Investing

Lestratcaster

There was a previous thread about something similar, but I can’t find it and don’t want to hijack someone else’s dilemma.

Anyway for anyone who doesn’t know I’m shit with saving money, I have had a cash isa for a number of years with a substantial amount that I’ve kinda just left for a few years on a shitty interest rate. I updated the account last year with a weak 0.35% interest rate which dropped this month as it’s a year now. I can update it again to a fixed 2 year rate of 0.70% or keep it a variable of 0.35% in case I need to make an emergency withdrawal (possible considering I’m self employed and could go under for a few months so would need a bit to tide me over).

Not sure what my best option is. Should I move it a fixed long term savings thing (e.g 2.5%) interest and try to leave it there? I’m worried in case I need to dip into it I’ll lose the interest. Are cash isa’s worth having? 

octatonic

How much are we talking here?
£5k?
£50k?

VimFuego

Lestratcaster

octatonic said:

How much are we talking here?
£5k?
£50k?

There’s about £10k in there at the moment. One of those accounts I just leave and don’t make any payments into.

Funkfingers

Lestratcaster said:

Not sure what my best option is. 

Sell big knives and scooters.

octatonic

Lestratcaster said:

octatonic said:

How much are we talking here?
£5k?
£50k?

There’s about £10k in there at the moment. One of those accounts I just leave and don’t make any payments into.

How long would put take you to get another £10k saved, ignoring any gain you could get from this £10k?

paganskins

I put £3k into a stocks and shares ISA recently as a bit of an experiment, it's one of HSBC's off the shelf ones and their highest risk offering.

3 months in and it's currently £150 up, though obviously it can go up and down. And it's also probably not the best time to invest given the uncertainty in the world. Percieved wisdom is to run it for 5 years to even up the ups and downs.

You can withdraw from it as you see fit without penalty.

Lestratcaster

octatonic said:

Lestratcaster said:

octatonic said:

How much are we talking here?
£5k?
£50k?

There’s about £10k in there at the moment. One of those accounts I just leave and don’t make any payments into.

How long would put take you to get another £10k saved, ignoring any gain you could get from this £10k?

On current circumstances well over 5 years.

Lestratcaster

paganskins said:

I put £3k into a stocks and shares ISA recently as a bit of an experiment, it's one of HSBC's off the shelf ones and their highest risk offering.

3 months in and it's currently £150 up, though obviously it can go up and down. And it's also probably not the best time to invest given the uncertainty in the world. Percieved wisdom is to run it for 5 years to even up the ups and downs.

You can withdraw from it as you see fit without penalty.

Yeah that's something similar to what I need, just somewhere I can stick the money in and gain decent interest without aiming to withdraw too much. Last year I made 2 withdrawls.

quarky

Lestratcaster said:

Not sure what my best option is. 

Why, and how long until you need it? Those are the key questions I guess. A S&S ISA would be my vote as long as you don't need to touch it for 10/20 years (what happens if it drops 30% next year?). Otherwise, if you want it sooner than in 10 years (so you are more risk averse), you need to have a mixture, maybe bonds or something too. If you need to dip into it (or might), put a smaller amount aside separately in a standard savings account.

Personally, I just get my wife to spend it on hottubs, or stick it in an S&S ISA. If the markets tank next it doesn't matter because I don't need it for 20 years.

Lestratcaster

quarky said:

Lestratcaster said:

Not sure what my best option is. 

Why, and how long until you need it? Those are the key questions I guess. A S&S ISA would be my vote as long as you don't need to touch it for 10/20 years (what happens if it drops 30% next year?). Otherwise, if you want it sooner than in 10 years (so you are more risk averse), you need to have a mixture, maybe bonds or something too. If you need to dip into it (or might), put a smaller amount aside separately in a standard savings account.

Personally, I just get my wife to spend it on hottubs, or stick it in an S&S ISA. If the markets tank next it doesn't matter because I don't need it for 20 years.

Its for getting a place of my own in the (I'm hoping) in the next few years, so that's why I just want to stick it somewhere with good interest but on the odd occasion I need the money within 5 years I'll need to make a withdrawl. What's an S&S ISA? Stocks and Shares?

quarky

Yep. Your investment may go up as well as down.

Personally, I would consider 5 years a little short to have it all in S&S. I would have maybe 20% max in there for those timescales. If it goes up, great, if it goes down, you haven't lost your deposit.

You could look at bonds?

octatonic

With inflation (2-3%) you need to be earning at least that to break even.
My usual advice is property but you'd struggle to get anything with £10k as a deposit.

Bonds, Forex or Dividend stocks is probably the direction I'd go.
I tend to stick to long term dividend stock.

Lestratcaster

quarky said:

Yep. Your investment may go up as well as down.

Personally, I would consider 5 years a little short to have it all in S&S. I would have maybe 20% max in there for those timescales. If it goes up, great, if it goes down, you haven't lost your deposit.

You could look at bonds?

Possibly, though I wouldn't stick all of it in there. I have 2 other regular savers which I pay into monthly with an ok return, but those are for more short term access. Would it be wise to just stick it all in there and get the interest in the meantime? ISAs I can only save £20k anyway.

octatonic

Lestratcaster said:

quarky said:

Yep. Your investment may go up as well as down.

Personally, I would consider 5 years a little short to have it all in S&S. I would have maybe 20% max in there for those timescales. If it goes up, great, if it goes down, you haven't lost your deposit.

You could look at bonds?

Possibly, though I wouldn't stick all of it in there. I have 2 other regular savers which I pay into monthly with an ok return, but those are for more short term access. Would it be wise to just stick it all in there and get the interest in the meantime? ISAs I can only save £20k anyway.

On 10k you are only getting £100 for every percent of return.
You need 2-3% to get over inflation each year.

If you get an additional 2% return (over inflation) then you are only talking about a couple of hundred quid a year.

Many people would gain more by just budgeting better- cutting out unnecessary purchases, shopping around on gas/elec/car insurance etc.

Or buying/selling instruments- you could potentially make £100 every time you buy/sell an instrument (certainly some people here do that consistently. )

Lestratcaster

octatonic said:

Lestratcaster said:

quarky said:

Yep. Your investment may go up as well as down.

Personally, I would consider 5 years a little short to have it all in S&S. I would have maybe 20% max in there for those timescales. If it goes up, great, if it goes down, you haven't lost your deposit.

You could look at bonds?

Possibly, though I wouldn't stick all of it in there. I have 2 other regular savers which I pay into monthly with an ok return, but those are for more short term access. Would it be wise to just stick it all in there and get the interest in the meantime? ISAs I can only save £20k anyway.

On 10k you are only getting £100 for every percent of return.
You need 2-3% to get over inflation each year.

If you get an additional 2% return (over inflation) then you are only talking about a couple of hundred quid a year.

Many people would gain more by just budgeting better- cutting out unnecessary purchases, shopping around on gas/elec/car insurance etc.

Or buying/selling instruments- you could potentially make £100 every time you buy/sell an instrument (certainly some people here do that consistently. )

I'm in the process of finding daytime hours work to go with my self-employed work, if I can get that then I'll be able to put more in, so til then its just putting it somewhere in the meantime.

paganskins

octatonic said:

Or buying/selling instruments- you could potentially make £100 every time you buy/sell an instrument (certainly some people here do that consistently. )

Or regularly loose £100 on each guitar like I do  

octatonic

paganskins said:

octatonic said:

Or buying/selling instruments- you could potentially make £100 every time you buy/sell an instrument (certainly some people here do that consistently. )

Or regularly loose £100 on each guitar like I do  

Are you buying things you want, or things you want to turn over?

The bedroom traders that are about don't buy things because they want them, they buy specifically to punt on.

paganskins

octatonic said:

Are you buying things you want, or things you want to turn over?

Things I think I want! – I was being facetious. I've resigned myself to viewing losses on gear as rental if I want to try something

octatonic

paganskins said:

octatonic said:

Are you buying things you want, or things you want to turn over?

Things I think I want! – I was being facetious. I've resigned myself to viewing losses on gear as rental if I want to try something

Chris777

I keep a small nest egg in a Halifax websaver, terrible interest I know, add to it when I can, then budget myself, when I see shiny things I ask myself, "do I want it?, or do I need it?", I can usually talk myself out of 99% of purchases doing this. I also like cake.