Making savings/money work harder?

Saving2Save

I currently rent a property with my partner for £650 per month. I have around £10k in savings (in a Santander 123 account) and we are able to save around £750/month. Neither of us have debts (excluding student debt taken from salary).
I have no idea how to be smarter with my money. I am sure there must be a way to make it work harder and give better returns.
Should I look at buying a property? Should I Invest? Just leave it in 123?
Any tips or advice welcome - I am hoping to have about £20k by August. Should I buy a property and let it? Should I get buy to let interest only mortgages and live in current rental property - we love the house?
Many thanks!
S2S

droopsnoot

It's very hard to say exactly what is the "best" thing to do because it varies for your own circumstances. Have a look down the first ten or so pages of this board and you'll see lots of similar threads where people ask the same question - while their circumstances might not be the same as yours, they might give you some ideas which might then allow you to ask more detailed questions.

enthusiasticsaver

How to make savings work harder for you depends on your situation.


Firstly property - if you love the house you are currently renting look at whether it is possible to buy it from your landlord or a similar one and investigate whether a mortgage (with deposit) would be cheaper than the £650 you currently spend on rent.


Same applies to buy to let. Look at mortgage rates you can get and compare rental incomes although I would say I am not a fan of BTL due to the problems you can sometimes have with tenants not paying rent and the onerous regulations now on landlords plus the problems of maintaining the property.


You could look at saving in current accounts and regular savers Santander 123 is ok I would say if you have £20k in there the maximum but you can do better. Numerous threads on that on this forum but it involves multiple current accounts and moving money around every month.


If you are looking to save long term look at stocks and shares isas and pensions which are the best vehicles to use for that. Check out the forums for those separately. Bear in mind that higher returns are not guaranteed though there are tax benefits to using pensions and generally if you invest for the long term and use a properly diversified portfolio the returns are better but your money will not be as accessible.

Archi_Bald

I would suggest you read the How To Start Saving guide, and also start getting yourself educated about investments.

You need an emergency fund, perhaps money for a deposit on your own place, and a pension. BTL, especially with the forthcoming legislative changes, should be right at the bottom of your list of ideas.