Saving in cash (i.e. in a safe deposit box or safe)

jimjames

wigglefish123 wrote: »

Having to pay tax on interest beats earning no interest at all !!

Although if the OP wants to use an account that pays no interest to avoid paying tax there are many banks that will happily oblige!

Wilkins

Parsimonia wrote: »

I thought there may be a downside to having your savings so visible...in case the government decides it wants a huge bite out of them, or something.

The government's tried and tested method for attacking your savings is through inflation which works wherever they are held.

Parsimonia

OK, I think I need to educate myself a bit more to reduce the risk of me doing something foolish. I'm not usually such a numpty, but savings has never really been something that I've paid much attention to...

I think I pay tax at 40%...I'm not sure...and I'm in the NHS pension scheme.

My husband has a small, frozen personal pension, and he's been on incapacity benefit for the past 10 years (prior to that he was working and paying his NI contributions). Not sure what happens to him pension-wise from January when he will no longer get his incapacity benefit - unsure if he'll be entitled to receive a state pension when he hits 65 in 2027. It's unlikely he'll be able to find work given his complex health problems...

At the moment we don't have too much in the way of savings, but I intend to knuckle down and start saving properly from January. We will be mortgage free in 4 years, so will be able to save considerably more from that point onwards (our mortgage payments are £700 pcm). We also have the endowment maturing then...

I need to avoid making costly mistakes....

Archi_Bald

Parsimonia wrote: »

.

I think I pay tax at 40%...I'm not sure...

it's important you confirm this without delay.

Parsimonia wrote: »

Not sure what happens to him pension-wise from January when he will no longer get his incapacity benefit - unsure if he'll be entitled to receive a state pension when he hits 65 in 2027.

again, it's important you confirm the facts without delay

Mojisola

Parsimonia wrote: »

My husband has a small, frozen personal pension, and he's been on incapacity benefit for the past 10 years (prior to that he was working and paying his NI contributions). Not sure what happens to him pension-wise from January when he will no longer get his incapacity benefit - unsure if he'll be entitled to receive a state pension when he hits 65 in 2027.

If he's not going to claim ESA, he may need to pay voluntary contributions to make sure he gets a full pension.

He should get a pension forecast to see how many years' contributions he has already made.

vectistim

If you were retiring now and had done this since the age of 16 - you would make a slight profit from some of the old white five pound notes, but I doubt that would be as good a return as even a savings account.

Parsimonia

Archi_Bald wrote: »

it's important you confirm this without delay.

again, it's important you confirm the facts without delay

OK, will do. Thank you.

I have just been bumbling along, complacently thinking that as I've made provision for my retirement by paying into the pension scheme that we'll be fine and dandy. We've been comfortable, money-wise, despite my husband's illness, as we have few outgoings, modest spending habits, and I have a well paying job.

We've only found out this month that hubby has lost his appeal against being taken off incapacity benefit...and we're struggling to find out exactly what the implications of that are for his state pension. His advisor said that he should still get a basic state pension at 65 even if he receives no benefit for the next 15 years (he's 51) but I'm not convinced....

I need to pull my finger out and stop being so slapdash...

Parsimonia

Mojisola wrote: »

If he's not going to claim ESA, he may need to pay voluntary contributions to make sure he gets a full pension.

He should get a pension forecast to see how many years' contributions he has already made.

We used the forecast tool on the DWP website and it said he'd already paid enough contributions to earn his full basic pension as he'd worked full time from age 16 to age 40, and then received incapactiy benefit from ages 40 to 51...but not sure how trustworthy that is...

Mojisola

Parsimonia wrote: »

We've only found out this month that hubby has lost his appeal against being taken off incapacity benefit

If he's too ill to work, either appeal if he's within the time frame or apply for ESA.

There's lots on the new pension arrangements on the web such as https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/9802093/Flat-rate-pensions-the-changes-explained.html
but who knows what the situation will be by 2027 so keep an eye on future announcements about changes.

Wilkins

Parsimonia wrote: »

OK, I think I need to educate myself a bit more to reduce the risk of me doing something foolish.

At the moment we don't have too much in the way of savings, but I intend to knuckle down and start saving properly from January. We will be mortgage free in 4 years, so will be able to save considerably more from that point onwards (our mortgage payments are £700 pcm). We also have the endowment maturing then...

I need to avoid making costly mistakes....

Don't worry. You are basically on the right track. You can't go far wrong by saving aggressively into cash, though it may be suboptimal in due course. Continue to make use of the MSE forum and try to learn about investing, which might be something to consider when your endowment comes up.