Saving your money and saving accounts

(This is in no way financial advice. But saving is something that I do myself and I think that it is really useful)

In this post, I have added links to use saving accounts that I have used myself and find really good. (Depending on how much money that you could save will depend on your own personal financial situation)

When thinking about saving your money It’s good to think of some long term financial goals and short term financial goals, but be prepared to be flexible on your long term financial goal.

long term financial goal	house	Pension
short term financial goals	PS4, Xbox, computer	Holladay

General information

When looking at saving accounts you should look at the interest rate that it offers you. The interest rate is the additional money that your savings collects over the time that it is in there. (For a more detailed description of interest rates please click on the link Money helper / What are interest rates

When looking I also suggest looking for saving accounts that are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This protects your money up to £85,000 if anything was to happen to your saving account.

You will also need to make sure what savings account is right for you. An easy access account means that you can access your money at any time and it will still gather interest. If you are able to put your money away for longer and get a bit more interest. You can get for fixed-term savings account these accounts range from 1 year 2 years up to 5 years or more, (you can get higher interest rates but you can not use your money that is in the account until the term is done)

Now that you have some saving goals, you should think about what saving accounts that you want. Most bank accounts will have saving accounts, but the interest rates are not always brilliant. You can also get an ISA that is tax-free savings of up to 20,000. Everyone over 16 and in the UK can get a tax free ISA at the start of each year. You can also get bonds accounts and stocks and shares accounts Training stocks and shares comes with risks If you are interested in this you need to do your own research.

The accounts that you can pick can also be fixed interest meaning that the interest rate will be fixed, normally for a year. Once the year is up the account will be variable meaning that the interest rate can increase or get lower.

Saving accounts	Summary and ruth interest rates (as of 2022)
Easy access	Can save and accounts at any time. probably 0.60%
Fixed-term accounts	your money is locked away for 1,2,3 or more years. But you will get a higher interest rate of 1%
Notice period accounts	The notice period starts on the day that you want to withdraw your money e.g 35-day notice. 0.80% (Moneybox)
Bonds	What is a bond
Stock and Share	Can have its risks. But may have good returns.

Some of these websites can help you to pick a good savings account that could be right for you. (you can have more than one) Here are some websites that compare saving accounts Money saving expert saving accounts. Moneysupermarket saving account https://www.comparethemarket.com/savings-accounts/ Be clever with your cash do monthly reviews of saving accounts.

The two saving accounts that I enjoy using are both can only be used on mobile phone app saving accounts are Chip and Moneybox. Chip has a good function called AI saving. Where it aromatically takes an amount of money from your linked bank account and puts it into a chip savings account. The amount taken is worked out based on your income and spending habits.

Moneybox has a good roundup function where when you spend from your linked bank account, say u spent £1.90, then the 10p will go into a Moneybox savings account.

Please note Chips free account is not FCA regulated. But Money box is FCA regulated and it’s free. Here are independent reviews for all of the auto-saving apps https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/auto-saving-apps/

Emergency fund

An emergency fund is money that you can access if you have an emergency like losing your job, losing your benefits, something breaking down or any other emergencies.

If you have not already it will be a good idea to consider making an emergency fund. You can do this by setting up an easy access account and putting aside / transferring an amount of money that you are comfortable with, but could also support you if there is an emergency. Most current accounts have their own easy access saving accounts, but not with brilliant interest rates.

Your Main bank account	Emergency fund / easy access account
Transfer an amount of money that you are comfortable with, but could also support you if there is an emergency. £?	an easy access account emergency fund. To only be used if really needed.

My pick

An account that I think is good for this is a Monzo bank account. (Monzo is a current account so there is a credit search, but not a hard credit search so will not impact your credit score) also, Monzo is a digital-only account, so can only be used on phone.

Monzo has these things called saving pots. There easy access saving pot is currently 0.31% as of March 2022. (When using the Monzo app you must remember to log out.) When you withdraw the money from your savings pot, it will take one working day (So not Saturday, Sunday or a bank holiday) to get into your account.

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Linked here are the other articles on this subject

Budgeting

Again this should not be taken for financial advice. it is just general guidance