What would you do with £15k

HamSoulo

Hi All,
I have £15000 of my savings, saved in cash ISA with NS&I. The rate is a disappointing 0.1% right now.
this money is can be invested in ISA for a short duration around 6-15 months or can be kept in easy access account, it depends on what product is giving the best rate.
I am not comfortable with stocks, wouldn't know where to start. also, i understand shares is a long game, i don't have that time horizon.
What would the community suggest me do, so that I make the optimum return.
Thanks all for your help.
- Ham

finance4all

HamSoulo said:

Hi All,
I have £15000 of my savings, saved in cash ISA with NS&I. The rate is a disappointing 0.1% right now.
this money is can be invested in ISA for a short duration around 6-15 months or can be kept in easy access account, it depends on what product is giving the best rate.
I am not comfortable with stocks, wouldn't know where to start. also, i understand shares is a long game, i don't have that time horizon.
What would the community suggest me do, so that I make the optimum return.
Thanks all for your help.
- Ham

Are you saving for your first home or some other goal? The best rate easy access saving account is a good start. Some regular saver after that depending on what are you saving for.

grumiofoundation

As above what is the aim?
If for a house cash a lifetime ISA (if eligible)?
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/

Foreverfinance

Although the world of stocks and shares is quite a vast and overwhelming one at first, it literally pays to know your stuff.
If you don't know where to start, I recommend looking at these few things to get you going:

• What is the stock market and how does it operate
• What are the signs of a good investment (wealth of information on Youtube)
• Look at publicly traded companies you personally like (might spark your interest)

This is just a start but will serve as a good foundation for you!

Alexland

I would start by opening 3x virgin money current accounts paying 2% on £1k each.

Foreverfinance said:

Although the world of stocks and shares is quite a vast and overwhelming one at first, it literally pays to know your stuff.

OP said they needed access to the money in 6-15 months so S&S not suitable.

HamSoulo

finance4all said:

HamSoulo said:

Hi All,
I have £15000 of my savings, saved in cash ISA with NS&I. The rate is a disappointing 0.1% right now.
this money is can be invested in ISA for a short duration around 6-15 months or can be kept in easy access account, it depends on what product is giving the best rate.
I am not comfortable with stocks, wouldn't know where to start. also, i understand shares is a long game, i don't have that time horizon.
What would the community suggest me do, so that I make the optimum return.
Thanks all for your help.
- Ham

Are you saving for your first home or some other goal? The best rate easy access saving account is a good start. Some regular saver after that depending on what are you saving for.

finance4all This money is emergency funds + 12 months mortgage fund (in case of redundancy or such) + baby fund
Easy access Savings accounts have been like cheating lovers. After a couple of months, they drop their rate. All the efforts that goes in researching them and opening account seem to go waste when the accounts give dud returns - NS&I Income bonds and easy access ISA are case in point.
I have HSBC reg saver and Natwest reg saver. 
Also this money is seperately earmarked for ISA - so all returns are under tax wrapper - tax free.
Do you have any recommendation to transfer ISA to other financial institution offering better returns?

HamSoulo

grumiofoundation said:

As above what is the aim?
If for a house cash a lifetime ISA (if eligible)?
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/

grumiofoundation I started my LISA last year with the max £4K, so all done with the year 2020-2021.
I plan to start putting away new money from April 2021

HamSoulo

Foreverfinance said:

Although the world of stocks and shares is quite a vast and overwhelming one at first, it literally pays to know your stuff.
If you don't know where to start, I recommend looking at these few things to get you going:

• What is the stock market and how does it operate
• What are the signs of a good investment (wealth of information on Youtube)
• Look at publicly traded companies you personally like (might spark your interest)

This is just a start but will serve as a good foundation for you!

Foreverfinance Thanks for the encouragement. While this £15k is not earmarked for stocks, I certainly need to get my basics right and dip my toes in stock market slowly with long term horizon. I will soon start researching the topics you mentioned. Youtube as a source could turn out to be a rabbit hole, one needs to know the reliable and verified sources of information, other wise I will be one of the ''suckers'' as wall-street guys call them.

HamSoulo

Alexland said:

I would start by opening 3x virgin money current accounts paying 2% on £1k each.

OP said they needed access to the money in 6-15 months so S&S not suitable.

Alexland Thank you for the recommendation. I will open this account and put away some money here. However i wouldnt want to take out ISA money out of its tax free wrapper (if im using the terminology correctly) and make my returns taxable.
One question though: what is 3x?
silly me, do you mean 3 current accounts?

Alexland

Yes there seems to be no published limit on how many 2% Virgin Money current accounts you can open but 3 per person seems reasonable and several people on the forum do it. Open them in different weeks so the cards and PIN numbers don't get mixed up!
Is there any particular reason you want to preserve the ISA tax free wrapper as Cash ISAs tend to pay lower rates and most people have a personal saving allowance that allows them to earn some interest each tax year before paying tax.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings

HamSoulo

Alexland said:

Yes there seems to be no published limit on how many 2% Virgin Money current accounts you can open but 3 per person seems reasonable and several people on the forum do it. Open them in different weeks so the cards and PIN numbers don't get mixed up!
Is there any particular reason you want to preserve the ISA tax free wrapper as Cash ISAs tend to pay lower rates and most people have a personal saving allowance that allows them to earn some interest each tax year before paying tax.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings

Alexland Thanks for that. Its a News to me, that someone is able to open multiple individual accounts for the same product with the bank. I will certainly try this. Thanks for the tip.
I pay 40% tax, so my tax free savings cap is £500. I want to save some money that's outside the ambit of taxable income.
Not sure if my circumstances matter-  spouse not working, so zero income and I guess, is eligible for £5000 for starter rate for savings. Would you recommend withdrawal from cash ISA and putting it in some other product (again not in market linked investment)?