ANSWER 1st October 2010
Hi Rukhsar

Of course there are many different ways to invest £100,000 but if you want to keep it straightforward (and be totally invested) I would suggest you construct a diversified protfolio consisting of ten companies in the FTSE100 or even the FTSE250.

The next stage is to select the ten companies and you could do this by selecting the sectors which you think will perform the best over the period and then picking the best companies within those sectors.

Now this requires a bit of thought and, presumably, this is the object of the exercise!

Which sectors will be the best, and worst, based on our (and the global) economy? How will global economies perform? For example you may think the UK domestic economy may slow or, at least, be subdued. What effect will that have on the different sectors?

I am glad you did not say, as is usual, how could you pick shares to make the most profit and beat everyone else. The point , at  this stage, is to demonstrate how you can think it through. Who knows, you might win!