Enola Meade has invested £96,000 into whiskey casks (Image: supplied)
For most people, saving £96,000 would be the first step toward buying a home. But for 27-year-old Enola Meade, a swimming teacher from Warrington, that money has been put to work in a much more unusual way: a collection of rare whisky casks.
While many of her peers were focused on saving for a house, Enola has taken a different approach to planning for her future. After getting some advice from a friend of her fathers, she decided to invest in the whisky market. But she isn’t doing this because she’s a fan of the drink—in fact, she admits she isn’t even a whisky fan. “I once tasted a small dram in winter,” says Enola, now 27. “For me, it’s not about the taste. It’s just about watching the value go up.”
The 27-year-old started saving as a child, setting aside birthday and pocket money wherever she could, while her parents added £25 a month into a savings bond for her. Once she started working as a school swimming teacher, she committed to saving an extra £1,000 of her salary every single month. By age 21, she had already built up an impressive £20,000.
When looking for where to put her money, she quickly grew frustrated with traditional banking options. “I started looking into savings accounts with high interest rates and ISAs, but banks are always lowering the amount of interest they pay. I wanted my money to work as hard as I do,” she explains.
“I looked at silver and gold but the value goes up and down all the time and it’s not the most reliable investment,” she said. “I wanted something long-term that I could leave for 10 to 20 years, then reap the benefits.
“It was a work colleague of my dad’s who suggested whisky. The more I looked into it, the more I thought it made sense. It’s one of the only things you can just leave alone and its value will go up. It’s not going to drop.”
She has been saving money all her life (Image: Supplied)
Initially, Enola bought one £12,000 cask and two £4,000 casks with her £20,000. She has since bought more and now owns a total of 18 casks, which she has bought through Hackstons, a whisky cask investment firm.
She admits that her path hasn’t been conventional. “I never expected any of this to happen, I’ve surprised myself and everyone who knows about it,” she says.
Living rent-free with her parents, she has no plans to leave her position as a swimming teacher, saying: “I absolutely love my job and wouldn’t change it for the world.”
If anything, her investments have given her a different kind of career freedom. “I don’t need a big money job because of my whisky investment,” she explains. “I know I will have a comfortable future.”
Enola now owns 18 casks (Image: Supplied)
Her strategy is designed for the long haul. She is aiming for annual returns of 8 to 12 per cent. If she achieves a conservative return of 8 per cent, she projects that her £96,000 could grow to over £207,000 in a decade, and possibly over £447,000 in 20 years.
While she says she might eventually buy a home, she is happy with her situation for now. “One day I will, but right now I’m very lucky to live with my parents. It’s been amazing to have them on this journey with me,” she says.
For those considering similar investments, Enola offers some simple advice: “These are long-term investments and something I’ll be doing all my life. I would encourage more people to look at whisky as an investment. You don’t have to like the taste.”