A Savers Saving Ambitions: House Deposit and Portfolio

CPS91

Hi All,

I've been lurking on the forum for some time now and started a couple of threads in which members on here have been very helpful, thank you :beer:

The general gist of me;
I'm 21 currently living with my girlfriend and work full-time whilst also going to university once a week on day release from my place of work. I earn circa £1,500 per month after taxes in which I budget accordingly so save as much as I can. About 6 months ago now I paid my car off earlier than intended which saved me little over £900 in interest which was my one and only debt.

My monthly outgoings consist of;
£162.50 - rent (potential to double in the not to distant future)
£35.00 - utility bills
£46.60 - direct debits (car maintenance plan and gym)
£20.00 p/w - weekly food shop (average)
£25.00 p/w - spending monies

On top of these I have yearly payment of tax and insurance for my car in which I make the necessary allowance.

My savings consists of;
Circa £5,900 in a Lloyds Classic Vantage Account (4% upto £6,000)

I say circa as at present it's a bit of moving target due to it being my current account. It has £6,100 in one account and £200 in my secondary current account (same interest conditions) but I have a credit card also that gets paid off in full every month (or should at least as the first payment goes out 03/12/2012), this has a payment of £400 going out. My plan is to use my cash ISA allowance come around April time when I hope the interest rates will be more attractive.

At present I am able to save an average varying between £800 and£900 per month.

My girlfriend (of 2 years) and I have a joint ambition for saving for a house deposit for the future in which ideally we would like to aim for a minimum deposit of 25% which to us would be circa £30,000-£40,000 for what we would desire plus additional monies to make the house ours as well as pay the associated fees incurred. My girlfriend at present has circa £12,000 in savings (not bad for a full-time student). She will begin working full-time in 18 months when she is qualified and would roughly be earning a £20,000 salary entry-level. We are looking at 2-3 years saving before looking for a house for a couple of reasons; see how we live together on our own for a couple of years and also for her earnings to be considered in the joint mortgage application.

As well as the above I also have an ambition to build up a S&S portfolio utilising passive investing and my S&S ISA allowance in order to save for the long term. I have been reading investing as a whole for a while and feel I should take the plunge at some point in the hopefully not to distant future. With this once I match my girlfriends at the time current savings total I will use the first additional £1,000 to invest. Exciting times when I come to it!

So at present that's me in a nut shell financial wise. I save where I can and hope to reap the rewards in the future as well as obviously still having a bit of fun when I desire so I don't go insane and forever tight!

I will be using this thread to keep a progress diary of where I keep up to so hopefully you'll hear more from me :j

Cheers and thanks for reading!
CPS

Eponym

You're doing very well! Good luck!

CPS91

Thanks Eponym, much appreciated.

On another note, would anyone recommend somewhere better to save my money? I've looked at the First Direct savings account but don't think it would be best for myself as I'm happy with my current account at Lloyds although the idea of receiving £125 for switching and then £152 in interest (over 12 months) is very attractive.

Also would you agree that I'm best waiting until better offers with the cash ISA or am I better off long term using up my allowance for this year to benefit from coming years?

Cheers,
CPS

Eponym

I would say use this year's allowance and find a better rate to transfer it to in April.

CPS91

Do we have any type of insight of what to expect come April or is that a case of finger in the air?

Looking at the FD in more depth I could get the regular saver as long as I open an e-saver alongside the 1st account and put £1 in it (omits the condition of £1,500 a month condition). Then that's an easy 8% (gross) on money for a year.