Savings options what are people doing

flopsy1973

Hi in a bit of a quandry have around 100k that I want a decent return on but not sure when I will need it. May possibly need it for house purchase in next year or two. It's in Marcus at moment and I have previously done all the high interest accounts. What are others doing that may need money in short term rather than investing ? 

xylophone

Using regular savers as far as possible and then getting the best rate possible elsewhere.

colsten

Regular Savers, and possibly Notice Accounts and/or 6 or 9 months bonds. The latter via Raisin and/or HL Active Savings. Only you can tell whether the few pounds extra are worth your while.
Do you qualify for a LISA?

flopsy1973

No too old . OK what about some low risk investments is now a good time

whattochoose

I'm very averse to risk taking. At the latter part of last year I opened a 2 year bond with Secure Trust Bank at 2.27% and a 4 year account with Masthaven at 2.37%. 
Not great but perhaps acceptable in these fallow times for savers.
https://www.securetrustbank.com/
https://www.masthaven.co.uk/

mark13

What is your idea of a decent return . If its 1.5% then Marcus is fine. If the money is needed in a year then a 2 year  fixed term savings aren't going to be much good.  I have a Marcus account , everything else goes into S&S Isa and is invested its fairly easy to get money if needed though does have the £20k pa limit.  If you are in a regular savings account then I expect  the interest will be taxed as well. Am I right in thinking there is a £1000 limit ? 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

No.  All savings interest (unless tax exempt such as an ISA) is taxable income.

Depending on what other taxable income you have you can receive up to £18,500 in savings interest before any tax is actually payable.

If you have a job or pension earning at least £17,500 in taxable income then the first £1,000 in savings interest will be taxable at 0%, the savings nil rate (aka Personal Savings Allowance).

The £1,000 will only be £500 if you are deemed a higher rate payer.

Thrugelmir

Marcus is down to 1.35%. 

aroominyork

whattochoose said:

I'm very averse to risk taking. At the latter part of last year I opened a 2 year bond with Secure Trust Bank at 2.27% and a 4 year account with Masthaven at 2.37%. 
Not great but perhaps acceptable in these fallow times for savers.
https://www.securetrustbank.com/
https://www.masthaven.co.uk/

2.27% is more than acceptable for a two year bond. It's a shame that, following your link, Secure Bank Trust currently have no fixed term bonds on offer. Well done for getting in when they were around!

bowlhead99

flopsy1973 said:

No too old . OK what about some low risk investments is now a good time

No, on most historical measures it's a bad time to make low risk investments. The same global macroeconomic factors which make cash returns low all over the world, mean that bond yields are low too.  If you need the money in a year or two, but start taking 'low' investment risk to try to outperform cash a bit - the chance of losing money (or getting a worse return than the top cash accounts) is relatively higher than it would have been at other points in the last 20-40 years.

Investing in high risk or low risk investments for the long term continues to be fine. Investments are for the long term - because over the long term you get ups and downs of performance and unexpected events and market forces etc, but the longer you hold the investments, the more likely it is that you will achieve close to the 'expected' return for the asset class you're using.  If you're investing for the short term it's a crapshoot.

In high risk investments you can lose a lot over the short term, so don't use those. In lower risk investments you can lose less, so that's not as bad an idea as investing in high risk investments. Still, what's the point of doing it - you might make a little but you shouldn't expect to because you may well lose instead; if you get lucky, you don't have very much time in which to make hay - and you could end up with less than you started with instead. So really, what's the point.

Mistermeaner

deleted