How much £££ in safety net

[StJamesInfirmary]

My sister and I will inherit a large sum to be split 50:50 later this year. I am married with DC. I left a decent paid job for an admin job, much lower earnings, to facilitate family life. DH is a very high earner.

I'm not planning to leave DH but still think it would be prudent to put some of this money aside for if I were ever to leave. It will be around £250k to each of us. Just wondering how much is a reasonable amount to put to the side?

I guess I'm thinking deposit for a small house/rent for a year, lawyer fees etc

200K into bonds, 50K in your own separate easy access savings account

But wouldn't your DH would be entitled to half of that money if you separated?

Are you asking for investment advice or are you planning to hide it so it wouldn't count towards a settlement in the event of a divorce?

Not sure about UK but in NZ if you keep an inheritance (or part of it) separate from joint funds, it is excluded from relationship property.

In England it would be counted as assets of the relationship.

However I can inform you from personal experience it is a good idea to have access to ready cash if you need to divorce.

That’s not actually true. It’s more complex than that an OP would be wise to keep her money separate if she can.
osborneslaw.com/blog/inheritance-and-divorce/#:~:text=Under%20the%20Matrimonial%20Causes%20Act,should%20be%20shared%20at%20all.

In Scotland an inheritance is not included in a divorce as it’s not seen as joint money.

dh has had an inheritance in the last few years. 35k it’s in a separate bank account but he has been using it for our family holidays to give the children memories. It’ll last about 10years worth of holidays.

Put 100k in trust for your child , then buy some jewellery good quality diamond ring would be nice,
ISA, then some a savings account maybe even a deposit on a buy to let property.
dont put anything in joint account ,
i had a similar sum , in a bank account in my name, but also had a joint account Bank with my ex with the same bank, It was money I had borrowed on a property to do a renovation for one reason and another it didn’t get used straight away so I just left it there for a couple of years until it was needed.
my ex got access to it without me knowing and stole the lot, 20k at a time ,because he was at that time he was doing my accounts. (It’s been very difficult to prove 100%.until now its taken 3 years to unpick and a huge costs involved to recover it ) That I didn’t give him my permission to remove funds from my bank account huge police investigation massive problems with banks etc , its been a nightmare .
If youre thinking of leaving him at some point, be really careful.

I take it you currently rent if you’re thinking of a future house deposit.

Are you aware there’s no guaranteed way of protecting an inheritance in the event of a divorce? Without knowing about your circumstances I would put some in a trust fund for your child and the rest in an ISA and another savings account.

i wish people would stop saying this when it isn’t strictly true as there are things you can do to protect your money. If they buy a house together they can so do as tenants in common which would state the percentage that each person owns. My DH and I did this as I put down a large deposit on our house and he didn’t have any money to contribute. I own 70% of the house and he owns 30% and my will states that my portion goes to my offspring when I die (with a life interest for him). That protects me and my inheritance.

I was clearly referring to a potential divorce @FloppySarnie so nothing to do with someone's death.

When I say put aside I mean my sister will hold it for me. I just want enough as a safety net. My marriage is not on the rocks. Most will be put into our family home, which we own. I just want enough that if I ever wanted to leave, access to money quickly wouldn't be a reason not to.

That's what I was thinking.

Also, how would you feel if your DH did this to you? Hiding money away from you and the children?

Leaving aside issues in relation to your husband’s claim to money if you separate and also leaving aside any discussion or consideration of the wisdom of having a fairly large amount not invested and therefore probably losing value to inflation each year, and finally also leaving to one side the wisdom of having the significant sum of money in someone else’s name (if you fall out with your sister or if she gets married or gets divorced the money might be an issue for her), and only answering the question you answered.

Assuming this isn’t a specific concern, but just a general one, I would do two calculations. The first is a year of rent + bills + general living expenses (use your current situation on these numbers) and add 10%. If you had to leave your DH, this should give you enough to live on for 1 year, but which time things would be more stable, and possibly financial proceedings resolved so you could use the money from that as a deposit for a home.

The second calculation would be a home deposit + 1 year of bills and living expenses.

If things are find between you, I’d pick the first number to put aside, but be aware of the difference between it and the second number, and if things start to get bad, start to put away a bit each month to get you closer to the second number.