where would you invest 50k

objective?

if you had 50k to invest what would you class as a reasonable period in which to double your investment,without a huge risk to your initial investment.

want a safe haven in troubled times

Easy... oil, silver, gold, mining stocks, agriculture stocks, foreign currency (swiss francs, indian rupees, brazilian real)

I'd suggest :-
Safe (ish)Managed funds 45%
BlackRock Gold and General Acc
Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond Acc
High dividend paying FTSE companies 45%
United Utilities
GSK
Higher risk Managed Funds for the longer term 10%
JPM Emerging Markets A Accumulation
First State Greater China Growth A Acc
Invesco Perpetual Latin American Accumulation
(Also consider ETFs XMAS, XAXJ, XX25)

Put it all into Soco International (SIA)

Oil company. In the next year will go up 50% easy, due to proving to the market that oil is there (they already know it is, strangely!).

Read up on bulletin boards about the company, but I reckon the downside is tiny.

the only safe haven for £50k is a UK deposit account

at least your protected then

You're not protected against inflation though are you?

Put 10k to it and buy a terraced house in Nrth Mcr. Rent £425 month forever 8.5% on your cash and you will never lose .

Until soemone decides not to pay the rent, it takes you 9 months to get them out (because they are "vulnerable")and when you do get it back , its trashed.

^
unless you're 'connected'

If I had 30k cash I'd buy that bedsit in Luton for 25k, spend 5k giving it a lick of paint, legal fees etc, perhaps new kitchen or bathroom, carpet it up nice, then rent it out for £350/month (DSS).  Reckon the place would be worth 35k then.  Say it goes up 5%/year. and that after maintenance you only net £250 from the rent income.

year 0 35k  + 0 = 35k
year 1 36.75 + 3 = 39.75
year 2 38.59 + 6 = 45.75
year 3 40.5 + 9 = 49.5
year 4 42.5 + 12 = 54.5
year 5 44.7 + 15 = 59.7

double your money in 5 years, and I think I've been conservative.  Reckon that bedsit for 25k in Luton (10mins walk from train station, then 30 mins from central london) could be worth 50k at a stroke if you do it up smart.

i tried the rental thing and its a nightmare. Great while you have sane tenants but the hassle, late rent, periods of no tenancy, the inevitable trashings and subsequent repair bills etc....no thanks. I got out with a loss just to be free of the hassle and to get the equity out.  I am also looking to invest 50K as we speak......

Im looking at metals. Not gold so much at the current price but silver, copper, uranium mainly.

Antimony [;)]

Gulfkeystone (GKP)

Blinkx (blnx)