To ask what to do with £5000 ?

[shonapop]

I've managed to save this. It's just sitting in my current account. I am self employed. 41. No pension. Starting to really panic about how I will manage in retirement. Is it too late? Can I start some kind of investment with this bit of money I've saved? Any advice about what to do or who to speak to would be greatly appreciated.

In your current account? It's probably not even earning any interest in there. Lots of options for you for investing, but re-post in Money Matters board to get decent advice.

In your current account? It's probably not even earning any interest in there. Lots of options for you for investing, but re-post in Money Matters board to get decent advice.

Thankyou. I'll try to figure out how to move it over.

Looks like there's an Investments board too!

Give it to me. I will look after it for you.

Do you have a pension through your employer? Are you salary sacrificing into that, in order to benefit from tax savings? It’s good to have a mix of pension savings, and also savings you can access before retirement if needed. Do you have an ISA? You could put the money in an ISA for tax free savings, or (as the interest won’t be much till you build a bigger pot, so won’t be taxed anyway), into a high interest savings account. Places like Money Savings Expert can be useful for comparing rates, ease of access etc.

Just saw you are self employed! Sorry - I can’t sleep but am tired and brain not functioning well! Can you set up a pension that you pay into pre tax as a self employed person? So you pay into it through your own company?

This might be helpful:

49 and no pension to speak of- where to start? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/money-matters/4984742-49-and-no-pension-to-speak-of-where-to-start

Most immediately I would put it all into PREMIUM BONDS definitely before the end of March

So they qualify for the next draw asap

While.they are in there you have a chance of winning in the monthly draw

You certainly don't have anything to lose as it is 100% safe and certainly better than in a current account

You can withdraw the money with a phone call or online so it is very easy to get it out again

While it is in there get some financial advice from a qualified advisor

You could leave some in there anyway as it is safe and each premium bond has an equal chance of winning as every other premium bond

Obviously the more premium bonds you buy means you have more numbers in the drawer

Think of them like each £1 buys a ping pong ball with a number on it so the more ping pong balls you buy the more chance there is of one of yours being randomly chosen from the tank BUT each ping pong ball has the same chance as each other

Plus it is fun each month seeing if you have won anything - there is a thread on MN each month with people talking about their winnings 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

I would perhaps spread the money

Pay off any debts first

3K into a current account with easy access & high interest like apps Chase, Zopa,

IK into Premium Bonds, which pay tax free prizes

1K into high interest, tax free ISA

Look at Money Saving Expert or other money related websites

If you’ve got no pension, put £4k of it into a lifetime ISA. When you take it out the government top it up by 25%. It can only be withdrawn in your 60s. It’s essentially a pensions ISA

Op is 41, you have to be under 40 to open a lifetime isa.

How much can you afford to save every month for your retirement? Open a SIPP and put the money in there, and the regular monthly amount. At 41 you’ve still got a good amount of time to build a pension but you need to start now really.

Put money into a pension, I believe that the earliest that you can access the money would be 55 to 57

Put money into a tax free ISA (cash or stocks & shares) & you can access the money when you want
You can add up to 20K per year

I would say pension, pension, pension.
Get advice - my adult DCs are your age and have been planning their pension for a while.

If you have any debt (including a mortgage) then the most sensible thing to do is pay it off.

I believe if you pay into a pension, you will get some tax relief added for free

Which you do not receive if you pay into a pension

Oh, I always heard it was best not to do this. In many ways, I'd rather this if it was sensible as I'd feel I have control over something and could see it reducing.

Put it into an isa and set up a standing order for a set amount every month to add to it. Have a look at MSE for highest interest accounts atm. Moneybox was very good but might not currently be the best one. The regular saver accounts advertise 7% interest but it’s essentially only half that as you can only add a limited amount per month.

I'm about to remortgage next month. Should I bung it into my mortgage to lower the payments a bit of would there be more valuable ways to make it work for me?

If you do put any extra into your mortgage use it to reduce the term so you pay off early, not the payments (unless payments are unaffordable).