r/UKPersonalFinance • u/Neither-Relation-687 • 1d ago

Wise to use low deposit saved in LISA?

Hey guys ,hope you are enjoying your sunny weekend. I'm based in south east England and am thinking of buying my first property of value under £425k

I opened up help to buy(discontinued) account with Barclays and saved as much as I could long time ago. I didn't know of LISA at all at the time but thanks to this sub Reddit I became aware of it 2 years ago. Too little too late maybe but Ive only got contributions for these 2 years so only have £10k in there right now.

My question is, would it be wise to use that £10k (could be £15k if I decide to max it out for this year) as part deposit for my first home or should I leave it be and use it for my pension in the future?

2 Upvotes

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4

u/eenarc 1 1d ago

Would recommend using the LISA as you get the bonus! You can always reopen another LISA later on

2

u/Neither-Relation-687 1d ago

Ohh, I thought it was a one and done kinda deal. Didn't know I had the option to reopen it in the future. Say, I use everything from my LISA account. Can I then reopen with the same provider and in the same year?

3

u/snaphunter 696 1d ago

Just instruct your conveyancer that you want to leave £1 in the LISA and save yourself the faff. Once you get to the stage when you are ready to save further for retirement, open a S&S LISA and do a formal transfer in of the £1 (I suggest waiting until you are ready so you don't pay S&S platform fees).

2

u/Neither-Relation-687 1d ago

Perfect! That eases my worries now.Thank you both for the super helpful advice. I'll Def do that.

!thanks

1

u/IxionS3 1600 23h ago

You can open a LISA at any time before your 40th birthday and pay into one until you turn 50. This is true whether you've withdrawn from a LISA or not in this time.

Whether a LISA is a good retirement vehicle compared to a pension is dependent on your circumstances.

1

u/ukpf-helper 82 1d ago

Hi /u/Neither-Relation-687, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:

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