saving acccount, mortgage or stocks and shares?

[Kemik]

It really depends on your circumstances. I'm personally saving mine in various areas (e.g. emergency fund goes into easy access P2P lender, savings each month get bundled into a longer term investment via my ISA). Then when my fixed rate on my mortgage runs out I consider whether to pay off a chunk of the mortgage or if it is better returns to keep saving.

Remember, if you overpay you can't get the money back if you ever need it.

I always recommend people check out the reddit UKPersonalFinance flowchart.

 

[dowie]

If your mortgage allows it, then paying some of this off is a win-win medium and long term because your rate will be higher than any savings rate and you won't be taxed on your return.

if the mortgage rate is higher... the previous comments were conditional on that not being the case ergo the opposite being the better idea

 

[Scam]

Remember, if you overpay you can't get the money back if you ever need it.

Remortgage?

 

[Jokester]

It's also worth noting that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. My property is my single worst performing "investment" - it's worth no more now in absolute terms than it did when I bought it in 2009.

Obviously plenty of better performing areas in the UK, but with Brexit round the corner house prices are likely to take a hammering everywhere.

 

[dowie]

Remortgage?

that takes time and often requires some justification re: spending if you're going to increase the loan amount

withdrawing your savings or liquidating your investments on the other hand is something you can do at your discretion for whatever reason you like

 

[Rroff]

I'm kind of paranoid/would rather build slow and steady than chase big gains but personally I max out any basic/cash ISAs first, then after that mortgage/loans/debts then pension. Its potentially worth looking at if your company has a sharesave or access to a sharesave scheme as often these come with some guarantees where at the very least you wouldn't lose money or very minimal amounts if you did and can sometimes have quite a bit better interest rates than other options if you are putting money into them untouched for 3-5 years. After that I look at things like stocks and shares linked stuff and index funds, etc.

(Interest rates have collapsed for basic ISAs but still as I said I'm fairly cautious and like something actually substantially there I know I can rely on down the line rather than chasing superficial gains that might pan out big but with a chance of coming up empty).

 

[D.P.]

I'm kind of paranoid/would rather build slow and steady than chase big gains but personally I max out any basic/cash ISAs first, then after that mortgage/loans/debts then pension. Its potentially worth looking at if your company has a sharesave or access to a sharesave scheme as often these come with some guarantees where at the very least you wouldn't lose money or very minimal amounts if you did and can sometimes have quite a bit better interest rates than other options if you are putting money into them untouched for 3-5 years. After that I look at things like stocks and shares linked stuff and index funds, etc.

(Interest rates have collapsed for basic ISAs but still as I said I'm fairly cautious and like something actually substantially there I know I can rely on down the line rather than chasing superficial gains that might pan out big but with a chance of coming up empty).

Depends on your investment timescale but something like a basic FTSE100 tracker will get you about 7% long term but you have to invest long enough to ride through a short-term downturn and have things average out. If you look at any 30 year window of the FTSE 100 you will never have chosen a particularly bad investment window. IF you can do this through pension and save 40% tax then you are already onto a winner.


If you want something short term then there basically isn't anything that is significantly worth it without risk.