What are people doing with their life savings these days?
Discussion
One of few good character traits I've always had is that I'm pretty good at saving.....as soon as I get paid as much as I possibly can gets put aside and hopefully not touched.
With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
It’s a start I hope your ISA is as full as possible.
If you don’t need to touch it a stocks and shares isa will almost certainly perform better over a decades time frame than cash on deposit.
Also make sure your pension savings are in a sensible state. Although locked in until your late 50s they benefit from tax saving up front.
If you don’t need to touch it a stocks and shares isa will almost certainly perform better over a decades time frame than cash on deposit.
Also make sure your pension savings are in a sensible state. Although locked in until your late 50s they benefit from tax saving up front.
UTH said:
One of few good character traits I've always had is that I'm pretty good at saving.....as soon as I get paid as much as I possibly can gets put aside and hopefully not touched.
With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
Depends what you mean by savings. With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
If you mean the 6 months emergency fund that you might want to call on ICE, then yes, roughly it's the right thing to do.
If on the other hand you mean 20+ years of putting money aside, and it's all in cash, then no probably not.
Roughly how much is it, what can you continue to add to it, and what other provisions do you have (e.g. house paid off, pensions, ISAs etc)
fat80b said:
UTH said:
One of few good character traits I've always had is that I'm pretty good at saving.....as soon as I get paid as much as I possibly can gets put aside and hopefully not touched.
With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
Depends what you mean by savings. With interest rates having gone up a fair bit recently, every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip": https://www.getchip.uk/savings-accounts
It's certainly pretty nice actually getting a not insignificant amount of interest each month compared with having it sitting in a 0.5% Lloyds account for years.
Is this the best I could be doing with savings? Or are there even better things I could be doing with it?
If you mean the 6 months emergency fund that you might want to call on ICE, then yes, roughly it's the right thing to do.
If on the other hand you mean 20+ years of putting money aside, and it's all in cash, then no probably not.
Roughly how much is it, what can you continue to add to it, and what other provisions do you have (e.g. house paid off, pensions, ISAs etc)
That said, there's a chance I may need a fairly large chunk of it in the not too distant future to either restore my Evo 6 or buy a nice replacement....
UTH said:
Yeah it probably falls more into the 20+ years of putting aside category......which is why I am wondering if it could be better placed.
That said, there's a chance I may need a fairly large chunk of it in the not too distant future to either restore my Evo 6 or buy a nice replacement....
I think my advice would be to go back in time and drip the money into an S&P500 tracker instead but it's a little tricky to do from here. That said, there's a chance I may need a fairly large chunk of it in the not too distant future to either restore my Evo 6 or buy a nice replacement....
I can tell you what I do now - I have 6 months in cash in Santander, and the rest I put in either my pension (and get the tax breaks), or fill a Vanguard ISA (into the S&P500), plus I hold other stocks and cars that could be turned into cash if needed.
As that is what I do, that's what I would do
UTH said:
every penny of my savings is sitting in a 4.84% account with "Chip"
The every part of this is perhaps not ideal! All eggs in one basket? if one day the internet/website/computer says no you've not even got a branch to storm 
I am slightly more on the out 'there' spectrum but I think at the very least people should have x2 bank accounts and then savings wise as others have said NS&I has premium bonds and other bonds that now pay decent interest.
Even high street banks occasionally have online banking issues and the hassles of a card being stopped or account investigated/frozen are a lot less if you have another account you can use in the meantime.
That's a few thinks that could make your 'safe' self even safer?
Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff