Invest?? Help needed please

MissDebtFreeWannabe

Hi all,

I’m looking for some guidance on what is best for me. I have £29000 in a Fixed 1 year cash ISA which is with Halifax (now Lloyds) only at 3.64% and locked away until 16/3/27. I have two new regular savers, one with Chase at 6.5% which I’m paying the max of £300 per month, and one with Lloyds at 6.25% which I’m paying max £250 per month. I currently have a spare £100 per month that I can save (which will increase during the May - Sept period, as I work in the hospitality industry and I increase my overtime during this period - so during these months I could potentially put away around £300-£400 per month). I’m looking for advice on whether it’s worth investing this money as opposed to another savings account? I don’t have a clue when it comes to investing, so I’m looking for some advice, but also direction on where would be a good place to learn more. Thank you in advance 🙏

DRS1

Have you read this?

Martin Lewis: A beginner's guide to investing

You can also read threads on here or somewhere like lemonfool

El_Torro

Before you invest it's important to have an adequate emergency fund. The right value depends from person to person, though a general rule of thumb is that your emergency fund should be worth between 3 and 6 months worth of expenses.

The first thing to decide when investing is what wrapper to use. Either a Stocks & Shares ISA, a pension or unwrapped. Unwrapped isn't ideal and most people can manage with investments in an ISA or pension. The benefit of an ISA is that you can withdraw your money whenever you like. A pension is more restricted but is also generally more tax efficient than an ISA.

Once you know what wrapper you're going to use the next step is to decide what to invest in. For most people a global tracker or multi asset fund is the right way to go. You should really only invest if you're willing to stay invested for 10 years or more.

Albermarle

The timing of when you are likely to need the money is critical.

Within 5 years - Cash savings

5- 10 years - a mixture of cash & investments

Over 10 years - Investments, normally via a S&S ISA

Longer term/retirement - Investments via a pension ( due to the tax breaks)

Sam_666

Why spend money in something you dont understand?
Stick to what you know, savings.
Investing is not a quick/easy money scheme, regardless of what youtube says.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82154248#Comment_82154248

Why try to discourage someone from educating themselves about investing? The process of doing so may or may not conclude that it's a better option than cash savings for their circumstances and it's certainly better to make an informed decision rather than to be swayed by preconceptions - note that nobody suggested either that it's a quick/easy money scheme or that YouTube is an ideal source of information (although some of the less excitable stuff may resonate)…

DRS1

Well since youtube has been mentioned there is always this

Ramin Nakisa - PensionCraft

Go down a bit and there are some investing for beginners videos.

poolboy

Well done maxing out those 2 regular savers, for the spare 100 pcm I d pick another.

Going forward, I d move these maturing regular savers into tax efficient homes, ISAs or sip.

I ve spread my investments across all areas, some you win some you lose. On balance I m q happy.

cc123mm456

If the decision is to open another regular saver for now, maybe check out the Santander RS at 8% for up to £200 per month.

It does require a current account opening first (similar to Chase and Lloyds) but that can be the Everyday current account, with no fees or monthly deposit requirements.

Catplan

Definitely look at investing and learning about.

You may wish to continue as you are with the Regular savers but it’s definitely worth spending time getting head around investing and risks levels working out what you are comfortable with, you’ll do this for pension anyway so even if you don’t invest in a S&S ISA it’s time well spent as pension is very similar. When I done this I put my ISA into a global tracker, nothing else, which is higher end of risk, my pension is about 67% global tracker. If I compare growth of S&S ISA v top rate cash fixes I’ve been better off with S&S but it could have gone the other way, it might go the other way in the next 12 months, you need to be comfortable with seeing a drop, which you don’t get with cash. My expectation is S&S ISA will be open another 14 years, which is when I would like to retire, but who knows. I’ll review it each year, can’t see many changes if any in the next 5 years though. I try to not look too often as it’s doing what I need it to just now.

Sam_666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82154315#Comment_82154315

Educating is not by investing money in something you dont understand.
You dont learn how to drive car by just having a go at it, you study first.
I am only discouraging people from crash drive or joyriding.