Savings and Investment Options

vipa316

Hi,

I currently have £23k in the Santander 123 current account and this seems to be the best option at the moment, for my savings.

After mortgages, expenses, travel costs etc, I have around £1,500 a month saved.

I was looking to open a new savings account as my Natwest account offers next to nothing in terms of interest. I have no other bank accounts other than Santander and the Natwest accounts.

In terms of the savings, even if I were to open one of the higher interest rate (possibly due to change as interest rates have been cut) I would reach the top savings amount within a few months.

A few friends have used Nutmeg, am investment management company. Has anybody had any experience with it?

I currently have £3k earning no interest, and no foresseable large expenses to be paid (£250+).

Apart from this, I have nothing else invested.

What would your recommendation be to use the £3k and also the monthly savings of £1.5k a month?

Thank you.

LHW99

Have you any pension savings? There's tax relief, employer contributions and perhaps NI savings if your employer offers salary sacrifice - all "free" money

enthusiasticsaver

Do some research on investments. I moved a cash isa a few years ago into a stocks and shares isa and manage it via Cavendish so no experience of nutmeg I am afraid. Invest within your risk profile and read monevator blogs and loads of threads on this forum if you considering branching into investments. I started off by drip feeding monthly into a Vanguard LS 60 fund which is heavily commented on here and then moved over a lump sum from a cash isa last May. No guarantees on performance of course but at the moment it is producing an annualised 13% return this year. Did not do much last year though so over a 5 year period I think the average return was about 8% to give you an indication to compare to cash savings.

enthusiasticsaver

What is your mortgage rate? Is it worth paying extra or are you on a very low rate?

vipa316

My current company doesn't yet provide a pension scheme.

I will have a look at what other salary sacrifice options are available for me in order to reduce the salary for worthwhile non cash benefits.

I will have a look into Cavendish and Vanguard LS 60 fund.

I have recently adjusted my mortgage to have the lowest rate possible that makes financial sense.

TomJ

As a quick win you could open TSB Plus and Nationwide FlexDirect accounts to get 4.89% gross on £4.5k and a Flexclusive monthly saver to increase the amount at 5% by £500pm. Neither account needs direct debits, you just need to set standing orders up to circulate the funding requirements around them.

You might then also consider the 6% regular savers with First Direct, HSBC and M&S: they require you to open current accounts with increasing faff factors in the order listed, and don't allow you to withdraw the cash.

redpete

vipa316 wrote: »

My current company doesn't yet provide a pension scheme.

Doesn't stop you making your own arrangements.