What to do with £63.40 per month?

[losingweightandgainingconfidence]

I have a payment term coming to an end in January, which will free up £63.40 a month.

I'm torn between doing multiple things with it, and need some advice. I'm 25, renting a flat, saving for a house and just life in general.

I don’t know whether to

• send it straight to my SIPP, which is very, very sad for 25. All together my pensions total about £5k which stresses me out.

• send it to my lifetime ISA for a house, which gets about £150 per month at the moment.

• send it to my stocks and shares ISA - longer term, but still available if needed.

• save it into my sinking funds for travel, self care and gifting throughout the year.

My logic is I've not been seeing this money for the last two years, so I'm best to just divert it away instead of getting used to it being in my account and then losing it.

Any advice is welcome!

Lifetime isa, as with your current level of £150 won't max out the yearly allowance to get the maximum government contributions.

Gosh I wish I had been as sensible as you are aged 25! I'd have blown it all on clothes and booze. Which is why I had no money at all for a long time!

Go for the house - always the best plan. Somewhere to live most important, and can go towards your pension at some point if you need to (eg by downsizing in 40 years time!)

Lifetime isa it is!

Put it into your pension and then lord it over your sister about what a grown up you are.

Definitely not!!

Pension.

You can never, ever replace the value of saving for a pension at a young age. Trying to catch up later in life is futile.

Research "compounding" if you need motivation.

Pension, always.

LISA. You’ll get the 25% government top up and when you buy a house you’ll get the equity for your retirement.

Saving for the house. Lisa?

If you'd like flexibility with you LISA try the MoneyBox app, it's part of a proper bank but you can easily change what you save week on week.

I would honestly spend it on a monthly luxury like nails or a blow dry or on a hobby or a PT session etc.

The money was spent anyway and you were still saving every month - you might as well get a bit of joy out of it!

£50 Lisa, the rest as ‘fun’ money (gifts, travel etc).

Lifetime ISA, 25% bonus every year for the first £4000 you save if you use it towards a house deposit. You already put £150 a month in, if you could round this other payment up to £100, that's £3000 a year and government bonus of £750 each year.

I spent mine on holidays, travel and gigs/festivals😂. Very sensible and boring 45 year old now with no debt but you know what…. i don’t regret it. I had a great time! Life is for living not just paying a pension you may not even receive. ( i’ve got one but it’s not the be all of life)

Back to the op in your position id pay into the LISA.

It put it into the help to buy ISA.

100% put it in your LISA for you home fund. You'll get a better return with the government bonus and you'll need that before your pension. Did you know you can withdraw everything for a house deposit but leave £1 in there and then keep using it to save for your pension?

Do you have an occupational pension, if so I’d put it in that?

LISA. You need to put in the £4k annually to get the full bonus. It's 25% of what you put in. That's going to beat most other investments in the short term and speed up having a good deposit.