Want to try to save money after job change.

[DanGPR]

Hi all, sorry if my questions seem "stupid" or etc. but I'm 20 years old and pretty new at managing my finances.

I have recently changed jobs, from one paying around £21,000 a year to one paying ~£35,000+, I currently live at home, with my monthly expenses (phone/gym/rent/paying back small loan to parents) coming in at around £500 (not taking into account going out etc.)

This is obviously/hopefully going to leave me with a fair bit of disposible income, which, unless I am very sensible, is going to end up getting spent on fast cars...

I was looking at opening a savings account, with a monthly DD from my current account to my savings account, is this the easiest/best way of building up a savings account?

I'd guess at this stage, it would be fruitless looking at investing/shares etc. due to the low amounts of capital being discussed, but I would definately be interested in either doing this, or possibly looking at saving a deposit for a buy-to-let on a flat, is anyone going to give a 21 year old lad a BTL mortgage?

[Lotus Notes]

Has your company got any saving or share schemes? If not, DD to savings account with 30 day withdrawal would be adequate to prevent impulsive spending (note to self )

[steve2]

also start building up your isas

[Dave_ITR]

steve2 said:

also start building up your isas

This would be my first port of call.

[surfymark]

My bank (Santander) does a sweep on accounts. So on a certain day of the month, it sweeps all money above a certain amount into a savings account.

Seems a good idea (haven't got round to setting it up yet!)

M

[Burnham]

surfymark said:

My bank (Santander) does a sweep on accounts. So on a certain day of the month, it sweeps all money above a certain amount into a savings account.

Seems a good idea (haven't got round to setting it up yet!)

M

Oh, that's a pretty good idea! Wonder if any of the better ones offer this too..

[surfymark]

Burnham said:

surfymark said:

My bank (Santander) does a sweep on accounts. So on a certain day of the month, it sweeps all money above a certain amount into a savings account.

Seems a good idea (haven't got round to setting it up yet!)

M

Oh, that's a pretty good idea! Wonder if any of the better ones offer this too..

Yes I agree, I would never recommend Santander to anyone. I think Nationwide do it too and I have heard good things about them. I would personally be switching to First Direct and they do it, see here: http://www.interactive.firstdirect.com/textonly/1s...

HTH
M

[BeefMaster9000]

I haven't seen a cash ISA that was actually worth bothering with for ages, and those sweep facilities are a great idea except the interest rate of the account your money gets swept into isn't usually that great either.

just send £300 a month into one of these where it will enjoy a chunky 8% return.

then in 12 months time transfer it into an ISA / shares / whatever you fancy and repeat the process for the next 12 months.

[Gareth79]

The sweep is a good idea, or just set a general savings target and try and work towards it, then you can have expensive months and cheap months. Assuming your take-home is ~£2200 you should be able to average £1,500/month, so £18k in 12 months?