Isa advice

Greenwood0903

I opened a stocks and shares Isa with the Halifax about a year ago, and save £150 per month into it. Should I leave it in and keep paying in there or reinvest it somewhere else? I have not started a new Isa this year as can only afford to save the £150 per month anyway. Should I be looking to take some out and put in a fixed rate bond account? A not too experienced money saver

jem16

Investments with banks are not a good idea as they are usually poor with the Halifax being one of the worst.

Investments are long term - with monthly investments you are really looking at 10 years plus. What do you really want out of this?

Greenwood0903

Just want to save money for the future the best way, so should I overpay my mortgage, or maybe be up my retirement contribution to my company pension, or just save it in the highest interest account I can find? I am an ordinary rate tax payer.

jem16

No-one can really say without knowing more facts and figures.

However basically for short term savings find an appropriate savings account. For long-term planning ( i.e. retirement) you should be looking at S&S ISAs or pensions as cash is no good for long term.

However for investments either see an IFA and do it properly or if you want to go DIY stay away from the banks and go to somehwere like Hargreaves Lansdown which is a funds supermarket.

KingL

How much is your mortgage rate? Is it higher than your prospective savings rate? Are there penalties for making overpayments?

It's traditionally better to pay off debts before starting with savings, but obviously it depends on your specific circumstances.

StuartGMC

Typical advice is to have a cash emergency fund of between 3-9 months outgoings for ready access. Your decision then on saving and investing depends upon your present and future needs, assuming you have the pension reasonably covered. Long term stocks have usually out-performed cash....

Halifax own Interactive Investor, who I use for the Funds ISAs for OH and me. The reason I preferred them over Hargreaves Lansdown was that the minimum monthly amounts required per fund were lower hence helping the pound-cost-averaging across a number of different funds for diversification. Typically you can invest from £20 per month per fund with iii if using their Funds ISA (which doesn't allow for purchase of individual equities though which needs their alternative ISA). I think this may still be cheaper than HL but do investigate for your needs.

Recommend you sit down and plan your 3,5 and 10yr requirements, then decide on your route forward. Personally we OP on the mortgage, offset and have some investments (nearly recovered to match the amount invested with the increases in the past 6 months, hence these are not included in any date-critical considerations and are expected to remain invested for about 15yrs), but individual circumstances will be different.