Savings Advice Please!

salj1980

Hi , I am a long-time lurker - I think the site and forums are excellent! - but first time poster, and I'm hoping some of you will be able to help with some advice please.

I currently have various current accounts and savings accounts in a few different places, and want to consolidate my savings so I'm getting the best return I can. I've currently got:

Current account 1 - my main account into which my salary is paid monthly. Balance of about £2000 at present - higher than normal as I 'found' £600 in an old account I'd forgotten about (I've now closed that account).
Current account 2 - I use this as an 'emergency cash' account, paying in £20 per month, in case I need to pay anything unexpected (get the car fixed, etc). Balance of about £220 at present.
[B[Joint Current account[/B] - OH and I each transfer an equal amount monthly to cover rent, household bills, council tax etc. This comes to just over £400 each per month.
NSandI Investment Account 1 - balance of £2275 with about 4 years of interest to be added
NSandI Investment Account 2 - balance of £425 with about 4 years of interest to be added
ICICI Savings Account - balance of £945 - this is my stoozing pot set aside to pay off my only credit card balance next month (I'll owe just under £900 so will have stoozed about £50 on this).

Other than our monthly outgoings (rent, bills, etc) I have very few regular expenditures - I don’t use the car very often so fuel use is minimal (about £35 every couple of months, at most), pay the car insurance annually which is low and I usually cover it with some of my ‘emergency’ fund and I’m not a big shopper!

We don’t have any kids but hope that will change soon, and if we could get the right mortgage we’d be interested in buying a house in the next couple of years or so.

My plan is to start by:

1) Pay off credit card and close account - don’t want or need a credit card anyway.

2) Close both NSandI investment accounts (total £2700), withdraw £900 from Current account no.1 and use total £3600 to open a Fixed Rate Cash ISA before April, ie with my 2008/9 allowance.

3) Open a Regular Saving Cash ISA in April (ie with next year's allowance) to save £300 per month.

From here on is where I’m unsure and want to ask your advice!

Firstly, does the above plan sound like a good one?

Secondly, any recommendations as to how I should follow this up?

Sorry for the really long post (thanks for reading!) and I look forward to people’s ideas/opinions!

Sal

Lokolo

Yes all very good.

However, don't forget about your OHs ISA allowance. If you really don't have that many outgoings and you want to save for kids then get your OH to open an ISA in April and maybe also make that a regular contribution?

Other than that theres not much else you can do. Unfortunately savings rates are crap at the moment, hopefully improve in a year or 2 but meh who knows.

Um... I can't think of anything else really.

Oh yeh, have an aim, so in my signature I aim to save £15,000 by July 2011. You do the same, work out what the maximum you could save, and the minimum and go for somewhere inbetween that.

Also you're savings for emergency and crap. Why not create an excel spreadsheet, work out what costs will be for next year (car insurance etc.etc.) and then put money into it, then update spreadsheet like this:

Total Needed £1,000 (Have: £230 in bank)
Car Insurance: £20/£300
X: £100/£500
Y: £110/£200

salj1980

Wow, that was really quick! Thanks Lokolo! :cheesy:

OH does have a few more outgoings than I do, with a few loan payments left to make but he should be debt free this year. It hadn't occurred to me that he should start an ISA too, having read the advice on the main site to pay off his debts before saving, but - although I'm sure it's not officially allowed! - I could make payments into his ISA through our joint account I should think.

Hmmm....lots to think about but I'll definitely get onto ditching NSandI and starting my ISA...


Thanks! :T

Lokolo

Yeh I'm not sure what terms are on NS&I products so can't say whether to keep them or not, doubtful though!

Um, yeh well I'm sure he is paying off as much as he can but if he ends up with spare cash he could easily pay more off the loan but sometimes theres an early repayment charge so maybe still better off by saving instead of paying off more.

Good Luck.