 2014)

Thanks, Jamiesmoney. I'm nervous of banks.


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## Fredsheep (26 May 2014)

Thanks Robert 200, 
I did consider An Post until I was told that if I invest in bonds or certs that I am investing in Gov debt!!


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## Boyd (26 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> Hi all, looking for advice re investing 30k. I am a conservative investor and wonder about long term future of banks, gov bonds, etc. I would be happier with no return to ensure safety of investment rather than lose it. Any advice appreciated, an obvious "green investor". Thank you



Under the mattress springs to mind here......!

You haven't said for how long you wish to invest. Since nobody else has mentioned it,.........have you read the best buys section on lump sum deposit accounts? 

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=101813

Maybe a long term deposit account would suit you better than investing?



Fredsheep said:


> Thanks for reply. To answer your questions I am looking for safe place to invest with capital secured and no risk and reasonable return.


That simply isn't possible. There is always risk involved, which you insinuated yourself in your original post when you said you "wonder about long term future of banks, gov bonds, etc".


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## Protocol (27 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> Thanks Robert 200,
> I did consider An Post until I was told that if I invest in bonds or certs that I am investing in Gov debt!!



Yes, obviously, An Post State Savings form part of the public Govt debt.

They would be seen as one of the lowest risk asset, as in one sense they can't go bust.

Unlike a company, which can.


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## Steven Barrett (27 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> I'm not being trite. Have been burned by Eircom shares, BoI shares and AIB shares in the past. All "gilt edge". I'd be happy with small return and have no term constraints. Thanks, SBarrett



I understand. 

You should be looking for a combination of different asset classes and hold a number of different stocks within each asset class. Do this by investing in a fund or ETF. Not everything will go up or down at the same time. 

For cash, www.irishdeposits.ie is a good site to get up to date rates. 


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## kmick (27 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> I'm not being trite. Have been burned by Eircom shares, BoI shares and AIB shares in the past. All "gilt edge". I'd be happy with small return and have no term constraints. Thanks, SBarrett


 
Eircom was about as Gilt edge as Tesco Yellow Pack razors as anyone who waited a year in 1992 to get a phone line would tell you. Theres lots of rules in investing but two that are important are
1) Dont invest in illiquid markets (i.e. the Irish Stock Exchange) and by definition any Irish Share. Illiquid markets are markets in which trade is light.
2) Dont hold less than 20 shares - as pointed out earlier this can be achieved by ETF's on major indices like the Eurostoxx 50 or S&P 500
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/05/optimalportfoliosize.asp

I am struggling to think of any investment that carries no risk or term constraints. There is a good thread on here regarding Prize bonds which in theory have close to zero risk, no term constraints and a small return. 
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=182819


Overall though 30k invested long term (think forever) over lots of different sectors/industries/markets will outperfrom anything else.
http://www.investopedia.com/walkthr...e/4/capital-markets/history-stocks-bonds.aspx


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## Jim2007 (27 May 2014)

Fredsheep said:


> I'm not being trite. Have been burned by Eircom shares, BoI shares and AIB shares in the past. All "gilt edge". I'd be happy with small return and have no term constraints. Thanks, SBarrett



None of these share were ever blue chip shares, CRH might qualify, but that is about it. 

There is not such thing as a risk free investment, so I'm at a loss as to what you can do.


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## jamiesmoney (28 May 2014)

*What about lending money?*

You can try private lending. I'm not sure of the laws in other countries but there are sites where you can crowd lend with others and make good returns on your money. prosper.com is a US example.


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## Setanta12 (28 May 2014)

jamiesmoney said:


> You can try private lending. I'm not sure of the laws in other countries but there are sites where you can crowd lend with others and make good returns on your money. prosper.com is a US example.



I think he's looking for low risk ....


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## extopia (1 Jul 2014)

If you have taxable income you could invest up to 50k in a Section 481 film relief scheme and offset against tax for a net gain of around 10 percent per annum. You need to be paying tax at the top rate for this to make any sense. There is a nominal risk but in reality there is no risk at all. It's probably the safest "investment" out there, and is due to be abolished soon as the film industry moves to a tax credit subsidy system. You'll find information from the likes of Crowe Horwath or [broken link removed] (I have no affiliation).


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## cremeegg (1 Jul 2014)

Protocol said:


> Yes, obviously, An Post State Savings form part of the public Govt debt.
> 
> They would be seen as one of the lowest risk asset, as in one sense they can't go bust.
> 
> Unlike a company, which can.



In what sense can the government not go bust?


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## Protocol (1 Jul 2014)

They can simply raise taxes to collect more revenues to pay debts.

A business doesn't have the same control over their revenues.


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## Marc (1 Jul 2014)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sove...sovereign_debt_defaults_or_debt_restructuring

Here is a list of countries that have either defaulted or restructured their debts


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