So I've never been the best saver or investor in the world, I've had a bit of good luck some of which was due to a little smarts but here's how I got to where I am now...
Graduated as a software engineer, lived with parents for 2 years, saved some cash up, invested in RBS shares in 2009, roughly trebled my money and after borrowing a little from family bought my first house for £70,000, spent a few years and £20,000 doing that house up. Sold that in 2013 for £115,000 and together with having made over payments had a nice deposit to put down on a house with my partner (a £235,000 home with around £200,000 mortgage! eep!)
Been slowing increasing payments on that house as our salaries have increased.
Anyway, not really being doing much in terms of saving except to save for holidays etc, obviously paying into my pension though. Just over a month ago I was diagnosed with skin cancer, nothing terminal but a real eye opener and obviously something to worry about going forward, but due to having two critical illness policies due big payouts (best investment ever!). I have received one payout, the second still waiting for them to process.
Now whilst dealing through the mental anguish of a scary diagnosis, I have the trouble of trying to figure out how to deal with around £250,000 :| The main policy was a joint one and my partner and I have agreed the most sensible thing is to pay down the remainder of our mortgage, minus a small amount to do some much needed refurb like new windows and a new boiler (which was already planned for next year anyway).
That still leaves me personally with a reasonably large sum to invest and I haven't a clue where to start. I've just picked up a copy of Investing Demystified by Lars Kroijer which I've started reading.
Obviously, normally someone would be looking to invest for the very long term, but given my recent diagnosis my real aim is to just get a reasonable ROI whilst keeping the cash reasonably accessible. Worst case scenario is the cancer spreading, I have to quit working (get 6 months full pay at work so that's really good), but still, I can't tie it all up at least for now in very long term investments.
Any tips for a UK based person would be greatly appreciated. I'm slowly reading through things on this blog and monevator too, both really good sites!