Making the most of money

snakey_2

Hi

I have around £250-300 each month to save and personally i'm not that happy just building it up, if there is a chance of making money from money I want too. Though I'm not that keyed up the ways how, can anyone please point me in some direction and my options. Also advice and past experience would be good.

Cheers for your time.

lisyloo

Firstly pay off debts.

Secondly save enough cash for emergencies (ideally in an instant access ISA so tax free).

Option to consider after that are a pension (especially if your employer will contribute).
A pension has good tax breaks but is inflexible (can only get the benefits at retirement or death).

Also an index tracking stocks and shares ISA is a possibility, however be aware that to make money then you have to take risks. This means that you could loose your original capital if the stock market goes down.
Index trackers are good because they have low costs and spread the risk amongst a lot of companies rather than investing in individual shares.

snakey_2

fortunately I have no debts as of yet! I have got a current isa which I have opened up this year but admit there is not much in it.

I currently have a company pension where they match what I put into the pension, or close to it, forgive me for not knowing.

I am prepared to say risk half the money I intend to save each month, can you suggest a stocks isa or maybe a place to start for a novice like me?

Thanks

Joe_Bloggs

Stick your money in your ISA. Try and max it out. You will only be allowed to put in £1000 next year. Put off the speculative questions untill you have significant savings to gamble with.
J_B.

lisyloo

I have got a current isa which I have opened up this year but admit there is not much in it.

Firstly you must make sure you have enough cash to get you through any bad patch (like redundancy) before speculating with your money.
A rule of thumb guide is 3 months salary.

If you start taking risks with your money then firstly you could lose it but you also need to be considering tying it up for 5 years + (beacuse of the volatility of stock markets).

If you haven't got much in your cash ISA, then I would suggest building it up for the time being until you get to the 3*monthly salary point.

It good that you have a pension and no debts.

After that for a starter I would suggest an Index tracker within a stocks and shares mini ISA - contributed to on a montly basis.

Companies that do low cost trackers within ISAs are Legal & General, M&G and Abbey National.

Don't think about this until you have a cash buffer though and it might be worth checking whether you are contributing enough to your pension as well.

Kazza242

I agree with both Joe_Bloggs and Lisyloo here. It's a good idea to build up your cash isa savings before considering anything else.

Stick your money in your ISA. Try and max it out. You will only be allowed to put in £1000 next year...J_B.

The mini cash isa allowance is reduced from £3000 to £1000 from April 2006.

snakey_2

cheers for the advice!