Deposit vs Investment

Hi All,

I would really appreciate some advise regarding out savings.

We have about 150k - 50 in Ulster bank deposit a/c and over 90k in BoI - 2 separate deposit a/c. The money is for buying a house. We thought that we will be approved for mortgage this year, unfortunately due to inconsistent income of my self-employed husband BoI refused us the mortgage. We will re-apply next year but until then we are unsure of what to do with the money and are very scared of the current situation on the world markets, EU financial affairs, etc. Should we keep our life savings in the banks or take a risk and invest them? OR is it better to try and get smaller mortgage (around 60-70K) from a different bank and buy us a house, this way the money will be spent on a valuable asset instead of potentially losing due to default/exit of the euro.

Thanks in advance to any response.

-Both deposits in both banks should be safe as they are below guarantee thresholds(subject to provisos on Euro, Ireland in Euro, etc covered elsewhere on this board)

-Investing involves risk and lack of access to your capital and trading costs- short term investing i.e. trading is a mugs game that no one can win by definition

-If ireland left the euro, or were in a eurolite zone, our currency would change and so would the price of fixed assets such as houses here

hope this is of help

Do not '' invest '', you need your hard earned cash to secure your own roof over your head, making an investment over such a short period is daft, it would not be an investment it would be gambling and please don't place your funds at risk.
Suggest you ensure you are getting the best return on your deposits with Ulster and BOI, also take a look at the excellent best buys in the Deposits section.
You are in a great position to take advantage of the housing market, I suggest you shop around and seek an approval in principal from a lender to allow you shop for your dream home, approval in principal simply put means a lender ( Bank / Building Society ) would be prepared to lend you €xxxxx euro over say 20 years on a sample property.

O/P - you could earn around €5k a year (DIRT taken into account) if you saved each on a term deposit with the banks you mentioned. You have to lock the money away for the year, but at the same time it is also safe due to guarantee.