Investment

[Highway Man]

You can do those few things with no braces.

I chose them to suit you.

so is my pension saving or an isa better?

 

[JohnD]

Pension.

Because you get an immediate cash rebate. And it will then grow tax free.

If you can bear the thought of not being able to get at your money before you are age 55, which will rise to 57 from April 6, 2028.

If you want a buffer handy in case you fall on hard times, put some into premium bonds or an ISA as well.

I use premium bonds if I need a wedge of ready cash. You do not have to report any winnings for tax. A bank savings account is taxable if you earn more than £1,000 interest in a year and are a basic rate taxoayer. If you were saving up for a new car, or your daughters wedding, you might breach that.

But in the long run, cash savings will be eroded by inflation. What was your wage ten years ago? Compared to now? Thst's inflation.

 

[333rocky333]

I have decided on doing this, I work for a national company and have a pension plan with them, I am thinking I may edge my bets and up my pension stake to adding an additional £250 per week to the pot. This way I am thinking that a professional company will be investing my money to make it grow better than I can, then when I retire I should have a nice little nest egg with little risk.

No expert but theres also a thing called salary sacrafice with some employees which may be an extra bonus

 

[JohnD]

No expert but theres also a thing called salary sacrafice with some employees which may be an extra bonus

If he is contributing to his occupational pension by deduction from payroll (which I think he is) that is salary sacrifice.

Employers like it, because, by reducing your taxable pay, it saves them paying Employers NI on that portion.

If you have your own company, and are your own employer, you get that benefit yourself.

 

[Highway Man]

If he is contributing to his occupational pension by deduction from payroll (which I think he is) that is salary sacrifice.

I am

 

[333rocky333]

I am

Ok but bear in mind , as someone said earlier you cant access that money till a certain age 55ish, whereas with basic isas you can

 

[Highway Man]

Ok but bear in mind , as someone said earlier you cant access that money till a certain age 55ish, whereas with basic isas you can

I dont need to access it, tbh it just sits in the bank, I only thought of that today about the pension. I am looking more to have a good retirement rather than using it now as we have plenty at the moment to live on.

 

[333rocky333]

I bought gold coins at about 2700 pound each , thanfullly they have gone up, my concerns are when you sell them, all though from reputable dealers, i have no way checking there legit.
From your posts i dont feel that golds the route for you..
Your bank should have advised on there products, my mate was with nat west i simply went online see they had a savings account opened it in 2 minutes and now his interest more than double what it was in his current account and simple to move money back and forth..
Not the best rates but a start till you get more informed

 

[Highway Man]

I bought gold coins at about 2700 pound each , thanfullly they have gone up, my concerns are when you sell them, all though from reputable dealers, i have no way checking there legit.
From your posts i dont feel that golds the route for you..
Your bank should have advised on there products, my mate was with nat west i simply went online see they had a savings account opened it in 2 minutes and now his interest more than double what it was in his current account and simple to move money back and forth..
Not the best rates but a start till you get more informed

We did open a savings account with our bank, but that is all that they did for us. They were always texting and sending us messages through our online banking about getting our money put into investments but then said that they couldnt advise us when we asked what we should do, we opened iup a savings account and we felt that this was our best bet.

 

[333rocky333]

We did open a savings account with our bank, but that is all that they did for us. They were always texting and sending us messages through our online banking about getting our money put into investments but then said that they couldnt advise us when we asked what we should do, we opened iup a savings account and we felt that this was our best bet.

Ok, savings accounts a good start, I assumed they could pump there own accounts, tell you the rates etc, were there messages not linked to one of there products, may i ask what bank your with, my santander always bang on about there accounts as do barclays.
As your aware there is Saving and investing.. i quess there more cautious with advising on Investing as theres no quarenteed interest rate

If your bank does a regular saver there good and you top them up standing order if needbe, you get a good amount at the end but they limit what you put in, there not silly

 

[Highway Man]

Ok, savings accounts a good start, I assumed they could pump there own accounts, tell you the rates etc, were there messages not linked to one of there products, may i ask what bank your with, my santander always bang on about there accounts as do barclays.
As your aware there is Saving and investing.. i quess there more cautious with advising on Investing as theres no quarenteed interest rate

If your bank does a regular saver there good and you top them up standing order if needbe, you get a good amount at the end but they limit what you put in, there not silly

TSB

 

[333rocky333]

Not sure TSB do stocks and shares direct but use a third party Wealthify,, possibly why they could not fully advise, once Santander fully integrate with you, there may be more options then

 

[Mottie]

Here is my problem, that all sounds awfully complicated to me. You are obviously in a different league when it comes to this stuff, like MBK, Mottie and JohnD, you understand these things, I simply do not.

Don’t include me in with that. I know one thing and one thing only about investing in stocks and shares and that’s all I need to know and that is that with EVERY stocks and shares investment offer, they ALWAYS say something like "The value of investments can fall as well as rise so you may get back less than you invest". That’s not good enough of a guarantee for me and reading your posts, I would hazard a guess that it’s not what you are looking for either but if it is, I wish you luck.

 

[motorbiking]

Is it wise to save £250 per week into my savings account instead? The reason I am thinking £250 is that I have around £500 spare surplus each week from my sideline business and it just sits in my current account.

Check the employer matching and assuming you have spare allowance then add to your pension asap

Once you’ve done that you can open a stocks and shares ISA.

Money in your bank account isn’t working for you.

The only downside of pension topping up is you can’t touch it without huge amounts of tax, until 10 years before state retirement age.

Try not to pay the government more tax than you have to, they will just waste it.

 

[Justin Passing]

Well I don't know any different. I am financially secure with a good regular income and money has never been an issue to me, Only through threads on here I feel I might be doing something wrong.

Understood entirely,. These days things are all so much easier than when I were a lad ,though.
Yes your company pension is probably a very good safe option.
Do otherwise use ISAs.
Tell you wot, open a stocks ISA at Trading 212, and stick a grand in VWRL (the classic global tracker) or split it with VDPG which is Asia pacific, which is predicted to do well.