Need some savings advice

bowlhead99

adatherton wrote: »

Definitely look into pensions

Agreed, almost a no-brainer when your company will save corporation tax by paying for one and you as an individual will save payroll taxes or dividend taxes getting a pension rather than a cash salary

For (almost) cast-iron capital preservation, you could look at peer-to-peer lenders such as Zopa. They have risk levels, but even the lowest pays about 4.5%. They have insurance built in for bad debt.

The idea that 4.5% income with 'cast-iron' capital preservation is available from p2p is nonsense, as Zopa's risk tables show that A* borrowers with under 0.5% default will only get you 2-3%, and you have to take exposure to 'C' rated consumers (who are borrowing more for debt consolidation than anything else, and earn you up to 10% -hopefully - while having much higher default rates) in order to get their 'lowest' rate of 4.5%.

Although Zopa set up in business with low volume lending a couple of years before the last credit crunch, the vast majority of the billions it's lent has been done in a period where the UK economy hasn't undergone a recession and so I would take 'cast iron' with a pinch of salt and recognise that your capital as well as your income is at risk with such investments.