Help me plan!

Somekindofgenius

I am in a situation I never thought I'd be in. After spending my whole working life living from one payday to the next, I have been lucky enough to find myself in a role where I earn 40K plus allowances of approximately £15k. I have to live-in (it's in my contract) so I live in a rent free house and bills are covered too.
I am paying:
£200 into a Help to Buy ISA (balance £5000),
£400 into a new 2.5% interest savings account (balance £400),
£250 into a 2.5% savings account (balance £2500)
I have just opened a Nationwide Flexdirect Current Account and have paid in £2500 to take advantage of the 5% interest. I have a standing order for £1000 set up to go in each month and I will then pay my SOs to the savings accounts from it. I plan to leave the balance at £2500. After 3 months I can open a 5% savings account with Nationwide too.
I have a few other crappy old savings accounts with a total of around £4K in them.
I have an old ISA with £7k in it
I use a credit card but it is paid off in full every month. I have no other debt.
My question is, what can I do to make my money work better? In particular the £4k in the old savings accounts and also, once the 2.5% rate on the savings account finishes the £250 i pay into that. It's a nice problem to have.

masonic

TSB and Tesco both have high interest current accounts worth considering. Next place to turn would be your pension provisions, followed by a S&S ISA. Is it your intention to buy a home before retirement?

Robin9

All very well living in a tied house - what provision do you have should you loose your job ?

You appear to have very little in the way of an emergency fund let alone any reserves.

eskbanker

Robin9 wrote: »

You appear to have very little in the way of an emergency fund let alone any reserves.

I don't know how much of an edit OP made just before you posted but they have over £21K in accessible cash savings?

Zorillo

He appears to have more than £15k in cash outside of his HTB ISA. How big does an emergency find need to be?

Somekindofgenius

Thanks all, I expect I may wish to buy a house eventually but I don’t know where I want it to be. I don’t live and work in my home area at the moment.
I will probably inherit half of a house that is valuable enough to enable me to buy something then but if nothing else I decided to start the HTB isa in case.
I am 40 so if I am going to buy then I suppose I should do that soon. I just don’t know where home is!!
I explained that this is a situation I didn’t expect, a situation I am not familiar with. If you fancy giving me any constructive advice robin9 then fire away. There are several options open to me should I need to move out of this house. My partner has a house that is currently rented out.
I wish to keep my finances separate but we are in the housing situation together so I am quite secure on that front.
I pay that maximum contribution on a work place pension. They match it.
Can I do anything else on that front?

Somekindofgenius

Also, the S&S isa seems very daunting!
Would I need some kind of expert help with that?

masonic

Somekindofgenius wrote: »

I pay that maximum contribution on a work place pension. They match it.
Can I do anything else on that front?

It is probably the maximum contribution they will match. It is unlikely to be the maximum contribution you can make.

Whether you should contribute more now depends on your needs and likely future contributions. From the opening lines of your post it didn't seem like you were likely to have a substantial pension pot, and were nearing retirement age. Now we know you are over 20 years from retirement and only halfway through your working life.

A S&S ISA isn't really any more daunting than a pension. Both are just accounts in which you hold investments. You may not have realised that you hold investments in your pension. You would need to do a bit of reading to understand enough to DIY, but it could be time well spent.

Somekindofgenius

Thank you Masonic, I will do some reading and find my pension details.
Much appreciated ��

masonic

Somekindofgenius wrote: »

Thank you Masonic, I will do some reading and find my pension details.
Much appreciated ��

For background reading, you might want to start here: https://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/