Best saving combination?

DesignDweeb

Afternoon all,

Just after a bit of advise as to what combination of saving accounts would be best in my position. I am wanting to save £800 a month with £200 of that already going into my help to buy ISA..

I am under the impression that I should have;

• Help to buy ISA - £200pm
• Lifetime ISA - £300pm
• General savings account - £300pm

Am I missing a trick or is this the best way to save? Is the lifetime isa worth opening considering I have my htb isa already running or would a regular saver be better?
I will be hoping to get a house in a year and a half and want some general savings for other things to, any tips are appreciated

AlanP_2

What are you saving for and when do you want to "spend" the money?

LISA is tied to house purchase or retirement to withdraw tax free, I'm not sure of the relationship between HTB and LISA but don't think you can use both for a purchase.

What is your pension situation like or are you not looking that far out?

DesignDweeb

Basically I want £600 of the £800 going towards my house deposit which I will *hopefully* be spending around January 2021 (maybe slightly earlier) and the extra £200 towards holidays, car stuff, bike stuff etc. I'm also putting around £60 a month into my pension but I havnt really put much more thought into that...

I was under the impression that the lisa and isa cant both be used with the government payout but I thought they were worth having due to the tax free allowance (I may be wrong and would be happy to clarify it)

NurseMoneySaver1122

If you open a Lifetime ISA, I would recommend depositing a lump some at the end of the tax year, and save your money until then somewhere where the interest rate is more favourable (Nationwide 5% Flex Direct Account, TSB 3% interest bank account, or one of the regular savers although they require 12 mths of deposits before withdrawal in order to get the favourable interest rate.

You can have both LISA and H2B ISA; as long as LISA is suitable for you (more restrictions but can save more faster), then I would use the LISA for the house purchase and use the H2B ISA simply for interest rates, although better rates can be found elsewhere, but if they are maxed out then H2B ISA is next next thing interest wise.

Hope that makes sense

This is what I have been doing the past year

saving your money elsewhere throughout the year (

Mr.Saver

Assuming you are going to buy a house cost within the LISA limit and you meet the LISA first time buyer criteria, you can save more each year with LISA than HTB ISA.

Saving only £60 per month in a pension is not going to provide you much in your retirement. You would be lucky if you can get a couple of thousands pounds out from it each year when you are retired. You should save a lot more than this if you want a comfortable retirement life.

Because the cash LISA interest rates are so low, you'd be better off saving the money elsewhere (regular savers, high interest current accounts, etc.), and then move all £4000 of them into a LISA on or just before 5 April each year.

You are planning to save £800 per month, which is £9600 per year, and £4000 of them should go into a LISA each year.

On the pension side, a rule of thumb is you should put the half of your age as a percentage of your gross income into a pension. For a 24 years old earning £25k annually, it's 12%*25k=£3000 per year year, and for a 35 years old earning £40k, it would be £7000. Depending on your age and income, you should put a good few thousands into your pension each year.