What to do with my money?!

[hillybilly]

OK - being in the fortunate position of having sold a house I now have a wedge of cash, presently sitting in my Spanish current acct. I need to do something with it! (None of the usual suggestions, please!) Have been given details of my bank's (Banco Popular) savings accts - typically 3-4% interest.
Have looked at ING .es - good introductory rate but then pants after the 1st few months.
Don't want to tie my money up for a long period of time as I don't know what my short term plans are...am already "into" bullion (silver) investing (in a small way)...any other suggestions please? Offshore? UK buy to let property is a possible option but not right now...

[Mowser]

I'll look after it if you wish.

[knowal]

If I were an investment exert, I'd be rich, but I'd question whether it is wise to keep a large amount of Euros whilst the currency is slowly sinking.
Perhaps the £ is a safe option at the moment, although interest rates there are low, take into account the approximate 6% fall of the Euro's value (against £) in the last 4 months.

[Julie]

other than the UK buy to let, not sure were else you would get the return your looking for, some excellent bargains at the moment, especially if your happy to buy at auction.

[malagaman2005]

From a purely personal point of view if I had some 'spare' money (one day, one day !!!) I wouldn't leave it in my spanish account knowing the current possibly unstable situation here and the fact that the authorities here are able at a whim to embargo your account not necessarily through any fault of yours but can take a long time to sort out (from personal experience). When, eventually, we sell our house the money will be going to my UK account asap. For all its faults ,the UK banking system, as far as I am concerned, is a much safer bet.

[spanish_lad]

a couple thousand shares in facebook would be a bloody good investment right now if it floats for 100 bn like they say !

[anyroads]

A couple of thousand shares in facebook would probably cost the house proceeds.

Barclays / BT shares look cheap.

anyroads

[hillybilly]

LOL thanks for the replies.
Not had a great deal of success with shares in the past
Don't imagine I'd be able to open any new UK acct, what with being a resident in Spain...
Has anyone stumbled across any accts here in Spain paying OK interest?

[JAWG]

Since you still haven't found a spot for it in Spain, send it to me here in Canada and I'll look after it for you!!!!!

[ValL]

Since you still haven't found a spot for it in Spain, send it to me here in Canada and I'll look after it for you!!!!!

Hi there, hope you are okay, long time to see Now I hope you are not going to charge 13% tax on their money If you need a method of getting it to Canada I was offered a holiday with new friends so maybe we could come to an arrangement lol

[malagaman2005]

LOL thanks for the replies.
Not had a great deal of success with shares in the past
Don't imagine I'd be able to open any new UK acct, what with being a resident in Spain...
Has anyone stumbled across any accts here in Spain paying OK interest?

Sorry, didn't realise you didn't have a UK account. Do you have anybody in the UK who could open an account with you as a joint account holder, of course that may not even be legal?

[hillybilly]

I do already have a couple of UK based accts - Barclays and ING - but the interest rates aren't great and too great a deposit in either would take me over the protected limit under the FSCS scheme...I shall have a poke around tho...

[Beachcomber]

You should be able to open an offshore account, perhaps, with Barclays Wealth in Guernsey. They have a monthly saver account into which you can pay up to £2,000 per month for twelve months at 5% interest. Unfortunately, you can only have one account running at a time but when one matures you can open another. Details here:

Barclays Monthly Saver

You will need to give your country of residence as Spain and declare the interest on your Spanish annual income tax return as they abolished the facility to opt for withholding tax when it was raised to 35% last July.

Barclays Wealth is considered to be a separate entity from Barclays Bank (Mainland)

[hillybilly]

Thanks for that. Have also discovered there are some higher interest ING accts that I could already have transferred my money to! Darn!

[janda_grant2]

Word of caution - with off shore accounts you don't have the same protection of funds, I think the maximum is about £15,000! We took money out of off shore and invested in UK property, buy to rent.I'm currently getting 8% tax free as the income is less than my personal allowance.

[Beachcomber]

It is £50,000 for UK offshore banks.

[scottishtog]

In my opinion I would go with UK buy to let investment, assuming you have had the property for a few years then you will probably also score with the fact the euro is stronger to the pound than it was 10 years back

[timsk]

Hi hillybilly,
Currency isn't my strong point. That said, I know for sure that if I was in your enviable position, I would switch it to GBP£ or USD$ - or some other currency. If Greece defaults on its debts - which is highly probable in my view, the Euro could be in for a rough ride. That could happen sooner rather than later and, if it does, who knows how big the domino effect will be? FWIW, I think it could spell the beginning of the end for the Euro. If it starts to drop in value - what will you do? Will you hold on, praying that the politicians prop it up? And even if they do - who's to say their efforts will work? If they don't and it continues to drop, will you continue to hold? My view is that it would go over the precipice and you'd do well to get your money out now, rather than trying to do it while the euro's waterfalling in value. I must stress this is just my opinion. I know little about currencies or economics - and I could well be wrong. Indeed, for the sake of those people whose livelihoods depend on a strong euro, I hope that I am.
Tim.

[katy]

Yes I agree. Unless you really need the money in euros. If not I would probably split into $ and £. If there is a bit that you don't mind risking have a go on the stockmarket. Money to be earnt by all this volatility. The facebook shares....have been told to buy and sell quickly, or not buy at all.

[JAWG]

Hi there, hope you are okay, long time to see Now I hope you are not going to charge 13% tax on their money If you need a method of getting it to Canada I was offered a holiday with new friends so maybe we could come to an arrangement lol

Hi Val

If you are coming to Canada and are going to be anywhere near Ottawa, let me know by PM. I will arrange to show you around.

John