I am 40-something, live in London, who paid off my mortgage early and converted monthly payments to savings.
Given the global volatility, I first focused on building up a cash reserve in case of economic crash / and or "flee money" from the UK; have now hit £50k which should be enough contingency (I realise how grateful I am to be in this situation!) and considering diversifying.
So I :
am saving approx £1250 a month
have approx £50,000 in savings (mostly in ISA, some in foreign notes)
effectively have no family or dependants
have no investments apart from my private pension - transfer value of ~£65k - am aware this is low (yearly pension of ~£2k at current projection)
Am not sure of my options, not looking to tie up money for years for what could be a low return (if any).
an ISA or other savings have returns around 1% at best, much lower than inflation
Don't want to invest in stock / shares as they require a longer-term outlook than I am comfortable with right now
peer-to-peer lending looks an ethical choice, but also rather "wild west". Given the scale of money I'd likely invest, am not happy with the level of risk involved
a lump sum pension investment appeals, but of course this locks the cash away for 10-20 years
From my point of view, because I am saving so much each month, just adding monthly savings to an ISA acts as 30% interest.
Given I'm wary of the risks of short-term investment and pessimistic view of longer-term investment, are there other options (including spreading of risk) that I have overlooked?