Making the money work for me

Dactyl86

Forum,

I am in the process of selling my mother's house after she passed away last year. Once everything is finalised, remainder of the mortgage paid off, money shared between siblings, paying credit card balance etc etc is done I reckon I'll have about £30k which I'll want to use as a deposit for our first house in Summer 2020.

My partner and I are getting married in May and we are budgeting for this with our own income. We'll be looking to buy by the start of August to avoid renewing the tenancy on the property we currently rent if at all possible.

My question is what would you suggest as the best way of maximising the amount available after the next 9-10 months from the initial approximate £30k?

Thanks in advance.

MaxiRobriguez

Top interest paying savings account like a Marcus.

Your time horizon is far too short to be investing it in bonds or stocks.

bowlhead99

Do you both have Lifetime ISAs?

If not, but you are under the age of 40, and haven't owned property before, and could defer buying until a year from today, (i.e. not complete the purchase until September 2020 rather than August 2020), you would get a very good return by each contributing £4k to a LISA in each of the 2019/20 and 2020/2021 tax years and qualifying for the government bonus of 25% on each of those four £4k chunks - that's £4k bonus on £16k contributions.

The reason I say September is that the account needs to be open a full 12 months before you can withdraw penalty-free for the purpose of buying your first property. You could open the account now with a few pounds and add to it when inheritance comes through (and again after 6 Apr in the next tax year).

The rest of the money can go into a high rate instant access account somewhere like Marcus as mentioned.

There is probably no reason to 'renew' your tenancy when it runs out at the end of August (assuming what you are referring to, is an assured shorthold tenancy expiring in August). Simply let it run on month to month and give notice to terminate it in September. If you are on an AST there is little in practice the landlord can do to stop you.

Albermarle

Yes , the main priority is not to lose any of it . Investing it for a quick return in a short period of time is just a form of gambling and not suitable for a house deposit .