Help to buy, LISA or both?

SarahLu

I know the Help to Buy Vs LISA debate has been done to death but I wondered if anyone could offer any advise on my personal situation. I have read lots of info so I understand the difference between the two accounts but I still can't work out what me and my partner should do in our situation.

I am 33 and my partner is 36. He earns 32k and I am self employed, so my earnings vary but I expect a minimum of 16k, maybe a bit more. We have very recently started thinking about retirement and worrying about how we will cope when we are older and therefore considering buying a property as we currently rent. The first step before any of this can progress would be to start saving for a deposit.

It is likely we would use the money for a deposit, but not guaranteed. What I am thinking is open us a help to buy each, my partner pays in the max each month into his and I pay in whatever I can depending on my earnings that month.

I am then thinking of also opening a LISA for myself as being self employed I don't have a pension. Or would I be better off looking at an actual pension? Should we go ahead and start saving into help to buys and also open a LISA each and stick £1 in just in case we want to use it in future?

So many options I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused about it all

SarahLu

Well, I've gone ahead and opened us a help to buy account each. Not sure now whether to open a LISA each too and defer my decision to transfer into that until March 2018. 2 questions:

If I opened a cash LISA, can it be converted into a shares one in future?

Would you open a LISA now or wait and see if there are any more LISA options come March 2018? We won't be ready to buy in a year so setting the clock going isn't a priority.