Hi all, just joined the forum. I am wondering what peoples' opinions are in terms of investing some money. For the past few years I have been able to make some overpayments on the mortgage and also started some small scale p2p lending (as an alternative to a savings account). I have been cutting costs (used to spend far too much on food for example).
I have about £2000 which I can make use of (this is over and above my emergency savings), with the options I can think of being:
1) Make a £2000 overpayment to the mortgage (I can overpay by up to £8000 per annum without penalties). The mortgage is on a fixed rate of 3.44% until 2017.
2) Place the £2000 in p2p lending (such as RateSetter and Zopa), I can currently attain 4-5% on this after fees etc. I also have the option of getting a 6% return from a community-based company that is putting solar panels on schools, community building. Investors are given a 6% return for 20 years.
3) Get a low-power motor bike (125cc) to replace some of my car commute with a lower-fuel consuming bike (my work commute is about 22 miles each way).
What do people think?
