What is the best monthly return on 400 thousand pounds?

With the current worry about property prices we are in the process of selling our house. We should clear around 400k and presume the best thing to do would be to put into high interest account, max our cash isa's and maybe some bonds (not really sure what bonds are?). We were going to buy another house straight away but now we feel we may as well rent for a while with no exposure to property prices falling and feel there will not be much if any appreciation in prices? Rent will around 1000 - 1200 per month so would like this cost covered by interest and hope for a 20% fall in house prices? Any advise for investments appreciated.

PS We don't want to tie the money into anything for more than a year in case we do want to buy.

Be very careful investing in anything short-term, as it usually involves high risk, I lost on something that my bank recommended.
And it's by no means certain that the property prices will fall at all.
My suggestion is to put the money in an off-shore account at Barclays.

In the Bank of Tim C... send me the 400 grand and I'll give you a VERY good return (if you can find me, that is)... trust me :)

For a max of 1 yr, then best you can hope for is a return of around 7%.

So that would make it...... about 拢2300 per month.

Alternatively, give the money to me, and I will give you 拢5k per month guaranteed.... No problem at all.

Sounds like you are chasing your tail, think twice about selling at this time if you do, you need to make a serious decision to go up market or down market. No easy answer to this and Banks or anyone not giving good returns at the moment.

My best advice to you whilst considerring what to do with it, is to put it directly into a swiss account and take one of their secured credit cards. This will give you around 6% interest, and your credit card would give you about 10,000 a month, with the repayments being taken straight from your interest.
It's rather like having your cake and eating it.
You should go to switzerland and check out the banks, I can reccomend USB.
With that sort of money, you will find it's a completely different world, and with offshore banking you will discover the secret to financial security for life.

Keep it in cash - if you are only investing for the short term.

Bonds is a catchall for many different products but I suspect that you mean fixed rate bank or building society bonds which are basically products where you commit your cash for a set period of time in return for a guaranteed return.

You should choose your providers carefully - dont just go for the one with the best rate. Look at how secure the institution is (remmeber Northern Rock?!). Also split your cash between a few accounts.

BTW the suggestion of Swiss Bank accounts and such like is misleading and should be ignored!

Hope it helps :)

1.5% or 6,000 pounds a month.
I can answer your question privately.

I run my own business and my net profit is over 5% a month.

Email me at investment4us@hotmail.com for more information. I will give you a valuable advice if you are serious about investing.

Best of luck!

Your situation is not unique; there is a growing number of people who are deciding to rent right now rather than move straight back into the property market. Nevertheless, you are not looking long term on this issue, so you really need to take advice which is pertinent to your situation. You are right to consider maxing your Cash ISA鈥檚 immediately, however this only deals with 拢6,000 and subsequently in April, there is another 拢7,200 you can invest in these between you. It still means that over 拢380,000 is invested in a taxable environment. I believe that you should consider a thorough appraisal of your finances as there may be other opportunities in respect of tax planning between spouses and utilising favourable tax rates and looking at your situation as a whole. It can鈥檛 really be covered without more information. Beware however鈥?.bonds, be it corporate bonds or investment bonds are longer term investments designed for around five years at least, therefore they are unlikely to be appropriate for you given your timescales.

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