£500 p/m investment help please

Clarky88

Hi,

I'm looking to invest £500 a month, but I'm at a loss as to where to put it.

Salary £67,500
+£10,000 bonus.
I contribute 3% each month to my pension which is the maximum my company matches and they give me 7% on top (in total 3% + 3% + 7% = 13%).

I invest £125 p/m into our company share scheme (maximum allowed)

£300 p/m into first direct regular saver at 5% AER (maximum allowed)

£333 p/m into lifetime isa (£4000 per year) - government adds 25% each year provided I put this towards my first home (which I intend to do)

Where shall I invest an extra £500 p/m
- please give options where I can release the money if I need it and/ or where it is fixed for a term (I.e 12 months)

Thank you!
Clarky

Eco_Miser

Nationwide Flexclusive Regular Saver take £500 pm at 5% AER, so that's an obvious answer (needs a Nationwide Flex current account of some kind - the Flexdirect pays 5% on up to £2500).
£500 pm is only £6k per year, so you could feed an S&S ISA as well as your LISA. You can withdraw if/when you need to but should plan on leaving it at least 5 and preferably 10 years. You may get back less than you pay in.

Clarky88

Eco Miser, Don't i need to have my current account with Nationwide to get that?
- i have my current account with First Direct which allows me to utilise their savings account (which i do).

i have reservations about a s&s isa. Investing £500 a month isn't sensible given the brokerage to buy/ sell and then release funds. As you said would need to be 5-10 years which doesn't really suit my needs.

Thanks very much for your input!

Clarky

YorkshireBoy

Clarky88 wrote: »

Don't i need to have my current account with Nationwide to get that?

You need to have a (qualifying) current account with Nationwide.

Fortunately you're allowed to have more than one current account in this country. Some of us have upwards of 20 !

xylophone

You can open a Flexdirect current account - this will give you immediate access to the Flexclusive saver.

You might wish to transfer £2500 into the current account immediately - you would then transfer in £1000 a month from elsewhere, contribute £500 to the Flexclusive saver and FP the balance back to another account.

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/flexdirect/features-and-benefits

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/savings/flexclusive-regular-saver/features-and-benefits

Clarky88

done! thank you all.

bigadaj

Clarky88 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking to invest £500 a month, but I'm at a loss as to where to put it.

Salary £67,500
+£10,000 bonus.
I contribute 3% each month to my pension which is the maximum my company matches and they give me 7% on top (in total 3% + 3% + 7% = 13%).

I invest £125 p/m into our company share scheme (maximum allowed)

£300 p/m into first direct regular saver at 5% AER (maximum allowed)

£333 p/m into lifetime isa (£4000 per year) - government adds 25% each year provided I put this towards my first home (which I intend to do)

Where shall I invest an extra £500 p/m
- please give options where I can release the money if I need it and/ or where it is fixed for a term (I.e 12 months)

Thank you!
Clarky

Nothing would beat the returns on pension contributions given your salary level but they would be locked away for a couple of decades.

Bravepants

Hello,

Make sure you have cash emergency fund, and any cash savings you need for future impending big purchases. Regular savers are your best bet for ready cash.

Is the company share scheme working out for you? You might want to consider SIPP or AVC (in addition, or instead) as you can save some of that 40% tax you are paying. Then in retirement you get a 25% lump sum and you will likely be in the 20% bracket.

p

YorkshireBoy

Bravepants wrote: »

Make sure you have cash emergency fund, and any cash savings you need for future impending big purchases. Regular savers are your best bet for ready cash.

With most of the 5% regular savers penalising early withdrawals, you'd need to choose wisely if they were intended to hold "ready cash".

Bravepants

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

With most of the 5% regular savers penalising early withdrawals, you'd need to choose wisely if they were intended to hold "ready cash".

Yes, I agree I mispoke a bit by using the word "ready".

elephantrosie

Hey OP, which provider are you with for LIfetime ISA?