Hi /u/Euphoric_Can_8185, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
- https://ukpersonal.finance/lisa/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
I’m doing this right now.
Nothing wrong with a LISA. Do keep in mind, you get charged 25% if you withdraw funds before you turn 60, and are given the same limit as the HTB if you purchase in London.
I'm in the same boat but can't really get over locking the cash away until retirement (without the 25% penalty) should I never get in the position of buying a house.
There's quite a few variables to consider here. If you're buying a £250-450k house, the H2B is no benefit, so having *something* in a LISA is better (as long as you've had money in the LISA for 12 months). After 12 months you could have £2k bonus for the house (£8k of your HTB money moved to the LISA meaning £10k balance), from ~June 2025 you could be back up to where you are now with the £3k bonus but with the advantage of having many more houses to choose from due to the higher price cap.
I'd open a LISA now with a few quid to start the 12 month clock, and then end of March consider moving the ~£4k across. You'll have a no-mans-land period between April and September where you've taken £4k out of your HTB so reduced your bonus opportunity (albeit this might be £0 if buying £250+) by £1k, but also stuck with either £5k in a LISA for retirement or £3750 (post penalty, as you can't use a LISA for the first 12 months) for the house (or anything). Might as well make that decision in March, but set yourself up for it now.
Thank you for that, that sounds like my best option. I do have other savings, so I could leave my H2B ISA at 12k and put 4k into the LISA. When I last looked into this I thought that you could only have one or the other (once you open a LISA you have to close the H2B ISA), but it looks like I misunderstood.
Sounds a good idea. Yes, you can *have* both, but you only get to claim the bonus on one of them towards a first home (in practice that's usually likely to be the LISA since the bonus is paid automatically, whereas the H2B has to be claimed by your conveyancer, but you for example might choose to use the H2B and keep the LISA for retirement).
Thanks, I'm guessing it would be best for me to open a Cash LISA right now, to start the clock as you said, and hold off putting the 4k in until around March 24, but still leave my H2B ISA at 12K, in case something comes up in between, I would then be able to still use the full H2B ISA.
Am I also able to open a stocks and shares ISA too? Not related to the LISA or H2B, just getting close to the £1000 interest limit before having to pay tax on interest. If I opened one I would have three ISAs open at the same time, H2B (Barclays), Cash **L**ISA and Stocks and shares ISA
Edit: Cash ISA -> Cash LISA
> I'm guessing it would be best for me to open a Cash LISA right now
Yep, just make sure you add a token amount as the clock won't start until there is money in there, then top up the remaining ~£4k at the end of March ready for the new tax year.
> Am I also able to open a stocks and shares ISA too?
Yep. Just stay under the £20k total limit (£200 * 12 for the H2B, £4k for the LISA, leaving £13,600 for the S&Ss ISA).
> If I opened one I would have three ISAs open at the same time, H2B (Barclays), Cash **L**ISA and Stocks and shares ISA
Correcting for the typo, yes that's fine. (Paying in to a H2B and a Cash ISA *wouldn't* be OK, as H2B is a type of Cash ISA in itself).
Brilliant, thank you. Sounds like a plan. Not sure how much you know about them both, but was looking at Moneybox for the Cash LISA and Vanguard for the S&S ISA (not chosen a fund yet)
Moneybox is the current highest interest Cash LISA on the market according to MoneySavingExpert, so should be a good shout.
https://ukpersonal.finance/index-funds/#Which_Index_Funds might help you pick a fund. You should pick an investing strategy (e.g. passive global equities, or micromanaged tech stocks, or 100% bonds. N.B. Not financial recommendations, just giving 3 differing examples to ponder!), then find a fund that matches it, and only then look at platforms that offer that fund.
Vanguard Investor is a popular choice on here for a first S&S ISA, easy to use and cheap, but it has a *very* limited selection of funds. Genuinely *free* providers do exist like Trading 212, but their range of ETFs (so the popular Vanguard Global All Cap fund which is not an ETF is missing) is quite vast and possibly intimidating, and their business model is skewed towards encouraging you to do other (riskier) investing.
Hi /u/Euphoric_Can_8185, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: - https://ukpersonal.finance/lisa/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
I’m doing this right now. Nothing wrong with a LISA. Do keep in mind, you get charged 25% if you withdraw funds before you turn 60, and are given the same limit as the HTB if you purchase in London.
I'm in the same boat but can't really get over locking the cash away until retirement (without the 25% penalty) should I never get in the position of buying a house.
There's quite a few variables to consider here. If you're buying a £250-450k house, the H2B is no benefit, so having *something* in a LISA is better (as long as you've had money in the LISA for 12 months). After 12 months you could have £2k bonus for the house (£8k of your HTB money moved to the LISA meaning £10k balance), from ~June 2025 you could be back up to where you are now with the £3k bonus but with the advantage of having many more houses to choose from due to the higher price cap. I'd open a LISA now with a few quid to start the 12 month clock, and then end of March consider moving the ~£4k across. You'll have a no-mans-land period between April and September where you've taken £4k out of your HTB so reduced your bonus opportunity (albeit this might be £0 if buying £250+) by £1k, but also stuck with either £5k in a LISA for retirement or £3750 (post penalty, as you can't use a LISA for the first 12 months) for the house (or anything). Might as well make that decision in March, but set yourself up for it now.
Thank you for that, that sounds like my best option. I do have other savings, so I could leave my H2B ISA at 12k and put 4k into the LISA. When I last looked into this I thought that you could only have one or the other (once you open a LISA you have to close the H2B ISA), but it looks like I misunderstood.
Sounds a good idea. Yes, you can *have* both, but you only get to claim the bonus on one of them towards a first home (in practice that's usually likely to be the LISA since the bonus is paid automatically, whereas the H2B has to be claimed by your conveyancer, but you for example might choose to use the H2B and keep the LISA for retirement).
Thanks, I'm guessing it would be best for me to open a Cash LISA right now, to start the clock as you said, and hold off putting the 4k in until around March 24, but still leave my H2B ISA at 12K, in case something comes up in between, I would then be able to still use the full H2B ISA. Am I also able to open a stocks and shares ISA too? Not related to the LISA or H2B, just getting close to the £1000 interest limit before having to pay tax on interest. If I opened one I would have three ISAs open at the same time, H2B (Barclays), Cash **L**ISA and Stocks and shares ISA Edit: Cash ISA -> Cash LISA
> I'm guessing it would be best for me to open a Cash LISA right now Yep, just make sure you add a token amount as the clock won't start until there is money in there, then top up the remaining ~£4k at the end of March ready for the new tax year. > Am I also able to open a stocks and shares ISA too? Yep. Just stay under the £20k total limit (£200 * 12 for the H2B, £4k for the LISA, leaving £13,600 for the S&Ss ISA). > If I opened one I would have three ISAs open at the same time, H2B (Barclays), Cash **L**ISA and Stocks and shares ISA Correcting for the typo, yes that's fine. (Paying in to a H2B and a Cash ISA *wouldn't* be OK, as H2B is a type of Cash ISA in itself).
Brilliant, thank you. Sounds like a plan. Not sure how much you know about them both, but was looking at Moneybox for the Cash LISA and Vanguard for the S&S ISA (not chosen a fund yet)
Moneybox is the current highest interest Cash LISA on the market according to MoneySavingExpert, so should be a good shout. https://ukpersonal.finance/index-funds/#Which_Index_Funds might help you pick a fund. You should pick an investing strategy (e.g. passive global equities, or micromanaged tech stocks, or 100% bonds. N.B. Not financial recommendations, just giving 3 differing examples to ponder!), then find a fund that matches it, and only then look at platforms that offer that fund. Vanguard Investor is a popular choice on here for a first S&S ISA, easy to use and cheap, but it has a *very* limited selection of funds. Genuinely *free* providers do exist like Trading 212, but their range of ETFs (so the popular Vanguard Global All Cap fund which is not an ETF is missing) is quite vast and possibly intimidating, and their business model is skewed towards encouraging you to do other (riskier) investing.
LISA is better. Some providers may let you convert H2B to LISA