Ideas for saving money over the next 2 years

[The Lukas]

Hullo, I'll get straight to the point.

I have a stable average income and am planning some major changes to my lifestyle in 18-24 months. I want to move to the states but thought it be a good idea to save up £10000 or so before I commit myself as a safety buffer/secondary income through interest. It may seem an easy question but want some advice regarding:
a) how to save the money
b) where to save the money and
c) what to do with it when I go to the states

Thank you in advance

[Yeast Lord]

By a classic car or a 2009 Bordeaux on finance lol. Savers are being shafted big time to keep property unaffordable and so people can borrow beyond their means. Typical of this government to go after the people that worked hard and saved for a rainy day lol.

[The Lukas]

Yep, it is annoying. But running a classic car won't help saving money will it? Any other advice? When should I open a US/Canadian acount? How about Zopa?

[K87]

I think the point was buying a classic car then selling it in 2 years time?

[The Lukas]

I don't have much near to near 10k to buy a car and when I do I'll be out of where I am now, I've already got a TVR S3 which takes up my time and money. Maybe I could sell it now. But honestly who buys a car for investment?

[Yeast Lord]

Your too late to the party for a lump sum transfer. I reckon rating agencies are holding off downgrading us until after the election so as to not manipulate the election result. I was too late also, I seriously wanted to get my savings out of sterling but by the time my foreign account would have been opened the scrabbling between parties would have started. For monthly savings from income, who knows what these morons will do to fk the economy up even more. If we are downgraded I'm going to start buying physical metals.

Fact of the matter is Brown turned this economy into a casino when he took house prices out of the inflation measure. I cannot comprehend how any person could vote for labour and am seriously getting pissed with seeing Brown on the tv all the time. I wish labour voters would realise their children's futures have been sold for nothing. 13 years of overspending and we have nothing to be proud of.

[The Lukas]

I know the election is tomorrow and appreciate your views, but I'd like to leave politics for the most part out of this discussion, as it's on every other forum anyway.

Plus I don't have a great deal of savings at this present moment. I will building them up over the next year or two.

[K87]

So are you starting from pretty much zero? How much are you able to save each month?

I'm in a similar situation, although looking to start saving for a house deposit not moving to america, although haven't ruled that out yet!

If people have an idea of how much you currently have and how much you can afford to contribut to it this may help.

[R60EST]

with banks paying so little interest you might do ok with premium bonds

[cs02rm0]

They've reduced the payments on premium bonds. I usually prefer not to gamble with my money on total chance.

[R60EST]

cs02rm0 said:

They've reduced the payments on premium bonds. I usually prefer not to gamble with my money on total chance.

You're not exactly gambling as you don't risk losing anything , you just forfeit guaranteed interest (which is pitiful at the moment) for the probability of some small wins £25 / £50 and the possibility of some much bigger wins.

They are not something I'm into but my Dad has some and receives some of the smaller amounts on a regular basis.

He also has ISA's and I'm not sure where but has just commited £25k to some savings account which guarantess £5k in interest over the next 5 yrs. He is retired so I think he gets tax incentives that an employed person may not

Edited by R60EST on Thursday 6th May 15:46

[The Lukas]

Okay guys, I COULD be putting away £750 a month from September (maybe more, maybe less depending on how I spend).

I have pretty much zero at the moment but have a few assets. I plan to leave the majority of these with my folks and maybe even sell the TVR to my old chap. Thanks for the help thus far

[cymtriks]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

What car would you suggest from the last twenty years?

I'd be tempted to say:

• TVR Tuscan or Grifith
• 6 cylinder M series
• Renault Alpine
• late air cooled 911
• MG F (not popular now but the nostalgia will kick in...) or 260

Though to be honest I doubt that any modern car will be that much of a classic. The stuff that went for silly money in the eighties were ultra exotics or prestigious classics from decades earlier.

I'm not certain that modern cars are viewed as iconic enough to pull that off.

Other ideas:

• Shares. RollsRoyce climbed to 628 a few weeks ago and sat at 560ish last week. I'm sure other PHers could suggest a few, do any banks still look low, some of them might be worth a punt?
• If debt problems rumble on or governments decide to print money to buy their way out then gold and silver may be worth a look.

[nomisesor]

"Secondary income through interest.." Well, the RPI is about 4%, so you need 4% plus whatever tax rate you pay just to keep the projected £10k worth £10k in real terms before you draw any income from it - and almost no secure savings accounts will give you even 4% + tax. The top cash ISA in yesterday's Times table was paying 4.25% - so on £10k a real return of 0.25%, or £25/year = £2.08 a month. It is a 4 year fixed rate, and inflation is likely to rise over 4 years, so it won't keep up.

Classic cars etc. are a gamble, particularly with the realities of paying off national debt about to hit people who might be able to afford them. Cars also consume money, even if just for storage and insurance, rather than provide any income.

To put it into perspective, your potential savings (presumably from employment earnings) of £750 a month are equivalent to the tax-free or post-tax interest at 4% on £225,000 - and, looking at it the other way, £225,000 is losing value at £750 a month through inflation! Imagine what even this relatively low inflation rate (remember 20+% in the 70s?) is doing to reduce the national debt - even an inflation-averse government will be tempted to allow it to run a bit so long as they can keep the lid on wages - I, and many other higher paid public sector workers are looking at a 2year pay freeze, so an 8% cut in real terms - which I'm happy to take IF it will be spent sensibly.

Being in work is the best investment.

Yesterday's Times had an article on saving assets of less than £40k

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/investment/...

[The Lukas]

Having researched into possibly investing in a car, with running costs and the risks involved, it doesn't look a particularly good way of investing money, but have not ruled out the option.

I have been looking on the Zopa site and you can expect 8% return if you lend out money. Has anybody here done this?

[amir_j]

You say you want to move to the USA, have you looked into it though? visa are not easy. If so is it 100%? IF you are you comfortable investing and risks involved, I'd be tempted to invest in(very) low risk & steady ETF's/Bonds(US treasury for example though low returns)/funds ideally those which are priced in US dollars to mitigate any currency issues.

Do your own research off course.

[The Lukas]

To be honest I am in no way sure what I want to do, and can't speak for myself 2 years into the future. It's just an idea, but having a modest amount of money tied up in something relativly safe but also profitable on some way would really help with whatever changes I may want to make.

So back to the simple question of saving money, shall I just keep buying assets that don't cost much to keep together or depreciate or maybe even buy gold or something inflation can't do much damage to? Many believe the economy will dip pretty soon so buying whatever asset then ( providing free money is available) will be better. I haven't ruled anything out.

[cs174]

Have you maximised your ISA allowance? If not, I'd suggest this would be a good starting point.