I'm a student and have £2,000 sitting in my bank account doing nothing until september, is it worth investing the money in barclays? any thoughts or ideas would be welcome
I would not recommend that you invest money that you cannot afford to lose,
find yourself the best saving rate you can get and put the money in there,
K
better still buy premium bond, capital is secured and there is a chance you could get something back.
Seconded. Thankfully, I had made a lot of money before investing heavily in RBS before the crash but as a fellow youngster (although a bit older and hopefully wiser now!) I learnt the hard way. If you are happy to consider that £2,000 as gone then fine otherwise save it for a rainy day or House deposit.
If you need the £2,000 in September, then the best place is in a savings account. Any share (or fund) could drop 10, 20, 50% in the next 6 months (take a look at Royal Bank Of Scotland (LON:RBS), Barclays (LON:BARC), Lloyds (LON:LLOY), £BP. over the last 5 years or marconi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1526224.stm) . So, if you hold a single share you may not get all of it back.
A few options for you:
1) if you want ~£2,020 in September, get a decent savings account - Consider an ISA as it's tax free.
2) If you want exactly 2,000 in September with a very very small chance of much more, get some premium bonds.
Personally, I didn't start investing in shares until I had a steady income and some savings put aside for a rainy day. Then I started with a tracker fund to give exposure to the whole market, It's only more recently when I've started investing in individual company's.
One idea (almost certainly guaranteed to loose you some money) would be to save £1,900 as above and invest the remaining £100 in a single share. BUT you must be willing to assume that every single penny will be lost on the market (with dealing fees and tax) i.e. in September you will only have £1,900.
Personally, if £2,000 was my only savings, I wouldn't go anywhere near the stock exchange.
Ten years ago I found the fool ten steps invaluable ( http://www.fool.co.uk/10steps/step1.aspx ) I think it's been updated (certainly more links to comparison services...).
Regards
Buzzz
