What to do with 70000 pounds?

[seanricekl]

Hi,

I have a managed pension account that will mature next year. It will be worth about GBP 70,000. My question is: what's the best thing to do with it?

My current situation:
Canadian expat with family (wife (British) + 2 kids) living in Malaysia.
No credit card debt; no car loans, no personal loans. Our employer pays our rent.
We have an apartment in the UK (mortgage free - worth about GBP 200,000.) It is currently rented.
We have a house in the UK (worth GBP 300,000 with 140,000 left on the mortgage.) It is also currently rented.
We pay into a pension fund here in Malaysia (we contribute 8% of our salary at the moment and our employer contribute 12%.)
Because we have lived overseas for so long, we don't have any government pensions in Canada or the UK.
Our oldest son will be university age in 5 years.

So, what to do with this money?  Put it on the house mortgage? Buy another property?  Any advice would be welcome!

Thanks,
Sean

[Viking Thor]

It seems like you are doing well financially but have a high proportion of your net worth in real estate. I would suggest to diversify a little - keep some of the funds in safe / liquid investment(s), i.e. savings account, short term bond, etc. This could come in handy if you need repairs to a property or some other short term financial hit. Then take a portion and invest in stock market, in some way that is tax efficient for future gains and/or ideally even lowers your current taxes.

I'm from the U.S. so don't know what that would be for you (or even which countries tax laws apply for you since there are a few in the mix). For example, in the U.S. I would recommend maxing out a 401K that would reduce your current income tax and allow the investment to grow tax free until retirement. If your pension fund is advantageous in a similar manner then it might make sense to increase your contribution.

[daverobev]

Broad based ETFs, global in scope and low fee.

If you have $100k USD to invest, you can go fee free with Interactive Brokers, who have super cheap foreign currency exchange, and cheap trading.

Are you sure you won't get UK or Canadian pension? You get CPP if you have contributed at all; for the UK you need 10 years of NI contributions.