Just put it in fixed rate one year bonds. Or ISA's. You can have the interest paid out monthly if you pick the right ones. Currently we have 1 year fix ISA's paying out monthly from Kent Reliance, 4.34%, Coventry BS, 4.5%, Lloyds, 4.46%. We also have 1 year fix ISA's with Shawbrook, 4.94%. We also have 15 month fixed bonds with Nationwide, 5.0%, 1 year fixed guaranteed income bond accounts paying monthly from NS&I, 4.69% (but now currently 4.99%) and an instant access account with the Post office, 4.4%, Spring at 3.82% and Chase, a piddling 2.25% now the introductory boost has expired but a guaranteed 4.5% for new applicants.Oh, and a little bit in Premium bonds. The NS&I, Post Office and Chase accounts are taxable so are in Mrs Motties name as she is retired but not yet old enough for state pension so has a £12.5k personal allowance that we use. Better than just sitting in the bank. All guaranteed. No risks whatsoever. We're more than happy enough with those. Get in there!
Mrs Mottie - even if she's not earning anything she can put £2880 pa into a SIPP, which HMG makes up to £3660.
If she's not earning enough to pay tax, she can take it all out a year+ later and pay no tax on the £720 gain.
Or of course just leave it there to accumulate. Pick a proper fund and you should make more than 5% - if it DOES drop, well you started £720 up!
You can add the same to it each year, up to age 75.
This is quite a Good Thing.
If you put 2880 into the SIPP for 5 years, you wind up, assuming a 10% pa growth which is very modest for the stock market, with £24580.
Not bad for a cost of 14400.
To get that amount of money without the government uplift, you would have had to get a return of about 18.4% pa..
If you'd chosen that Schroder High dividend fund
Schroder ISF Glb Div Mxmsr C Dis GBP Q
It would have given you just over the 10% and you'd have wound up with about £24650. (divis reinvested)
The fund is quite well behaved:
If you'd put 2880 into a building society at 5% pa, you'd wind up with £16700, 8k less, and taxable.
When you take money out of a SIPP, there IS tax to consider. You could take 25% tax free and eg you could transfer the rest to an annuity payer free of tax, but you'd pay tax on the payouts as any other pension.
If she's 65 she can pay in for 10 years, a total of 28,800. At 75 she's have 69,000 with the same figures.
She could get an annuity at 75 with that sum, paying about 7kpa for life.