Exhausted all options? Where to save my money?

MoneyMan01

Hi Everyone

In short, I basically want to ensure my money isn't just sitting around losing out to inflation.

First of all I'll lay out my personal situation and then further down I will say what current setup I have with money etc. to hopefully make it easier for you to advise.

I'm 27. Living with my parents. No plans to move out yet as property in my area is quite expensive, I'd still need quite a bit more money to get a mortgate on a house unless I want to live in a shed! I'm guessing that I'd be aiming to get to around £100k potentially so no idea how long in terms of years that would take at this stage). Basic rate tax payer.

I have a 10% non contributory pension with my company (they pay 10% of my salary, I don't pay anything).

I pay £200 (max amount) into a Nationwide Help to Buy ISA each month (currently sitting at just shy of £12,000.

- Side questions are, when it gets to £12,000, would I then be able to pay unlimited lump sums in and earn 1%? Or does the 1% drop? Will I not be able to make any further contributions above the £12,000? If I can continue to make contributions will it still be capped at £200 a month and retains that 1% gross interest?

I've got around £70,000 in NS&I Income Bonds.

Paying £250 (max amount) into HSBC 2.75% 1 year regular savings account each month.

Paying £50 (max amount) into Help to Save account each month, which I managed to open when I was out of work (back in work now).

Looking for suggestions please.

I've asked quite a few questions throughout the above, so any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

UPDATE:

I ended up moving the ~£60,000 to NS&I Income Bonds. I have around £70,000 sitting in there now.

With the news that the rate on that account is about to be reduced, where is best for me to move this money now?

I am thinking of putting £50,000 into Premium Bonds and then the remaining amount in the highest paying savings account.

Don't want to go down the investment route right now given how uncertain times are.

Is the above plan the correct call at the moment? Is there anything else any of you are doing / would recommend?

Side note, if there is somewhere I can put the extra £20,000, it needs to be easy access as I have a cash ISA which I need to transfer the entire amount back into in March, as it has built up an £80,000 tax wrapper, which I don't want to lose.

AnotherJoe

If you've got £60k why cant you get a mortgage? How much do you earn?

You dont earn interest on investments (as in s&s ISA) and what return you do get (if nay, could be negative esp in short periods) depends entirely what you invested in so knowing what someone else got wont help you at all.

But no one would advise you to invest if you are saving for a house.

Thrugelmir

Open a LISA.  The added bonus will get you closer to buying a home. 

MrMorgan

What are of UK are you out of curiosity? South west?

Albermarle

Investing in an S&S ISA is for the long term ( minimum 10 years to have a good chance of a positive result ) as in the short and medium term investments can be volatile .

I've got around £60,000 in a cash ISA with the same building society (as I thought the only way you could pay into two ISA's in the same tax year was for it to be with the same building society, please correct me if I am wrong in saying that?).

You can not pay new money into more than one cash ISA per tax year . If you have you have broken the rules. The provider of the cash ISA is irrelevant .

Although current interest rates generally are not great , you can better than you have now. 

https://moneyfacts.co.uk/isa/

Or you could try Premium bonds for some of it.

https://www.nsandi.com/premium-bonds

wjr4

Agree with Thrugelmir, open a LISA to save more towards a property & the bigger bonus 

El_Torro

The best interest rates are to be found outside of Cash ISAs. This has been true for some years now.

If you definitely want to save up to £100k for a house deposit then there are various options, including putting up to £50k in Premium Bonds.The expected return of 1.26% tax free is better than most options out there today.

MoneyMan01

Thrugelmir said:

Open a LISA.  The added bonus will get you closer to buying a home. 

I’ve got a Help to Buy ISA. Pays 25% on maximum of £12,000 (so £3k) to be used against a house purchase. 

The LISA is just the equivalent of that and basically replaced the HTB ISA (obviously you can use LISA for retirement as well). 

You can’t use 2 bonuses so opening a LISA when I’ve already got the HTB would be pointless/not possible for me right now. 

steampowered

The average return on stocks & shares ISA is 6-7% per year. That is the average sort of return generated by the major stock markets.

Some years will be better than that, other years will be loss making.

steampowered

Albermarle said:

Investing in an S&S ISA is for the long term ( minimum 10 years to have a good chance of a positive result ) as in the short and medium term investments can be volatile .

If you bought a 100% global equity tracker, you only need to hold it for 2 years to have a c. 82% chance of making a profit, or 4 years to make that c. 90%. I'd call that a good chance. 

https://www.nutmeg.com/nutmegonomics/increasing-your-chances-of-positive-portfolio-returns-the-facts-about-long-term-investing/

EdGasketTheSecond

TheDarkKnight93 said:

Hi Everyone

In short, I basically want to ensure my money isn't just sitting around losing out to inflation.

 so any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Gold, gold, and more gold.