Have a Lifetime ISA or used one towards your first home? We want to hear about your experiences

badger09

amanda1024 said:

I'm in the minority I think, in that I opened a lifetime isa to save for retirement (I'm lucky enough to already own a house, and have a decent pension but it's pegged to state retirement age and I want to be able to retire early). So my main issue with the lifetime isas on the market is that the rates are so low. It's essentially a long-term isa, so there should be rates >5% like there are for 1 year + fixed term isas; instead rates are lower than for easy access savings! There's been quite a bit of talk about banks ripping off savers, by not passing on base rate increases, but lifetime isas don't seem to get a mention. 

If you’re saving for retirement, presumably many years away, why are you saving in s Cash LISA? Why not S&S LISA? In the long term, inflation will erode the value of your savings. 

Also, have you considered saving in a pension? Not necessarily your existing pension as you say that is tied to state retirement age. 

katkatmachine

I’ve set-up LISA too for retirement. At the time when we were buying our house my LISA account was only around £2k, I couldn’t be bothered to process the papers so I let it go and just decided to use it for retirement instead. It’s in AJ Bell and being invested. I only add £100 per month since I don’t have much extra funds. Maybe in the future I’ll add more but still a bit hesitant because I’m only 33 so retirement is ages away! I don’t want my money to be stuck there for a long time! And also what if the pound loses it’s value in the future! I hope it remains strong or at least stable against the currency of home country. 

Anyway, I like LISA because it will allow me to withdraw the funds in one go when I turn 60 unlike in my private pension that I’ll only be able to withdraw 25% of the total value. I like that flexibility. 

amanda1024

badger09 said:

amanda1024 said:

I'm in the minority I think, in that I opened a lifetime isa to save for retirement (I'm lucky enough to already own a house, and have a decent pension but it's pegged to state retirement age and I want to be able to retire early). So my main issue with the lifetime isas on the market is that the rates are so low. It's essentially a long-term isa, so there should be rates >5% like there are for 1 year + fixed term isas; instead rates are lower than for easy access savings! There's been quite a bit of talk about banks ripping off savers, by not passing on base rate increases, but lifetime isas don't seem to get a mention. 

If you’re saving for retirement, presumably many years away, why are you saving in s Cash LISA? Why not S&S LISA? In the long term, inflation will erode the value of your savings. 

Also, have you considered saving in a pension? Not necessarily your existing pension as you say that is tied to state retirement age. 

Pension: until very recently I was concerned about the lifetime allowance - and there's always a risk it could be reintroduced, or something similar. So I want to diversify a bit
S&S LISA: honestly, fear of the unknown! I've never traded in stocks and shares before. But I've probably now got enough money to risk a bit - perhaps with this year's LISA allowance...