Lifetime ISA

Financial Chat
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I know there have been several chats about LISAs however none that I feel fully answer my questions.

I have looked on money saving expert and am confused by the whole thing. A few people on here have stated that Moneybox is a great option but the fees and lack of interest put me off.
Id ideally be wanting something I could use for free and I don’t care too much about the interest rate as the 25% bonus is good enough on its own. I’m able to put the full £4000 in for this tax year and then another £4000 for the following year so fulfilling the limit isn’t something that troubles me.

Any help would be highly appreciated - I’m only 19 so the financial world is still a bit of a puzzle to me :sweat_smile:

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They aren’t something that’s ever suited me personally but I did see a good bit Martin Lewis did on his show around them. Take a good read this, there’s also some LISA options at the bottom : https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/lifetime-isas/

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At 19 have you completed the steps that are recommended before a LISA on this flowchart first?

If so, does this help?

https://old.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/wiki/lisa

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Yes I believe I have.
I don’t have any dependants, 30% of my income goes to direct debits, and 20% on food/fuel/personal shopping so I have at least half of my income currently going into a savings account.
I used to draft a yearly financial prediction when I turned 16 and was on top of every penny that came in or out of my account. Since moving to monzo, its automated most of what I used to do manually and so haven’t needed to draft ‘the year ahead’.
Reckon it might be worth doing it again to see where I would be after the minimum of 12 months in the ISA.

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I wish I’d started saving at 19 instead of 27.

If you can get the £4k in each year and plan to buy a house, I would go with it. 25% interest on a £4,000 yearly deposit (plus any other interest the bank gives) is hard to be beaten. It does have the penalty, bear that in mind if you like to dip into your savings.

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Hats off to some people’s commitment in here.

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This is AWESOME :heart_eyes:

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If anyone is interested, I ended up going with a lifetime cash ISA with Newcastle as they offered the highest interest rate (1.1%) whilst still giving the max £1000 bonus per year. Should be able to max it out for this tax year and within the next 12 months have £8000 saved and a £2000 bonus earned :grin::+1:

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This made me laugh in the summary post on MSE.

You need to open the account online, but can manage it online, by phone or by post.

Makes it sound like opening the account online is a negative! Thank god it can be managed by post!

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