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ryandotdee

@13thlegion

Thanks, the 500 / 200 / 500 thing... Essentially, how I think of my budget does not quite fit with the SOA ( the SOA is far more detailed )  After all bills / food / fuel is paid for the month, I set aside £500 ( entertainment ) for my general day to day spending, whatever that may be, then I have roughly £700 - 800 left which I have started paying into my ISA. If i have anything left at the end of the month, it will go into savings also.  There has not generally been much left over each month, but, I recently stopped vaping, which is going to save me approx £300 a month.

My isa is currently returning a good rate ( 12.8% ) although I appreciate this is volatile, but, it is making me want to push a good chunk in, especially as 50% of the fund has fairly low exposure and should shield me from a lot of the combined risk.

after much thought, and considering options put forward by yourself and others, I think I have decided that making smart choices with where I put my money is ultimately better than clearing the debt.

I have just paid the Paypal credit off, so now all of my debt is at 0%, and I am going to keep it that way.  I have rounded my credit card payments up to the nearest 10 each, and will just continue to pay the minimums on these cards and switch them to new deals where appropriate to keep the 0%. And then push all spare money into the ISA each month, keeping the 1k bank float as emergency money.

13thlegion

ryandotdee said:

after much thought, and considering options put forward by yourself and others, I think I have decided that making smart choices with where I put my money is ultimately better than clearing the debt.

I have just paid the Paypal credit off, so now all of my debt is at 0%, and I am going to keep it that way.  I have rounded my credit card payments up to the nearest 10 each, and will just continue to pay the minimums on these cards and switch them to new deals where appropriate to keep the 0%. And then push all spare money into the ISA each month, keeping the 1k bank float as emergency money.

Awesome to have a plan in place and great move to clear that Paypal balance.

TheAble

I would advise against a S&S ISA while you have debts and minimal cash savings. The risk is you become a forced seller in a crashing market because you still have debt and other commitments to service. 

Much the safest route is as 13th Legion suggested:

1. Starter cash emergency fund
2. Pay off debts (except the mortgage)
3. Build cash emergency fund (10k say)

Only at this point consider stock market investments. Even were the market to collapse you would have no debts barring the mortgage and several months of cash to carry you through.

Altior

Electricity and gas look completely unrealistic on the SoA?

I agree with some others, abandon the S&S ISA idea for now. You should judge your cash position as liquid cash less CC liabilities. Which was in the region of negative 19K at the time of posting. Ideally you want to have the reverse of that before going for short term volatile investments, ie stocks and shares. If you want to scratch that itch, do it via workplace pension.