iamkingsamuel
New member
So I, 28M, have invested £12,000 in my LISA which is now sitting at £15,773 with the bonuses and interest. If I withdraw it would come out as (25% penalty) £11,829. It’s sitting at 3.5% interest.
My dilemma is I am now living in the US and met my US partner here so see myself staying for the forseeable and certainly not buying a house in the next 3 years. I am now not a UK resident so I can’t pay any more into the LISA. My finances are ok in the US and managing to save $400ish dollars a month in a mixture of high yield savings and stocks, my take home here is about $4100. HOWEVER, I am paying my student loans (~$500 a month): £215 for plan 2 and £175 for Master’s loan. They are sitting at ~£55,000 and ~£14,000 each (I did a PhD so didn’t pay any back for 4 years), with 7ish% interest. I’ll unlikely pay the plan 2 back, but the Master’s I will likely pay it off in a few years.
So, my question is:
A. Should I just take the hit and withdraw the LISA and invest it in higher yields? I’m leaning towards yes as interest rates of 5+% are pretty common online or I could invest some also and would make the interest back in 2 years and then profit further on (obviously losing the bonus).
B. Should I pay off all of my Master’s loan so I can restart saving? The money I am paying I would just start putting back into savings as normal as I already budget for it.
C. Should I pay off a good chunk e.g. £5-8000 of the loan so the interest goes down and invest the rest? I like knowing I have a big safety net in the UK and it would reduce interest accrued/paid dramatically.
I’d appreciate any advice, particularly if anyone did something similar! I’d probably leave a bit of money in the LISA just to keep it open.
Thanks in advance!
My dilemma is I am now living in the US and met my US partner here so see myself staying for the forseeable and certainly not buying a house in the next 3 years. I am now not a UK resident so I can’t pay any more into the LISA. My finances are ok in the US and managing to save $400ish dollars a month in a mixture of high yield savings and stocks, my take home here is about $4100. HOWEVER, I am paying my student loans (~$500 a month): £215 for plan 2 and £175 for Master’s loan. They are sitting at ~£55,000 and ~£14,000 each (I did a PhD so didn’t pay any back for 4 years), with 7ish% interest. I’ll unlikely pay the plan 2 back, but the Master’s I will likely pay it off in a few years.
So, my question is:
A. Should I just take the hit and withdraw the LISA and invest it in higher yields? I’m leaning towards yes as interest rates of 5+% are pretty common online or I could invest some also and would make the interest back in 2 years and then profit further on (obviously losing the bonus).
B. Should I pay off all of my Master’s loan so I can restart saving? The money I am paying I would just start putting back into savings as normal as I already budget for it.
C. Should I pay off a good chunk e.g. £5-8000 of the loan so the interest goes down and invest the rest? I like knowing I have a big safety net in the UK and it would reduce interest accrued/paid dramatically.
I’d appreciate any advice, particularly if anyone did something similar! I’d probably leave a bit of money in the LISA just to keep it open.
Thanks in advance!