I'm a postgrad (Philosophy), living with parents. My dad is massively disabled, so, economically, I'm a househusband. I clean the floors, wash up the dishes, change the bedsheets, and look after my spazzy dad during the day (he shits himself, has lots of GP appointments, makes a mess when he demonstrates his autonomy ie tries to cook, and needs to be supervised). He really is like an infant, and I don't think other people understand the social dynamic when they criticise either me or my mum for the fact that I still live with my parents. It's as easy for me to move out and become a 'grown up' as it is for a housewife with an autistic child to divorce her working husband. I do the shopping, the driving, and look after my dad.
Anyway, one of my dad's pensions came through, and it's a windfall. I get no say in the matter, but I've been allocated £1000 out of the lump sum (£9000 total).
I want to break free without giving my mum (or, I suppose, my dad) a death sentence in the process (my mum's already had cancer, and I don't want to stress them). But it's totally not worth me spending £1000 on rent and bills, which will last a couple of months, while I look for a low-paying job just to 'stick it to mom n dad' when it really makes no sense at all, and is going to hurt everyone involved.
It seems that this £1000 is the best thing I have to create a new opportunity. It's not much, but I'm patient enough to invest it, or do something else with it that's not going to be a waste.
The £1000 isn't really the issue, it's managing the transition in your dad's care when you become independent. Get in touch with a carers support service. Your dad might be entitled to some local authority care, it might be possible for him to attend a day centre, you might have access to respite care schemes. If your mum doesn't have to shoulder the whole burden of care, it'll be easier for you to strike out on your own.
This. It'd be about as useful as some magic beans. You'd in all likelihood have more than that left over from one month's wages if you got a job and stayed at home.
This. I know I sound like a dick OP, but you sound like me very shortly after I left uni.
I was that used to eating shit takeaway and scrimping and saving and still being in my overdraft that when I had a few hundred quid in my account from some work and deposits coming back in, I literally couldn't stop logging into my bank account to take a look at it.
I've been working for a bit now, I have about 5 grand saved up and even that's pittance really, it's only when you get 10k+ that you can comfortably save and not need to spend that you really need to have a think about how to save your money.
For now I'd whack it in a H2B ISA, most do 2%, some do 4%, it's guaranteed every month even if you don't put in and it's instant access so you can withdraw it at any time, even if you never buy a house. If you do buy a house one day, hey ho you got your saving started.
Not OP but i must ask, help to buy ISAs aren't locked into some agreement that it must be held for X amount of time or go toward a house? I was considering dumping my money in a regular online cash ISA where it'd only be something less than 1%.
No but there is a catch. So you can put in your money and if you buy a house, provided you have at least £1600 (I think) saved, they'll add 25%, up to the value of you having £12000 saved and £15000 total with the government bonus.
If you change your mind half way through, you can withdraw your cash, if it rains and your roof falls in, you can withdraw your cash.
The only downside is that whilst you can open it with a £1200 deposit you can only deposit a maximum of £200 a month. So if you're working and saving loads, you can still only (I say only) put in £200 a month. If you withdraw £500 one week you can't just add it back in, you have to build it back up by adding £200 a month again.
So if you've got ISA money and a H2B works for you you really should open one, then drip feed it sooner rather than later.
>>6653 Also, there was something in the news about H2B ISAs and the government bonus only being available at the end of the property purchase, so it doesn't actually count towards the amount of your deposit. Something like that.
You may be better washing the money through a pension in your dad's name. If you get basic rate tax relief then that £1,000 is instantly grossed up to £1,250. You'd be eligible for 25% tax free, so that's £312.50. The remaining £937.50 would be taxable at your dad's marginal rate, so if his income is within the personal allowance that's the whole £1,250 tax free. If it'd all be subject to basic rate tax then that's £750 back from that portion, £1,062.50 in total. So it'd be worth doing if he isn't a taxpayer. Then you do it in your mum's name and that £1,250 gets grossed up to £1,562.50.
>>6645 £1000 is a good chunk of cash and putting it into a decent place is the right call if you can afford it. In the scheme of things, though, it's not much. Find an interest calculator (or learn to do it yourself) and try working out how long it would take to double the amount and you'll, in all likelihood, be quite disappointed quite quickly. The tone of your post, fortunately, shows you know this already. Your best bet for now is to park it somewhere that earns you above inflation and keep it as an emergency fund.
You can do yourself a favour though and learn how you could invest if you had more. Read up on the kinds of ISAs out there (cash, H2B, index) and the common conditions around them. If you have a couple of direct debits in your name, you play the account shuffling game (grab the sign-up bonus, cover minimum pay-in by shuffling money between accounts, have enough DDs to cover minimum reqs, e.g. by giving £1/month to a charity etc.) . MoneySavingExpert is a solid resource to get started and branch out from once you get past the odd lingo.
Bear in mind that the level of care you currently provide (live-in full time carer) is easily in the four figures/month if you had to pay someone else to do it, so unless you really can't or don't want to handle it any more you're doing a great thing for your family. The "don't want to" part was not a throw-away phrase, by the way: it's commendable what you do, but don't put the needs of others so far above your own that you drown.
Some of the best stuff you can do with small quantities of money currently is just bog standard current accounts. First Direct offer a switching bonus plus a 6% savings account.
If you're still a student or graduate your best bet is to open a variety of bank accounts for future use.