Where would you put your money?

rockbeer

Imagine you have just come into a reasonable sum of money. Let's call it 100K for argument's sake. You'll need to use it soon enough, but need to keep it safe in the short term... so return is not so much of an issue as security. Where would you put it in these troubled times?

Bank? If so, which one(s) and why?
Credit Union?
Short term investment? What kind?
Under the mattress?
Gold bars??

Curiously,
Bruce

ionix5891

I was contacted by BOI hedge fund manager asking me to invest in hedge funds, luckily i didnt listen to him as all stocks took a huge tumble since

they also asked me to open pension account, but i told them i dont want to throw money down drain for next 30 years and theres no guarantees that BOI will still be in business at the rate they are sinking (that didnt go down well with the bank manager :P )

anyways best thing to do is spread you're money around several saving accounts etc

what i did was keep a huge chunk of my business profits for last 2 years in the business current account (thankfully we have a low corpo tax rate) as i would need this money to survive this recession (i know theres no interest being made on that but i dont want the cash locked up in a time of need) as for the first time things are looking really bleak, im actually glad i build up a reserve looking back now

on personal front i was in a similar situation a few months ago and investing in property is bad idea while prices are falling:
*some credit unions do 4% flat interest rate on 5000 and 10000 blocks of lodgements for a year, just get them to ring you when they have these running
*then theres the Fortis/Postbank savings accounts (im more confident in them since they are not Irish and got nationalised)
*BOI also had 8%AER accounts for 18 months as well as other banks (fingers crossed they dont go under and the goverment is actually serious about deposit account guarantees)


overall dont put your eggs in one basket and stay away from stockmarkets or any advice of BOI managers (they have no credibility left in my eyes the way they ran the bank into the ground)

i also keep few grand stashed away in cash if the **** really hits the fan


my main worry is hyperinflation, once the current deflation cycle ends all that money thats being printed could possibly lead to a high inflation scenario, not that will be bad for savers, so dont lock your money away for any long periods of time

but yea good thread! i hope to hear some interesting opinions from the members here

.

Vadrefjorde

ft.com had an article on irish banks yesterday.

Note that this isn't a personal finance forum.

rockbeer

Deleted User wrote:

Note that this isn't a personal finance forum.

Sorry, zaraba, I thought this thread was most relevant to economics, or at least that this was the place where the people with the most relevant knowledge would be most likely to see it.

Do please move it if you think it would fit better elsewhere, but it seemed to me that none of the Biz...Personal categories really seemed to suit as the subject crosses over the boundaries of those fora.

I'm not a mod here, but there is an Investment Forum (http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=859) and a Banking Forum (http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=544).

I am sure an economics mod can shunt this thread into a more appropriate one.

Time Magazine

Deleted User wrote: »

Note that this isn't a personal finance forum.

Please don't back-seat mod, zaraba. You could have reported the post, or talked to me on Gchat!

As you're looking more at security than return, moved to Banking.

unclebill98

Most banks are offering a 1yr fixed deposit account of up towards 5% in some places. They can end up getting fully subscribed so the early bird and all that jazz.

Its at the max limit under the Government Deposit Protection Scheme and its only 1 year and the rate is fixed.

Thats what I'd do.

BendiBus

I'm currently looking at Anglo Irish. Their Premium Demand account is offering 4.75% up to 100K

The bank is Government owned so it's as financially secure as the country is :pac:

Or the First Active eSaver Plus offering 5.5%

rockbeer

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Shame there aren't a few more, but I guess it's a reflection of the times.

jdpl28

gold up 15% in the last 3 months. It's only going to go higher...

you can buy perth mint certificates at www.gold.ie

Blackjack

jdpl28 wrote: »

It's only going to go higher...

So was Property in 2007 and Anglo shares when they were 3 euros.

It can and will eventually go lower than it's current price.

JTMan

rockbeer wrote: »

Imagine you have just come into a reasonable sum of money. Let's call it 100K for argument's sake. You'll need to use it soon enough, but need to keep it safe in the short term... so return is not so much of an issue as security. Where would you put it in these troubled times?

Investec at 5.58% locked for 6 months term deposit.

Klingon Hamlet

ionix5891 wrote: »

*then theres the Fortis/Postbank savings accounts (im more confident in them since they are not Irish and got nationalised)

There are no such things as Fortis/Postbank accounts. Fortis and An Post both set up Postbank in Ireland, as an Irish Financial Provider, regulated under the Irish Financial Regulatory Authority. Therefore they are a privately-owned bank treated like any other Irish bank...and they are covered under the uncapped deposit scheme til September 2010.

Fortis was nationalised as a temporary measure until it could be sold off to the highest bidder; in this case BNP Paribas, who were happy to buy up but whose successful bid was prevented from reaching fruition by a number of Fortis shareholders, a stalemate upon which a decision will be made sometime this month.

An Post is a semi-state body and is therefore regulated directly by the state, as is its own Post Office Savings Bank.

Postbank, however, is not natonalised.

Just for clarity...

ionix5891

Klingon Hamlet wrote: »

There are no such things as Fortis/Postbank accounts. Fortis and An Post both set up Postbank in Ireland, as an Irish Financial Provider, regulated under the Irish Financial Regulatory Authority. Therefore they are a privately-owned bank treated like any other Irish bank...and they are covered under the uncapped deposit scheme til September 2010.

Fortis was nationalised as a temporary measure until it could be sold off to the highest bidder; in this case BNP Paribas, who were happy to buy up but whose successful bid was prevented from reaching fruition by a number of Fortis shareholders, a stalemate upon which a decision will be made sometime this month.

An Post is a semi-state body and is therefore regulated directly by the state, as is its own Post Office Savings Bank.

Postbank, however, is not natonalised.

Just for clarity...

cheers i knew they werent part of post office, eitherway safer having money in several pots and they had nice intererest rates

Rigel

Thanks for this post rockbeer, I was going to start a similar thread myself, thinking on one hand what if I won €100k on the Lotto while on the other what if I lost my job and got €100k redundancy, nice round numbers, and I wanted to invest the money leave the principal and use the interest/gain as income

My choices were:
Bank/Post Office/Building Society - best case 1.5% AER interest unless you go with one of the dodgy ones worst case bank collapses along with most of your money
Stock - Pretty volatile with all main markets down year on year DJIA -35%; Nasdaq -33%; FTSE -29% but I'm sure there is a good Managed Fund out there somewhere
Property - Property market is in free fall and who knows what extra taxes they are dreaming up
Prize Bonds - They (prizebonds.ie) say "a customer with €1,000 invested has a 4 to 1 chance of winning a cash prize in a 12 month period". I actually bought £1,000 worth of Prize Bonds about 15 years ago when the were £5 each and so far I had 1 win of €75 so that's not going to feed my starving children

Investec 5.58% AER looks attractive but the first bit of small print states that the 5.58% is based on 12 months even thought the term on the investment is 6 months, still reasonable I suppose in the current environment.

Wisdom

Cash and gold are king right now but if inflation takes off as many astute people are warning it will then cash will again become 'trash' and gold will be king.

The ECB, David McWilliams, Jill Kerby and Eddie Hobbs have all warned about the risk that inflation poses to us in the medium to long term.
McWilliams has even warned of hyperinflation -
[URL="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-mcwilliams/new-president-needs-to-run-up-a-frightening-debt-1608220.html]"New president needs to run up a frightening debt[/URL]
Irish Independent, Ireland - 20 Jan 2009
"Could Obama be remembered as the man who presided over the greatest hyperinflation the world has ever see? ...All this implies that Obama could quite conceivably preside over a period of hyperinflation. Today this seems impossible but he has inherited such a mess from George Bush and his political need to get the economy going, if he is to deliver on some of his immense promise, might just prove too much. Don't take my word for it, just look at what is happening to the price of gold -- the only real hedge against hyperinflation."

Blackjack

Wisdom wrote: »

Cash and gold are king right now but if inflation takes off as many astute people are warning it will then cash will again become 'trash' and gold will be king.

The ECB, David McWilliams, Jill Kerby and Eddie Hobbs have all warned about the risk that inflation poses to us in the medium to long term.
McWilliams has even warned of hyperinflation -
New president needs to run up a frightening debt
Irish Independent, Ireland - 20 Jan 2009
"Could Obama be remembered as the man who presided over the greatest hyperinflation the world has ever see? ...All this implies that Obama could quite conceivably preside over a period of hyperinflation. Today this seems impossible but he has inherited such a mess from George Bush and his political need to get the economy going, if he is to deliver on some of his immense promise, might just prove too much. Don't take my word for it, just look at what is happening to the price of gold -- the only real hedge against hyperinflation."

Great Spam there.