A safe amount to keep in your bank?

tco03

Iv been saving like mad since buying a house last year as a buffer should either of us lose our jobs.

Just wondering how much would you feel comfortable having in your bank account.

I have saved 10k in a year and now feel a little more relaxed about owning a home.

Should i continue saving further or invest any more savings in something else; Gold, bonds, special savings accounts?

I dont feel brave enough to start spending any yet

Bloomberg

tco03 wrote: »

Iv been saving like mad since buying a house last year as a buffer should either of us lose our jobs.

Just wondering how much would you feel comfortable having in your bank account.

I have saved 10k in a year and now feel a little more relaxed about owning a home.

Should i continue saving further or invest any more savings in something else; Gold, bonds, special savings accounts?

I dont feel brave enough to start spending any yet

You have been very wise to build up a nest egg of £10k. If things go wrong then you at least have some breathing space. Bearing in mind you have to ensure that your mortgage is paid would recommend that you stick £2.5k in an one year bond and then three months later do the same so that eventually you have money coming in every quarter.

Every time a bond matures you can reinvest it with the interest along with any other money you have saved. The trouble with investing in gold and the stock market is that you could potentially be forced to sell at the wrong time and lose out. If you can save another £10k this year you could be in a position where you have £5k coming in every quarter. Maybe then you could look at other investments. I hope that I have not confused you. All the best.

tco03

Thanks for a great response.
I will look into the bond idea providing i cant lose :P

dtsazza

tco03 wrote: »

Just wondering how much would you feel comfortable having in your bank account.

The FSCS guarantees deposits up to £85,000 per institution, so that's how much I'd feel safe holding there.

However, unless my account was paying a competitive level of interest, I'd feel that it was a waste to have it there, as opposed to somewhere that was paying reasonable amounts of interest. Even an instant-access savings account with Faster Payments paying 2%+ would be better than nothing!

(The return you'd look for, and the accounts/instruments you'd use, would depend on the amount of access you need to the money, your taxpayer status and your attitude to risk - and aren't strictly related to your initial question.)

ehlo

I've read here that some mortgage companies let you get overpayments back if you need them for a certain number of months afterwards.

If your mortgage agreement allows this and the mortgage % is higher than you could get from savings it might be worth looking into

Evilm

I don't have a huge amount of savings and don't really mind how much I am getting in interest so I just have a standard easy access web saver to ensure that my bank account doesn't have too much in it in case of fraudulent transactions. Once a month I just transfer the extra out to the savings account and if I need to spend it transfer it back.

I'm not sure if you are looking for investment ideas or just safety?

Lokolo

If you are looking at a buffer incase you lose your jobs, with £10k in savings already, I would be looking at overpaying the mortgage (lower repayments should you lose your jobs, you would cope better with less outgoings).

With the spare money however, I would be looking at your pension, and other investments for the longterm.