New to Saving - advice needed

MrsPorridge

I am very new to saving. Have managed to pay off debts. Just have my mortgage left which is approx £35,000 and ends in December 2017.

I have put £5,000 in an ISA and have put £17,000 into premium bonds. I am hoping to start saving around £700 minimum per month now - can someone please advise where I should save this?

My feelings behind the premium bonds are that I can get at the money quickly if I need to and there is a slim chance that I might win something:)

Would I be better off saving £700 per month or paying that off the mortgage? Or perhaps every other month paying it off the mortgage and saving?

My mortgage is repayment and can never go 1% above the base rate - so it is 1.5% at the moment.

bigadaj

Low rate in the mortgage so probably not worth overpaying.

You have an emergency fund, premium bonds aren't great for a large portion of your savings, they are ok if you pay higher rate tax and have used up your isa limits and pension.

How much do you earn, do you have pension provision?

One option is a stocks and shares isa, but you need to accept risk, ie potential for loss to get more gain. Have a read through te boards, something like a vanguard lifestyle fund through a cheap discount broker may suit, but it depends on your views.

The who,e amoun you suggest could be drip fed into an isa. The other alternative if you stick to cash or for part is to use regular savers, you can still get up to 6% on these with first direct.

MrsPorridge

Thanks for the response bigadaj. Yes I do have a pension. I earn just under £20K per year.

I'm a bit scared of stocks and shares etc. but like the sound of the regular saver accounts so will check those out.

Will also take some time to read through this board as well.

atush

Regular saver, and do look into S&S isas.

They don't HAVE to be super risky into individual shares, you could invest in a mix of funds (which are collective investments so tend to be less risky) or even a lifestyling fund such as Vanguard 60/40 (which is 60% equities/mix and 40% bonds mix).

your money in premium bonds is shrinking monthly with inflation. Investing some of it would help you to meet/beat inflation over longer periods.

You can drip feed the money in monthly. this will mean you would not run the risk of a huge drop right after you invested, and if there was a drop you get more units for yoru monthly money which will rise in time so you are actually better off. Look up Pound Cost Averaging.


Do some research.