Building a cash fund discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence

This discussion links on the back of the article:

Recession-proof your finances

Please read the article first, then come back to share tips on building a cash fund.

LongTermLurker

Shouldn't "building a cash fund" come under the savings and investments board? Anyway, here's my two penn'orth.

To my mind, 3-6 months' instant access money is paramount; once you have that, you can happily build up longer-term money - the trouble is, you'll have to spend more time building up the money you want to lock up, so I would suggest saving 6 months in an instant access account, sliding 3 months across into a 6 or 12 month FTD (or cash ISA if you don't already have one) and saving another 3 months in the instant access account. This will keep available cash ready to hand, while allowing you to get the benefit of higher rates.

Spread your money about, even if they are only small amounts - nothing could be worse than being made redundant a week before/after your one chosen bank goes under, leaving you with a 3 month wait for compensation; better to have 2 or 3 unrelated accounts to keep your available funds as high as possible.

DdraigGoch

Have a conscience and it'll save you thousands! :j :T :A :rotfl:Truly it will - for example:

You may not get the greatest interest rate but do remember to use your local Credit Union. They are VERY safe and you can get your money out quite quickly. You can get a VERY low interest loan for urgent/important items if you are a saver with them.

Think FREE and think NEED NOT WANT before you take it even if it is free. If you don't NEED it, it's clutter for you and someone else who NEEDED it has to go without.

Use Freecycle and be fair with your asks.

Get rid of credit cards and only use a debit card - that way you can't go overdrawn...

Learn to cook & sew - everyone can do these things and it can save you hundreds a month:j:eek::j

heppy23

I get paid weekly and my plan (once I get christmas out of the way) is to put aside a little bit of money each week and then every month put it into a fixed term bond with the yorkshire building society. Over time open 12 bonds, one for each month. From then on I can top up each months bond on it's anniversary.
Worst case scenario I can ask for it all back in one go and lose interest.
Or I could close one bond per month to help with a monthly income.

Long term I would aim to have a months salary worth in each months bond but that would take a while to achieve.