50K to invest for 5+ years - any advice?

Options for getting the best return are Savings Certs and the Solidarity Bond and you know what you are going to get back providing the government pay up.

I do my banking with Ulster and they are trying to sell me the RightTrack Bond Series 6. (I can't post link as I don't have the post count)

You are guarenteed your money back and given that the market is low, its likely things will be better 6 years down the road. You get 65% of the profit but there are no yearly charges, and I suppose you do have to pay for having it guarenteed.

And as UB are owned by RBS who are owned by UK gov, its unlikely UB will go belly up.

Anyone got an opinion on this option, or have something they would recommend over it?

Thanks,
Baz

This is my thinking on the RightTrack Bond. You are guarenteed your money back (if UB still exist). So the risk is what return you get. If UB want to make money, they need the bond to do well as that is the only return they get as there is no management fee.

My concern would be that its not particularly managed. 6 years is a long time to stick with a stock with the way the world is changing. So something might be riding high for a number of years but could drop after 4-5 years. And they won't jump ship to another stock in the meantime. They have shorter term Bonds but the return percentage is 50% rather than 65%.

Savings Certs are the other option and I've no idea on how secure that investment is with all talk og IMF and bailouts.

Hi Guys,

The guy in my local Ulster bank suggested the same to me when I enquired about the "cash desk" deposit account they currently have which earns 3.5% interest.

Lets just say the amount is 100K to invest, if this was placed in the deposit account for 5yrs 11month (lets say 6 years) it would make 21k - dirt.

If I invest the same amount in the right-track it will pay 6% on the 30K for the 1st year and release 10k back to me, 6% in year 2 on 20K and release 10 back to me, 6% on 10K in yr3 and pay this final 10k.

If I re-invest the money I receive back in the first 3 years into a deposit account with a 3.5% interest and withdraw this when the "right-track" matures + the interest it made in the first 3 years @6% = Just over 8k.

So this leaves a difference of 13k.... Will the 70% left in the tracker make this kinda money in 6years? - As you can see I don't really know much about the markets - but one would hope the EU will grow and the market will pick-up.
- The reason I was told about the "right-track" was because the guy in the bank thinks the level of interest on offer in the "cash desk" can't be sustained??? -Should I believe a banker?

If the EU ups the interest rate surly the banks can't pass this onto mortgage holders and not savers?

- There is also the freedom of the one year fixed term on the deposit....

Does anyone have any suggestions on this?
Has anyone had one of these trackers before? (I know past performance isn't an indicator of future performance bla bla bla, but would be nice to here someones experience).

Is there a better option out there?