My new savings Plan

friolento

I'm afraid, I don't know anything about pensions and benefits. You might get better info on the benefits or on the pension board.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/benefits/problems-with-benefits/how-do-savings-and-lump-sum-pay-outs-affect-benefits

FIREmenow

It's great that you are wanting to improve your finances.

For your medium term savings you didn't mention a time frame. If this is for things you could need sooner than buying a house then the same advice against using a stocks and shares ISA would apply to those short time frames.

It seems like you might need something in between your emergency fund and your LISA that is accessible in the shorter term, otherwise it's tempting to raid your emergency fund when you want to treat yourselves or make a larger purchase. 

A regular saver which allows withdrawals could be an option? So the money is going away and earning some interest, but you can access it if you really need to.

Also, when thinking about stocks and shares ISAs (which may or may not be right for you) what is your investment strategy? Making sure this matches your attitude to risk and timeframe is really important. 

Greyhound_love

FIREmenow said:

It's great that you are wanting to improve your finances.

For your medium term savings you didn't mention a time frame. If this is for things you could need sooner than buying a house then the same advice against using a stocks and shares ISA would apply to those short time frames.

It seems like you might need something in between your emergency fund and your LISA that is accessible in the shorter term, otherwise it's tempting to raid your emergency fund when you want to treat yourselves or make a larger purchase. 

A regular saver which allows withdrawals could be an option? So the money is going away and earning some interest, but you can access it if you really need to.

Also, when thinking about stocks and shares ISAs (which may or may not be right for you) what is your investment strategy? Making sure this matches your attitude to risk and timeframe is really important. 

Hi - The idea behind the medium term savings is for things that we may need to buy planned or unplanned like a new washing machine or we may want new furniture etc and this may be before we buy a house or after it. 

Yeah we may look at something to fill the gap between emergency and LISA that isn't a S&S. 

The strategy behind S&S for the LISA was that itll have 6 years to sit there so itll ride out any issues but as previously pointed that wont always be the case. Id never take a huge risk when investing id be more on the cautious side,

Nurse2047

I want to say a huge well done, I understand personally your journey and think you are doing great! Could your partner access the Help to save scheme? 

https://www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income#:~:text=Help%20to%20Save%20is%20a,available%20in%20Welsh%20(Cymraeg).

A low cost SIPP would be good for him.  Even if you have no earnings, you can still pay in up to £3,600 a year to a pension – that's £2,880 from you, with the taxman adding £720. 

Greyhound_love

Nurse2047 said:

I want to say a huge well done, I understand personally your journey and think you are doing great! Could your partner access the Help to save scheme? 

A low cost SIPP would be good for him.  Even if you have no earnings, you can still pay in up to £3,600 a year to a pension – that's £2,880 from you, with the taxman adding £720. 

Hi - Thank you for your kind comments. We looked at the help to save however our eligibility for UC is likely to end once I start my full time job. We are waiting on clarification on this. 

With regards to the SIPP we have started the process to transfer his old workplace pension over to moneybox and then may add into that. I understand there won't be any tax benefits from it however it will then be all located together. 

TheBanker

From a pure financial point of view, Premium Bonds are not the best product to use for your emergancy fund. However, if you think holding them will help you to resist the temptation to gamble, then that's a good decision.

However, you're not likely to win very much, if anything, unless you have a large holding. Are you ok with this or is there a risk that you could revert back to gambling due to the PBs not generating any prizes?

One option might be to think about putting some of the money in a 30 day notice account. Not all of it, because not all emergancies can wait for 30 days, but the delay might stop you becoming tempted? Or maybe an account which doesn't have online access, if such things still exist, so it's a bit more hassle to withdraw money. 

(And apologies if I am making incorrect assumptions about you - I am just trying to highlight things you need to think about. Only you will know if they're relevent or not). 

Greyhound_love

Thank you everyone for comments and suggestions. I have rejigged my plan. 

We are now going to do 
- Emergency Fund - 1/2 the amount Deposit into Premium Bonds and the other half into a cash saver 1 withdrawl per month at 5% interest 

- LISA - same amount deposited into the S&S LISA as we feel the length of time for us to save it should ride out any bumps compared to just accruing interest. 

- S&S ISA - We are putting a hold on that as we want to contribute into our pensions until we get a clearer goal on what we'd use the S&S for 

We are going to do all this with Moneybox as even though their fees are higher it seems like a more user friendly platform with better accessibility for my partner.