Lifetime ISA - Can you use it for both buying a house and a retirement fund?

supersaver333

I took out a cash LISA in 2018 and I used it to buy a house in 2022. 
I still have the account open and I noticed that the government bonus still gets paid if I add more funds. If I continue paying into this account until I'm 50, will I then be able to take my funds, along with the government bonus when I'm 60? 
I've been unable to find a definitive answer for this online, so if anyone knows the answer to this question it would be really great to understand!
Thanks in advance.

masonic

Yes, but for funds you won't access until 60 it would be worth considering a transfer to a S&S LISA.

hoc

Yes, LISA is significant free money for retirement. Unfortunately you know who usually ignores it for this purpose while droning on about standard ISA.

Alexland

Sure under the current rules you can continue to add into your LISA until age 50 to earn additional bonuses but as above it's better to transfer to a S&S LISA because over the long term a sensible low cost S&S investment is highly likely to beat the returns on a cash account even if you kept moving it about to maintain the best rate.

You may wish to consider transferring to Dodl (by AJ Bell) who offer a low cost S&S LISA at 0.15% platform fee and have a range of low cost investment funds with no trade fees. They even pay an attractive rate on uninvested cash balances. After a few years once the account gets big enough (circa £25k) it's worth considering moving it to the main AJ Bell platform for capped fees on holding an ETF.

However before resuming LISA contributions consider if you could do even better making increased pension contributions in particular if you have an employer that offers contributing marching or you are currently paying higher rate tax etc.

PRAISETHESUN

I believe you are still able to contribute, but given you have purchased a home you won't be able to withdraw any contributions until retirement without a penalty. Given that, it might be worth exploring if a LISA really is the best option for your situation. Upping your pension contributions might be a better option than contributing to your LISA for example.

Albermarle

In the latter part of this article is a list or pros and cons for pension Vs Lisa.
Lifetime ISA (LISA): how they work & best buys