Money - Making it and saving it

[stuart_75]

I had to bin off Starling because their debit card wasn't accepted at ASDA pay at pump petrol forecourts. So basically useless.

[Rds1983]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Cool, I might look into that myself

Looks like it's similar to the GoHenry app that launched year's ago and was really good. However they started charging a monthly fee and I'm not sure it was justified. 

It's called Starling Kite.

https://www.starlingbank.com/current-account/kite-debit-card-for-kids/

"Starling Kite: digital banking for young people aged 6-15.

It’s like a child bank account, but built seamlessly into your account for better visibility and control. Once it’s set up, transfer money into their Kite Space in seconds and help them learn money skills for life.

Kids get their own version of the app, where they can track their spending, start budgeting, and save for goals. You’ll be able to keep an eye on things from your own app, and set limits if you want to. It’s simple, secure and convenient banking for kids. Plus, Kite customers get a free kids meal at the National Trust!"

Sounds great but no ideas if it actually is.

[Xela]

Start of a new tax year, so time is as good as any. 

What are people investing in? Or are people keeping it in cash? I'm split roughly half cash, and half in a FTSE All World tracker fund. Got a new ISA allowance and can't decide whether to go all in on the tracker fund or go halves again with the cash ISA. The tracker fund has returned 21% in the last 12 months (all reinvested), but surely it can't keep that up! 

[foreveryoung]

On 18/03/2024 at 11:04, stuart_75 said:

I had to bin off Starling because their debit card wasn't accepted at ASDA pay at pump petrol forecourts. So basically useless.

I've used it at those pumps and everywhere for at least 3 years. It's basically Mastercard debit.

[ender4]

33 minutes ago, Xela said:

Start of a new tax year, so time is as good as any. 

What are people investing in? Or are people keeping it in cash? I'm split roughly half cash, and half in a FTSE All World tracker fund. Got a new ISA allowance and can't decide whether to go all in on the tracker fund or go halves again with the cash ISA. The tracker fund has returned 21% in the last 12 months (all reinvested), but surely it can't keep that up! 

I was also thinking that the global shares market is a bit too overheated now. But I’ve thought that before and it keeps on rising.  It’s a tricky one. 

Im going with some in cash ISA and see what happens.  If Iran/Israel properly kicks off, oil will go up in price and shares will fall.  Thats the time to get into the market.  

All my opinion of course, im not a trader.

[CVByrne]

Best thing I could ever tell anyone about Money. Look at what you spend it on. People always want to earn more money, but most people are so wasteful with money that if they earn more they'll just waste it. For me everything has a value question. Take a new TV or new Laptop, if I currently have a TV or laptop what benefit is the expenditure going to get me in terms of improvements over what I currently have? Those items however have a utility over the period of time I own them. 

The stupidest thing to waste money on are things that are "brand recognition" items, like expensive clothes that give you no extra utility over regular clothes. So what are you getting by spending 3x more in something vs another? Same with Cars. 

The big issue with increasing these type of living expenses is you then will always require income to that level, you won't want to "drop down". All your spare cash between you outgoings and incomings should just go straight into mostly you Pension. By far most tax efficient and can afford you early retirement if you are wise enough throughout your life. 

[StefanAVFC]

We want to open a savings account for our kid in the UK. Don't live over there atm obviously so not sure on the best options?

Anyone got any advice?

[Dante_Lockhart]

I'm a by-product of my environment. I buy products for my requirement.

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

We want to open a savings account for our kid in the UK. Don't live over there atm obviously so not sure on the best options?

Anyone got any advice?

Chase is a piece of piss, and they are paying 4.1% at the moment. Instant access, no faffing, interest paid monthly.

Just open an account and then create a savings “pot” labelled “savings for Stefan Jnr” and drop money into it as and when you like. If there was some kind of emergency you could then borrow from it easily if needed.

Thats the easiest way. There are probably ways to get more interest but we found that opening accounts specifically in children’s names is a bloody nightmare with admin, paperwork, ID, access etc.

 

[Panto_Villan]

11 hours ago, Xela said:

Start of a new tax year, so time is as good as any. 

What are people investing in? Or are people keeping it in cash? I'm split roughly half cash, and half in a FTSE All World tracker fund. Got a new ISA allowance and can't decide whether to go all in on the tracker fund or go halves again with the cash ISA. The tracker fund has returned 21% in the last 12 months (all reinvested), but surely it can't keep that up! 

 

10 hours ago, ender4 said:

I was also thinking that the global shares market is a bit too overheated now. But I’ve thought that before and it keeps on rising.  It’s a tricky one. 

Im going with some in cash ISA and see what happens.  If Iran/Israel properly kicks off, oil will go up in price and shares will fall.  Thats the time to get into the market.  

All my opinion of course, im not a trader.

What interest are you getting on the cash in your ISA? They frequently have pretty bad interest rates. If you're not getting a good return on it (3.5% upwards) then it'd be better to have the cash somewhere like the H&L Active Saver instead, as you'll get more interest and it'll probably cancel out any tax savings you'd make from the ISA.

In general the advice is only to keep as much in cash as you need to cover yourself in emergencies (say 6 months of outgoings, in case you're unexpectedly made redundant etc) and then invest the rest in the stock market, usually a low-cost tracker fund that tracks the world index (e.g. the MSCI World Index or something similar). The interest earned on cash generally doesn't exceed inflation, so in most cases you're actually losing a small amount of money each year by holding cash.

If you're approaching retirement or some event where you'll want to spend your savings and you want to reduce the risk of a stock market crash damaging your savings, you should shift some of the stock money into bonds instead, as they will return less money but will drop in value less if there's a recession.

Of course, this is long term savings advice. If you're only planning to keep your investments for a few years then it's difficult to give any advice - all assets are kinda overvalued at the moment and there could be a big crash round the corner at any moment, in which case holding cash is smart. But people have been saying that for literally a decade now, and the stock market has kept going up.

[StefanAVFC]

9 minutes ago, Genie said:

Chase is a piece of piss, and they are paying 4.1% at the moment. Instant access, no faffing, interest paid monthly.

Just open an account and then create a savings “pot” labelled “savings for Stefan Jnr” and drop money into it as and when you like. If there was some kind of emergency you could then borrow from it easily if needed.

Thats the easiest way. There are probably ways to get more interest but we found that opening accounts specifically in children’s names is a bloody nightmare with admin, paperwork, ID, access etc.

 

Is it all done online too? Nothing in person?

[Genie]

3 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Is it all done online too? Nothing in person?

Yeah, all done online. Easy peasy. 

And you can use it anywhere without paying fees, plus 1% cashback. 

[StefanAVFC]

12 minutes ago, Genie said:

Yeah, all done online. Easy peasy. 

And you can use it anywhere without paying fees, plus 1% cashback. 

Hit a bit of a snag here though

 

To bank with Chase, you'll need to:

• be 18+
• be a resident of the UK only
• have a smartphone and a UK mobile number
• be a tax resident of the UK

 

I guess I could ask my mum to open it

[sharkyvilla]

8 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Hit a bit of a snag here though

 

To bank with Chase, you'll need to:

• be 18+
• be a resident of the UK only
• have a smartphone and a UK mobile number
• be a tax resident of the UK

 

I guess I could ask my mum to open it

I use Ford Money, their flexible is 4.6%, I can't see anything about you needing to be a resident but you need a UK bank account to pay into/from.  They've got a German one too.

[tonyh29]

51 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Hit a bit of a snag here though

 

To bank with Chase, you'll need to:

• be 18+
• be a resident of the UK only
• have a smartphone and a UK mobile number
• be a tax resident of the UK

 

I guess I could ask my mum to open it

That would need your mum to have the app and fully operate the account I believe , if she is a UK tax payer than she would have to pay the tax on the interest earnt etc subject to her situation 

Long as you still have a UK bank account you could try premium bonds or ISA's with  NS&I   , fairly sure you can buy the bonds in a child's name .. it would be under your control until they turn 17

you wont earn interest on premium bonds , but obviously you have a chance of winning  £1m ( I'm getting around a 5% return on my premium bonds , but you have a chance of also getting 0% ) 

but they offer a Direct Saver account and green saving bonds as well , couold be worth checking out 

 

Quote

To save with us, you’ll need a UK bank or building society account in your name. This is because we can only make payments to, and receive payments from, a UK account in pounds sterling.

Edited April 16 by tonyh29

[StefanAVFC]

I have a UK bank account, just not residency/tax payer status.

[Rds1983]

10 hours ago, CVByrne said:

The stupidest thing to waste money on are things that are "brand recognition" items, like expensive clothes that give you no extra utility over regular clothes. So what are you getting by spending 3x more in something vs another? Same with Cars. 

There is an important exception to this. 

Spending more on the expensive brand can be worth it if that brand will last longer or be more effective than the cheaper one would.

If a £50 pair of shoes will last one year before falling apart, but a £100 pair of shoes will last 3 years then in the long run it's better to get a more expensive brand.

Difficult one to quantify when purchasing but important to consider.

[Chindie]

2 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

There is an important exception to this. 

Spending more on the expensive brand can be worth it if that brand will last longer or be more effective than the cheaper one would.

If a £50 pair of shoes will last one year before falling apart, but a £100 pair of shoes will last 3 years then in the long run it's better to get a more expensive brand.

Difficult one to quantify when purchasing but important to consider.

Aka Vimes' Boots Theory of Economic Unfairness. 

Quote

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

Pratchett

Sorely missed.

[bobzy]

22 hours ago, Xela said:

Start of a new tax year, so time is as good as any. 

What are people investing in? Or are people keeping it in cash? I'm split roughly half cash, and half in a FTSE All World tracker fund. Got a new ISA allowance and can't decide whether to go all in on the tracker fund or go halves again with the cash ISA. The tracker fund has returned 21% in the last 12 months (all reinvested), but surely it can't keep that up! 

lol tucking money into investing

Cost of living hasn't hit this guy!  

[Xela]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

lol tucking money into investing

Cost of living hasn't hit this guy!  

The plus side of not having kids!