I’m a guy in his late 20’s just getting out of debt (Student loans, Credit cards, Overdrafts etc.) and it feels great to be nearly free of the debt burden.

Now I have been faithfully paying off my loans for the past half dozen years, finally I will have some extra cash to either save for retirement or to invest for retirement.

My question relates to what would be the best way to use this money?

I’m sure that pension plans and retirement funds are some kind of a scam, as I’m sure the return on your investment is never equal to that of your payments in. That said, the investing plan is also uncertain to me because I am not very knowledgeable about the stock markets.

I am wondering what to do now that my debts are nearly paid off, and the extra cash I have become used to paying off I will now be able to use for other purposes, ideally a nest egg type of rainy-day fund, or some other kind of long term investment that I can rely on what I am in my late 60s as a retirement income.

I’m from the UK and we have a tax free saving scheme similar to that of a RothIRA, called a Cash ISA. You can save tax free with a government backed savings plan, up to £15,000 per year (Roughly $25,000 at time of writing). It is safe and secure but offers a very low rate of return at around 1.5-2% per year depending on which type of ISA you choose (there are various offers at different banks). I also, cannot currently set aside the full amount of £15k per year, only a fraction of that. Would it be wise to start to save in this? Or should I start to think about other investments?

One investment I looked into was a DPP (Direct Stock Purchase Plan) whereby you invest regular amount a month into a company directly with the company, thus avoiding any broker fees or portfolio management fees. There are quite a lot of big name corporations that already offer these plans, but it does depend on their stock price always rising and this is uncertain.

Finally, another option I have considered is P2P lending. You can lend your own funds to other people within a peer to peer lending exchange like Zopa or LendInvest or RateSetter, and act as a sort of bank. You loan your money using the infrastructure of one of the p2p lenders to someone who wants to borrow. You can expect 4% return pa over 3 years and up to 5.8% return pa over 5 years. This is personally what I am looking at right now as it is simple to understand and the returns seem to beat the stock market and ISA rates. Also, I have been on the other side of lending for a long time after lending money for my student loans, personal loans and credit cards and faithfully paying it all back at around 9% interest for the past half dozen years, so I know that there are good people to lend to who do pay back their loans, and the loans are backed by the p2p lending company as they have a vested interest in everything going smoothly as they have their reputations to secure as well as 1% fee from every p2p loan/borrow trade.

Anyway, long and starting to ramble so I will leave it at that

Any advice would be great!

Do not buy paper gold and silver stocks you want the real deal.

http://www.market~~~ch.com/story/peter-schiff-reckless-fed-may-push-gold-to-5000-2014-04-25

Do you own any physical Gold and Silver yourself?

How do you go about purchasing it? Do you go into jewellers shops?

How do you know the market price, and how to do you know if the price you are paying in a shop is fair?

Are you thinking just buy as much gold as possible, then slowly sell it off as a retirement plan?

Thanks

ASIDE FROM THE ADVICE I JUST GAVE YOU (BECAUSE IT’S IN YOUR BEST INTEREST) DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE ELSE ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR MONEY. They would love nothing better than to see you broke. Build good credit. Buy gas and things you absolutely need with your credit cards and pay it off on time every month. Refuse to give credit card companies your money in interest. They are a tool to use ONLY TO BUILD CREDIT.

And don’t get into lending people your money.

Totally my pleasure. “Total Lee”. Get it? (lol) Im sure they are working on a rep system and lots of new features here. I know the forums basically just opened a few days ago, but the guys in charge take recommendations and are super busy with other aspects of the site.

No need to thank me, because you will be rewarding yourself. Best of success to you and all good things!

@anuvabruva Paying yourself first is the best advice you can get and all I can give you. Looks like Lee already beat me to it.

Some banks sell gold bars and coins with a certificate. For example Scotia Bank in Canada sells them.

6 Ways to Not Get Ripped off by Your Bullion Dealer
http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/6-ways-to-not-get-ripped-off-by-your-bullion-dealer-16721

http://www.storyleak.com/how-to-buy-silver/

As you live in the uk i would buy Moneyweek magazine. it will tell you all the latest best investments from their experts points of view, it is a very informative read.