Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has shared his ideal savings strategy for Brits looking to make the most of their money – and it only requires two accounts
Martin Lewis has advised Brits to maintain both easy access and a fixed savings account simultaneously to reap the best possible returns on their saved money. The founder of Money Saving Expert laid out this strategy while addressing a fan aiming to distribute his cash across multiple accounts for heightened interest returns.
Beginning from the grassroots, Martin recommended savers keep two types of accounts open, contingent on their total savings: an easy access account coupled with a fixed rate account. He implored: “You should have easy access for the ones you need to get hold of…but also fixing.”
To the latter recommendation, he added a condition that it should contain “money you can put away” for lengthy periods given their ‘no-access’ policy. During his BBC podcast The Martin Lewis Podcast, he stressed how such an arrangement would prove beneficial irrespective of how the UK base rate evolves. He elaborated that easy access accounts are variable and would likely decrease if the UK base rates were to drop.
However, once a fixed account is established, the name says it all – it’s fixed. Further, Martin clarified there is no cap on how many savings accounts an individual can own, encouraging everyone to “put every penny where it can earn the most interest”.
However, he also advised people to save according to their own habits. He said: “If you’re not on top of it, just putting it in one place where, when that ends, you’d be bothered to move it somewhere else is better than having a ‘good idea’ that ‘I’m going to put it in five or six different accounts’.”
“When it comes time to move them all, you can’t be hassled and they drop to a pants rate so you’re left with 6 pants accounts because you didn’t bother to move it.”
Highlighting a specific savings account, Martin urged Nationwide customers to take advantage of an “unbeatable” 5.5% interest rate on the 18-month fixed-rate account. This account is only available to savers who were customers of Nationwide on the 22nd of May and has a minimum opening balance £1 and a maximum of £10,000.
