# 25 years old - 15k to invest



## settlement (25 Aug 2014)

What would you do? My personality is more suited to a long-game sure thing nd so am quite happy to put it in a bank with a fixed rate. But deposit interest is so poor nowadays I'm wondering what else could I do?


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## Steven Barrett (25 Aug 2014)

What are your goals? Do you want to buy a house in the near future? What level of investment risk are you comfortable with? 



Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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## settlement (25 Aug 2014)

My goal is to turn this 15k into as much money as possible. I don't have a problem with an investment that takes a lot of time to give a good return. I'm quite risk averse and would prefer to stay on the more cautious side of the investing spectrum 

As regards the house: I'm not sure. If it turned out to be a good investment then I would be interested, but I'm still not sure what side of the renting vs buying debate I agree with more. Rent being dead money but so is mortgage repayments


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## Jim2007 (25 Aug 2014)

settlement said:


> My goal is to turn this 15k into as much money as possible.



That is a dream, not a goal!  an example of a goal would be in 'need to have 30K in 10 years time to make a deposit on a house', 'I need to have 900K by the time I reach 55 because I want to retire early'

Once you have clearly defined and quantifiable goals you can start to examine the options and the risk they in tail.



settlement said:


> Rent being dead money...


Rent is no more dead money than any other thing you spend your money - eating out, clubbing, newspaper subscriptions or whatever.


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## settlement (25 Aug 2014)

Thanks Jim.

I suppose my goal truthfully is to have enough money to live without having to work. I would like to have enough capital or earnings to get by without having to work a 9-5. I suppose I would ideally have €40k a year to live off. I am obviously very far off that but wondering what it might take


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## Jim2007 (25 Aug 2014)

settlement said:


> Thanks Jim.
> 
> I suppose my goal truthfully is to have enough money to live without having to work. I would like to have enough capital or earnings to get by without having to work a 9-5. I suppose I would ideally have €40k a year to live off. I am obviously very far off that but wondering what it might take



Well, back of a napkin calculations would suggest you'd need assets of about 650K - 700K to generate that kind of income.

For example, to have a chance of achieving this by say 50, you'd need to save an additional 10k pa and invest in equities with an expected return of about 6% pa.  This is clearly a lot more risky that what you have been doing up to now and there is always the possibility that it will not work out.

Clearly if you could reduce the amount you need to live on or increase the amount you save, you would be able to take on less risk to achieve your objectives.

The bottom line is to take on no more risk than is required to have a reasonable chance of achieving your objectives.


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## moneybox (25 Aug 2014)

settlement said:


> My goal is to turn this 15k into as much money as possible. I don't have a problem with an investment that takes a lot of time to give a good return. I'm quite risk averse and would prefer to stay on the more cautious side of the investing spectrum


 

You 25 years old and you talking about having 40K a year to live on so you wont have to work anymore, we all could have that dream but very few of us achieve it.

Work is not drudgery as long as you are doing something that you enjoy.  Even if you were to win the lottery you will still need to be doing something to occupy your time. 15k is not a huge amount of money but it is a good start on the savings ladder for someone your age. 

 Maybe you would like to start your own business and work for yourself. It all depends on your personal circumstances.


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## Jim2007 (25 Aug 2014)

moneybox said:


> You 25 years old and you talking about having 40K a year to live on so you wont have to work anymore, we all could have that dream but very few of us achieve it.



On the contrary it is definitely achievable if you start at around the OP's to be at a point where you have accumulated enough savings to live off by the time you are around 50.  The problem is that most people do not stick to it.


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## moneybox (25 Aug 2014)

Jim2007 said:


> On the contrary it is definitely achievable if you start at around the OP's to be at a point where you have accumulated enough savings to live off by the time you are around 50. The problem is that most people do not stick to it.


 

Problem is most people have to live and dont want to dedidicate their lives to hoarding vast amount of money.


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## Steven Barrett (26 Aug 2014)

Hi Settlement

Following on from your posts and what Jim has already said, you have three choices:

1. Amend your goals. You have very ambitious goals, which are unlikely to be achieved by a risk adverse investment strategy. 
2. Invest more money. 
3. Increase your level of risk exposure beyond risk adverse. 

As to where you put your money, these days you can invest in whatever you want. I advise clients to diversify; not everything will go up or down at the same time. The amount invested in each asset class is dependent on the level of risk you want.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie


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