Advice needed re my savings reshuffle!

turtlemoose

Right, i've always considered myself to be a 'good' saver, but then I joined this website and realised I'm terrible! My account at N&P BS is a paltry 1.45%, very disgusted with myself and in need of a shake up! I currently have £3165 in this account and pay £135 a month in to it, no ISA, no debt, but a mortgage of £47500 that I cannot overpay until Aug 2010.

I want to save 10k by Aug 2010 so I can remortgage and staircase my way up to 100% full ownership (currently at 50%). Not a newbuild by the way, was a refurbed ex-LA property.

I'm on a secondment for 12 months at a significantly higher wage than previously, I've worked it out that I can now save £300 a month but not impact my current standard of living. Obviously this will only be for 12 months as at the end of it I'm going back to my old job and old rubbish wages!

I've done a few sums but not sure if i'm doing it right, was hoping I could post what I was planning on here and see if some people who actually know about these things can tell me if I'm right!!

Ok, so here we go. Seems like the best for me at the mo would be with first direct - get a 1st Account, maintain a minimum balance of £1500 (therefore it is free - am I right with this?), but simultaneously have their 7% ISA and their 8% regular saver. I've worked out the figures to be as below - can people check and see if I am right as I am not sure at all

Not sure how long First Direct take to open accounts so I've done it as if the account starts in April.

It won't post properly as a table even though I put spaces in, so the columns are as follows
1st= month, 2nd = 1st Acc balance, 3rd = amount paid in to 1st acc, 4th = amount paid to ISA, 5th = amount paid to regular saver.

Apr 3300 300 300 300
May 3000 300 300 300
Jun 2700 300 300 300
Jul 2400 300 300 300
Aug 2100 300 300 300
Sep 1800 300 300 150
Oct 1650 300 300 25
Nov 1625 300 300 25
Dec 1600 300 300 25
Jan 1575 300 300 25
Feb 1550 300 300 25
Mar 1525 300 300 25


Ok so as you can see the 1st Account remains at above £1500 at all times, so no fees. I pay IN to the 1st Account £300 a month (max i can afford for 12 months only). From the 1st Account I pay £300 a month to the ISA at 7%, and the varied amounts listed above to the regular saver at 8% (6.4%net).

I think, if i've done it right, then at the end of the year I will have £1525 sitting in the 1st a/c, 3600 paid in to the ISA which with interest will be £3735.09, and 1800 paid in to the regular saver which with interest (after tax) will be £1887.90

At 31st March 2010 this will give me £7172.99 in total after receiving interest, meaning I have got £2827.01 extra to find in the last 5 months (I'll worry about that separately to this!).

Ok so what does everyone think? Have I worked it out correctly? Is there something better I could do? Thanks in advance!

apt

The First Direct 8% Regular Saver no longer exists. Unless you want to use a First Direct current account and/or to claim £100 cashback you would be better off with the Saffron building society which offers a 7% Regular Saver ISA. The Barclays 6% regular saver would also be good for saving from income.

turtlemoose

Hi Apt, the 8% regular saver is still on their website which is why I thought about it ......I'll have a look at saffron and barclays, thanks.