£24k to invest not needed for a few years.

DE_612183

My wife has £24 in savings that she wants to invest to use in a few years time.
She has no job, so my initial thought would be to stick £2880 PA into a pension, as she'll get £720 tax relief added, and when she draws that out she won't pay tax as it'll be below the £12kish limit when she does need it.

In terms of the other is it best to split into 1,2,3,4,5 year fixed rates - or just pump it all into one?

tacpot12

She might also get a tax free amount so could draw out more from her pension.

She can also put more into her pension - she can put £2880 per year at the moment. So she could put money into fixed rate savings (1,2,3,4,5 years as you suggest) and then when the money is available again, put more into her pension. After 6 years she will have £21,600 plus any investment growth due to the tax relief, which she can draw out over two years to avoid paying any tax. 

She could also put all the money that she is not putting into her savings into one ISA if you can find one paying a good rate and withdraw money each year to pay into her pension to get the tax releif and the possibility of tax free income in future. There's lots of choice with savings accounts and you need to read the T&Cs carefully to check that you are not tying up her money in ways that are going to be inconvenient in future. Not needing the money for a few years might be incompatible with the idea of paying into a pension if she is more than "a few years" away from being age 55. 

Putting some of the money into an ISA seems necessary to avoid paying tax on the interest she receives from money put into fixed rate savings accounts.