*This blog is in collaboration with Wealthify

Are You Thinking of Investing your Money in 2019?

This year I am determined to get our finances straighter. My husband and I have already revisited our pensions and have increased the contributions from next month. I also want to build up our savings, as well as put aside money for future work we hope to do in our new house. This was slightly dented this month by our washing machine breaking, but this is why I think it’s so important to build up savings so that when unexpected costs happen we hopefully don’t have to get into debt to sort them.

We have also both been thinking about the future. I think my husband turning 40 just over a year ago and my 40th being a year and a half away has made us consider the future more. While it’s absolutely important to live in and enjoy the now, I also want us to be able to enjoy our retirement when the time does eventually come.

We all know that interest rates on savings accounts are pretty low at the moment. So another area to consider is investments. This is not something I have fully investigated myself, but I think it’s an area of savings that has potential. The idea, is similar to that of a pension, instead of putting money into a savings account, you put it into an investment account and a company will manage your money by investing into selected the funds with the intention of growing it for you. These investments would be in stocks, bonds and property. Of course, with all investment there is an element of risk involved, but the idea is you would get a greater return that you would if you simply left your money in a bank account.

If this is something you are thinking of you might want to look into low-cost investments from Wealthify. They charge an annual fee, which is a percentage of your investment to manage your investment. I know that investments can go up as well as down, so this is definitely a consideration, but as part of our overall savings plan, I think it is worth looking into as an option.