redundancy money at the end of august, what to do with it??

[sideshowbob2]

being made redundant from one of my 2 jobs at the end of august, what i think is a large redundancy pay out, what do i do with it??
save it
buy a newer car
holiday
or something else?

What is your housing situation? Do you have any other debts?

I would use it wisely before splashing out on holiday type stuff. (That is not to say no holiday, but consider how you can use the money to longer term advantage before allocating a 'splurge' amount.

Do you own your own home or are you renting? You could either use it towards a deposit or pay off a chunk of your mortgage.

Is it enough to put towards or buy outright a rental property that you could use to save towards supplementing your pension.

Do you have any debts? If so, clear your debts before going on a spending spree otherwise you will be stuck in debt forever and the bank credit card company will be making a profit off the interest.

Build up your savings or buy premium bonds but definitely don't blow the lot on treats, use the money to make money iyswim. Get advice from a good independent financial adviser before doing anything big, you could always lock all of it away in premium bonds or a 90 day notice account to prevent you from spending the lot.

www.nsandi.com/premium-bonds

Save it until it becomes clearer what you should do with it.

thanks yes i rent from the council, so low cost rent, also have a water meter recently and that also makes a difference to low cost bills, i had premium but i had to use them for IVF, so may just put it all in there til i decide what to do with it!!

I had a £42k redundacy a couple of years back. £20k went on the mortgage (can take back out if needed). £10 into ds savings (3% tax free interest which I can take out if needed). £12k is still in my savings/ISAs.

I got a couple of fixed term contracts and was recently made permanent, but I'm scared to spend it as if I get made redundant again I would not have the security of a decent sized redundancy package to fall back on anymore. Depends on how risk adverse you are.

premium bonds pay nothing unless you win, which you probably won't. Consider the various interest paying current accounts, easy access. Bit of work to set them up but the only way to get near inflation.

no normal savings accounts pays more than 1.5%. Inflation is not zero.

thanks for all your suggestions, unfortunately my redundancy pay is only 5K which is a lot to me, i've just seen some fixed rate bonds on the nationwide website are they any good, what is a good rate of interest as i've never really understood that tbh!!

I love MN, but this - MoneySavingExpert is the best place for advice on where to put your savings etc. :)

5K is a lot of money to most people.

ok, that Nationwide bond does pay a bit more than I said at 1.65%. Would you prefer 5% instead? Of course you would.

Split your 5k, put half of it in the nationwide Flexdirect account which pays 5% for a year, put the other half in a TSB Classic Plus account which pays 5% on the first £2000. (leaving you £500 spare, perhaps that in the premium bonds)

both accounts need fairly hefty amounts paid in each month to qualify for the interest. No problem, you set up standing orders between them to shift the same cash back and forth.

please learn about interest rates, it is very important. Savers are dirt to this government and the one before, so you have to push for every penny on your hard-earned money or it vanishes with inflation.

premium bonds