Cash - the long and the short of it
March 2009
Short term, we all need cash to meet our daily needs.
And most of us try to budget for planned expenditure and put some money aside to cope with unforeseen circumstances.
The first thing most professional advisers would suggest is that you separate your short term cash from your long term cash.
But cash is more than just money in the bank. It is an asset class in its own right. A healthy proportion of your money in cash-based products may help to ensure consistent returns and offset the effects of volatility, certainly in the short to medium term. You should be aware though of the amount of money that is protected if a bank fails. See What's new - How safe are my savings?
Over the long term, you may conclude that your money is not earning as much as it should and that a proportion of it could be put to better use, so you might start looking around at different ways to invest.
