So I have a very controlled debt which is good debt, it’s 3500 and it’s @0% for another 15mths, I was planning on paying off £1000 but as I see the stock market has fell slightly so shoud I make the minimum payment and buy FTSE shares shares to the value of £1000 and sit back waiting to collect my winnings or should I stay in my extreme OCD debt to £0 plan. Obviously I’m aware the value of stocks can go up and down yada yada yada.
Yes, in the very unlikely event that the would has a full on melt down and we all go back to living in caves I guess I can afford to lose the £1000 but it would be a right kick in the nuts if I did.
Im only really comfortable with it as it’s 0% and my thoughts are that I could bail out if it continues to slide, so I would aim to cut my loses if it dropped to say £800ish, I know it could take a massive hit and be way below the £800 in the blink of an eye.
Maybe I should just dabble with £100 and see what I can learn.
I’m not a financial advisor and can’t give advice, however what I would do is stick the £1k in a Marcus account (or other easy access high interest account). Collect interest on it for the duration of my 0% period while paying back something every month.
That way if I manage to pay off the card without the £1k I’m good, otherwise if the hits the fan, I still have a guaranteed £1k safety net to give to my lender
It wouldn’t be the end of my world but if be keeping an eye on it and bailing out if the value dropped below £800, so if like to think I’m only really risking £200…
This is appoarach I used reccently to clear a 0% credit card, and its what I’d do here.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
12
I would say if you chucked in £1000 now at 6000, and it continued down to say 4000 over the year, whats that 2/3 so £666
If you’re thinking of buying now and selling when its a decent amount above 6000 say to 8000 you might be waiting quite a few years to make that profit.
Got have a bit of luck to buy the dip and make a short term profit.
On the balance of pure probability I would personally pay off the debt(On the probability that you are not likely to make a profit on shares)
IF you were thinking of investing ,I would also not buy shares I’d look at NSI premium bonds( I know the odds are reducing etc.) But it would be a low risk investment.
You might as well ask: Should I go down the local casino and put £1k on red and sit back waiting to collect my winnings. You know what the answer is.
OH HELL NO.
Lots of experts say that stocks haven’t reached bottom yet. I believe this to be true. If you look at other countries - Korea, Italy, Spain - they’ve got to a point where lockdowns of various degrees have been effected. I don’t doubt that at some point the UK government will have to effect a lockdown of part of the country here also. At the very least, there will be 1,000s more cases of Covid-19 to come. The government’s strategy has very much moved on from ‘contain’ to ‘delay’. Meaning, I think, when they delayed effects do hit us, the FTSE will drop again.
In your situation, I would concentrate on the debt. Maybe do some reading in the meantime on investing. But buying in now is the wrong time, and buying in because you’re looking for ‘winnings’ is the wrong reason for buying in.
If nothing else, remember - markets go down fast and recover slowly. Even if you leave it 15 months before you enter the market, you will (hopefully!) be entering a rising market and still make gains.
tl;dr, be cautious, be sensible, don’t invest without doing your research.
NS&I premium bonds have an effective interest rate of 1.3% now I think it was. I’d save a bit of trouble and open a Marcus savings account (as suggested above) instead.
(Full disclosure; when I had some premium bonds my return was awful, so I’ll admit I’m not unbiased)
It really depends on the availability of surplus funds, need for liquidity and your attitude to risk.
Not advice, but an opinion:
if you don’t need the 1K for the next two to five years, and
will be able to cover the debt in 15 months without this 1K then putting it into a S&S ISA in an ETF could work.
Personally, I’d pay £250 (£3500/14 to give me a months buffer) into the card each month and move the remaining surplus (If any) into a savings fund. This fund could be in cash or S&S based in my need for liquidity in the future.
The combination of a price war on oil; the evolving picture of COVID-19 that has prompted some banks to defer mortgage payments in Italy; casual/gig workers potentially defaulting on their debts because they can’t work in lockdown etc; the S&P500 being full of over-valued & highly leveraged companies --then there’s the end of the transition period at the end of the year. I don’t think we are anywhere close to reaching rock bottom yet, but I don’t see things improving markedly either.
Pay off the debt --now is the time to de-leverage.
hits the fan, I still have a guaranteed £1k safety net to give to my lender
