Hi. I have been lucky enough to get a lump sum of £74k from the sale of a business. Now trying to decide what to do with it.



Option a) could put it on a flat. But I live in London and my salary isn't enough to get a mortgage on a house that I could live in. Everything I've seen is too far out for me. So if I did put it on a flat, it would be an investment only and would still have to pay rent.



Otherwise, I could invest it for income, in stocks and shares. What do you think? Anyone chip in with suggestions or similar experiences? Cheers.



PRJ

What other investments do you already have?

I've about 11k sitting in 2 ISAs. And that's it.

Unless it is your dream to build a BTL property portfolio, I'd suggest the S&S route will be much easier and give you a much better spread of investments. There is also P2P lending you could consider for some of the money.

Any pension provision?

The tax deal on owner-occupied housing is wonderful, the tax deal on BTL isn't.



If you don't think you'll want to buy a house in the next five or ten years then maybe an S&S ISA would be a good idea. But in your shoes I'd be tempted to keep a fair chunk in cash and play the much discussed game of using current account switches, high interest current accounts, and regular savers. Those combined with S&S might constitute a usefully diversified portfolio. You could even ensure that some of your S&Ss are related to residential property values.



You might also consider a Help to Buy ISA this tax year and a LISA in 17/18.

@ColdIron, no, no pension

@masonic @kidmugsy not interested in BTL. but would like to buy my own place later. what I was thinking was having a BTL would be good place to keep cash until i get a better salary and can borrow more. but more trouble than it's worth?