Stop paying into S&S Isa?

Petty_Vagrant

Hi all,

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I think I may have had my head in the sand on this one.

Should I stop paying into my Royal London S&S Isa? I know it's not worth cashing it in but am better off not adding anymore money to it and should I just sit on it and hope that it will go back up in value in the future.

Both my OH and I have a £83pm each Isa for the last 6 years. We want to continue saving the money but would I be better off putting the money into cash Isa for us both?

Any advice would be handy. Thanks

Lokolo

Its upto you.

In this climate you expect that your value of your holdings will decrease. However, each month, with the value you lowering, you buy more units for your money.

So when the market start to recover the return will be even greater.

But obviously this could take around a decade to do, so its really upto you.

cheerfulcat

Petty_Vagrant wrote: »

Should I stop paying into my Royal London S&S Isa? I know it's not worth cashing it in but am better off not adding anymore money to it and should I just sit on it and hope that it will go back up in value in the future.

Both my OH and I have a £83pm each Isa for the last 6 years. We want to continue saving the money but would I be better off putting the money into cash Isa for us both?

Are you saving for any particular purpose?

robp

For what it's worth, I'm in a similar position.
What I've decided to do is lower the amount I pay into the S&S ISA and the remainder goes into a high interest savings account. That way I keep a 'float' of savings which is easy to get at.

Petty_Vagrant

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Are you saving for any particular purpose?

The original aim was to to cover any short full in our endowment but also be able to help the kids out when they go to uni. The eldest is 14 now so we've still go a while to go yet.

cheerfulcat

So you'll need some of this money in four years' time? And do you need a specific amount in total? You don't have to say how much, just yes or no will do..

Petty_Vagrant

cheerfulcat wrote: »

So you'll need some of this money in four years' time? And do you need a specific amount in total? You don't have to say how much, just yes or no will do..

Haven't a clue how much yet! The mortgage seems to be on track (got a letter only last week saying all was fine) but the cost of education seesm to be going through the roof.

cheerfulcat

So really it's a question of saving as much as you can. It's a bit harder to decide what to do when you don't have an exact amount in mind - what you could do is sit down and work out whether you'd have any chance of saving a sufficient amount in cash only, at least for the eldest child's uni fees. If this would be possible then to be honest over such a short timeframe I would stick to cash for that and perhaps continue to contribute to the ISA for the longer term goal.

Petty_Vagrant

My biggest fear was that I'd be chucking good money after bad by continuing to pay into the ISA.

Although I don't have a figure for what I'm likey to need for the uni fees I'd hate to be paying into something that I'm just not going to see a return on. I can help the kids out through different sources of funds (mainly the mortgage should be pretty much paid for by then so there should be spare cash knocking about) so I don't have to completely rely on the Isa.

Lokolo

It sounds as though you are quite risk adverse.

If you really are worried don't do it. Just stick it in savings. But obviously with inflation your money will just be worthless as it wouldn't be able to buy you as much as it would today. (this is the general trend).

However it won't matter over 4 years as much as it would say 10 years.

cheerfulcat

Petty_Vagrant wrote: »

Although I don't have a figure for what I'm likey to need for the uni fees I'd hate to be paying into something that I'm just not going to see a return on.

You would almost certainly see a return eventually. The problem is that you don't know when or how much!