(I don't have much money to invest) investment portfolio part 3 - Regular Saver

For the (I don't have much money to invest) investor like I am there is nothing better than a regular saver.  Last year I had a bit of a heating disaster which totally wiped out our emergency fund,  we had just ordered our solar panels and were having them fitted on the Monday and our plumbing went cup-put on the Friday.  Long story short the savings were totally diminished and we have had to start from scratch but with lovely new solar panels and sparkly radiators!

Regular savers are a perfect way to start saving.  There are loads of banks offering regular savings accounts at exceptionally high interest rates.  Usually you have to open a current account to open a regular saver but not always so read the terms and conditions.  Rates range from 2% to 6% at the time of writing.  To resurrect my savings I started with £100 per month to get started, then I have increased this over the last year.

The following banks are currently offering great regular savers with rates that are above 4%

Marks and Spencer
First Direct / HSBC
TSB
Nationwide
Lloyds
Halifax (but this is only for kids!)

A quick check of money websites will let you know the latest regular savers available, to take a look at money supermarket click HERE or to check Money Saving Expert click HERE.

Regular savers all have a maximum monthly investment but this does differ from £100 to £500 per month.  Most of the accounts do not allow withdrawals without loss of interest and even a requirement to close the account although TSB do allow withdrawals at present.  Select the account that fits your needs and you can open more than one account to save more money per month.  Most of these accounts last for 12 months only when it is converted to a standard (much lower interest) savings account.

Carefully check through the account options before selecting the one that best suits your needs.

Update on my other (I don't have much money to invest) investments!

Funding Circle Update stands at £447.22 which is lent out to 24 companies.  Since my last update one of the loans has been repaid in full and £14.98 is still in default but I have mentally written this off so I have not included it in the total.

Premium Bonds - Still at £200, no wins to date.  Must set up standing order to add to this soon.

In other news I have purchased a copy of Smarter Investing by Tim Hale and will be reading this in 2016 to swot up on investing.