Where's the best place to put my money.

ant2006

Hey there.
I've never had cash to save before, so I'm a complete newby at this.
But, I've just had a change in circumstances that has left with with some residual cash of around £15,000.
I have a mortgage of £65,000.

Here's the options I'm considering, I wonder if you could let me know which would make most sense from a money saving / investment point of view.

1) Pay off a part of my mortgage.
2) Wait until my mortgage is ready to for a change in a few months time and get an offsetting type mortgage.
3) Invest or put the cash into a savings account.

Thanks for your help.

Robert_Sterling

At present you have had about two dozen views but no advice so I will start the ball rolling.
I suggest you put £3000 into a minicash ISA ( Interest is tax free )
If, like the Nationwide, your mortgage lender lets you overpay your mortgage by £500 per month start doing that. You could either cut the length of the mortgage or the monthly payments.
When you renew the mortgage use the rest of the £12,000 to cut the mortgage further.

Prudent

I also would be tempted to save the money until the mortgage is due for renewal then take out a mortgage for less. do you already have a cash ISA?

Paul_Herring

There may be a limit to how much of your mortgage you can pay off. For ideas on savings, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1103213261,45760,#fountain

Only consider investing if you could 'afford' to 'lose' the money you're investing, and you won't need it for a few years. Personally I certainly wouldn't consider investing all or a majority of that cash if I had that much mortgage outstanding or if I was considering cashing in the investment soon, but then again, I don't know what savings and/or investments you already hold.

ant2006

Hiya.
Thanks for the responses folks.
Well...a little more info seeing as this seemed like a very simplified question and a couple of questions were raised, here's the other money stuff I have:

No credit cards
No loans
Mortgage as stated
A few other shares and an old PEP (which has done pretty good).
But no current ISA

Thanks loads again. I think what I'll do is buy premium bonds and hold them for 6 months until the mortgage comes up for renewal and then use the cash against that. Maybe split the difference it makes to my payments 50 / 50 and do an overpayment for half of the reduction.

Cheers.

dunstonh

and an old PEP (which has done pretty good).

A PEP is just a tax wrapper. It doesnt make or lose money. It's the investments inside the PEP that matter. It's a common mistake made by inexperienced investors. Especially those that have lost money where they blame the ISA/PEP and not the investments within it.

Thanks loads again. I think what I'll do is buy premium bonds

Waste of money. You wont be in the draw to begin with and you won't have long for your gamble. If you want to be equally wasteful, you could stick it in a savings account earning more than the average payout rate on premium bonds and buy scratch cards with the interest.

ant2006

Lol - hokey thanks. But I was thinking of just a quick place I could put the money while my mortgage runs its course until the next time I can change it.

How long with premium bonds until you get into the draw then? It's not straight away I take it from your response?