If you had £50,000 in savings what would you do with it?

[Eve223]

Genuine question. If you had £50k in savings what would you do with it? Save it in case of unemployment? Spend it on holidays and other luxuries?

I would read up about how much you need for a safe retirement. And then cry, cos 50k is no where near (one poster this morning said care home fees are 1500 per week).

They put conditions on how you can spend your money even when you aren't claiming?

Couldn't you close your claim, exit the system so to speak and spend it how you choose with a view to re applying in the future should you need to?

@Eve223 50k is a big chunk of money but it soon goes. I’d save it and spend any extra I had on whatever I wanted… it would be nice not to worry about having to save!

Leave DH

I’d either use it for a small house extension, a car and new flooring, or if I was being very sensible I’d pay the maximum annual overpayment on my mortgage until my fixed term was up, then use the remainder to pay down the mortgage to put me in a better financial position when I retire.

Go into an account ready for when the fixed term ends on our mortgage otherwise our interest paid every month will go from £93 to £550.

I was having a bad week at work last week and nearly hit the button to use mine to pay off the mortgage so I could then reduce my working hours! But it would leave me with no contingency if the car or house needed anything doing so I’ll have to stick it out a bit longer.

Save it, and use the interest to have occasional holidays

I invested in a stocks and shares ISA and it seems to be in free fall. I get better returns from premium bonds (max holding).

House deposit.

If we'd already bought a house - 20k each tucked away somewhere for DCs future uni fees (or something else sensible if they don't go)

10k in an instant access savings account for emergencies - car breaks/new boiler etc.

New car, new windows, new roof, new bathroom.

Yep, they can ask you to explain every penny you have spent between claims if they wish and see if they deem it 'reasonable'.

I invested in a stocks and shares ISA and it seems to be in free fall. I get better returns from premium bonds (max holding).
I agree, my S&Sh ISA has lost thousands, first during covid then it bucked up a bit but again in the last 6 months - very depressing as we were banking on it to supplement our state pension.

Keep it there for my retirement as I don’t have a great pension.

Put a couple of thousand towards a holiday or other luxury, but mainly save it. For either an emergency or towards retirement (if the emergency doesn't happen).

Overpay my mortgage by 10% (£8k) & pay off £3k in credit card bills. Then use £5k towards our next summer holiday and put the remainder, around £34k, in premium bonds.

£5 on a holiday, £15k to my daughter's savings, £30 off the mortgage

Only if you claim again in the future. If you never need to claim UC ever again then it doesn't matter what you spent it on.

If you need to claim UC again, they see it as spending it in order to be eligible for it again.

How much or little 50k can do depends on your salary and lifestyle. For us it makes little day to day dfference so we just invest it

Save it in a safe and secure place. Aim to continue to save at least twice this for old age care planning

Have breast reduction surgery.

We were lucky enough to be gifted a similar amount recently . We put half in a high interest fixed rate savings account (our eldest will be off to Uni in a few years so we'll need it) and the other half paid off a car loan and was spent on home improvements that were long overdue and solar panels!

New roof, bathroom and kitchen, oh and new carpets would probably follow. Anything else, keep saved for a rainy day.

I'd give £10k to each of my 4 adult children and blow £10k on the holiday of a lifetime.

Save it until end of fixed interest mortgage term (low rate atm) and reduce mortgage. Otherwise would use it to increase pension contributions. The latter being the more sensible option, but would feel a lot happier to reduce mortgage right down and would have more flexibility.