Business Top Guides

Open an isa that'll accept a grand a month? The building society near me has better rates than other banks, perhaps you should go around those and see if they do better deals?

There is a relationship between risk and reward. The higher the interest rate, the higher the risk. If you go into an investment which has a higher rate of return, you risk loss of some of your principle.

I suggest that you get a CD at a bank.

The Royal Bank Of Scotland do a card from 15yrs onwards.

if you wanna save money most specially on mobile phone bills then use 08000mumdad.

I labeled three columns Passbook, CD, and Money Market.
In A2 I put 100, just to get started. In B2 I placed = 3*A2, and in C2 I placed = A2 + 500. Then in D2 I placed = sum(A2:C2).
(I'm doing this in Open Office, so the formulas might be a little different). Then I changed the number in A2 until the answer in D2 became 6000. the answers become 1100, 3300, and 1600.

Now in A3 place =A$2*(D3-0.03)
in B3 place =B$2*D3
in C3 place = C$2*(D3-0.015)
In D3 place an estimate of the interest. .09
in E4 place = sum(A4:C4)
in D4 place = D3 + .001
Drag everything down for a few rows.
Now keep changing the values in D3 until one of the values in E4 becomes 499.5, the amount of interest earned.
My answer is 0.09275. That's the highest interest rate.

You are smart to have a savings account at such an early age!

1. Since the interest rates have changed over the years, the best way to check the exact amount of interest would be to go to the bank and have your bank book updated. It will tell what your current balance is. However, on $50, the interest could not be more than a couple of dollars per year.

2. Investment returns are inversely related to the risk. This is why the interest rates on bank deposits are the lowest. If you wish to get into a higher return investment (like bonds and stocks), you will need some more money (say $5,000). My advice is to leave the money in a bank for now. You may consider ING Direct (www.ingdirct.com) for higher interest, but you will need to have a checking account in a regular bank to transfer money from/to ING.

If you're paying your bills on time and are not at the max for your cards, your credit should be really good. Throw in a co-signer, and you should be able to get a car loan for under 10% easily. The link below can give you a range for your area.

That said, your choice is between reducing risk (having a decent down payment for a car that you might need) and reducing a known problem. Let's crunch some real numbers:

Eight months of continuing the current path:
Car savings: + $3,500
- 22% CC: Just paid off: 8 mo interest = $100ish(?); 130*8 = $1,040
- 17% CC: Still a balance: $240 + any interest – call it $10 to round things out.
NET: 3,250

Use current savings to pay off debt, then add $150/mo to savings. Eight months later:
Car savings: $200 + (8 * $400) = NET $3,400

So, in eight months, you'll have more in savings. Until then, you won't have as big a down payment for a car, but you'll have better credit (lower balance), and you won't be paying interest to someone else – you can keep it for yourself.

Also, you may have some options if your car dies – can you carpool or take public transit? If you can do that now, it will stretch out the life of the car.

Unless the car has immediate concerns, like a strange clunking noise, I'd pay off the credit cards.

Good luck on keeping up the savings – an emergency fund really makes me feel safer – I just wish I could get it from 2 months to 6, myself. You can get a feel for how much it will cost a month in the second link – 10K for 36 months @ 6% interest came out to $304/month, while 8K was $243. I hope your car lasts!

Dump your cell plan and get T-Mob pay as you go (minutes only).. I pay $100 for 1,000 minutes per year, no contracts…thats over an hour a month….