Keep Hold of Your Cash with Lawrence Gold as seen on The Wright Stuff
Finance, The Wright Stuff Add commentsWondering how best to keep hold of your cash during the credit crunch? Lawrence Gold appeared on The Wright Stuff to talk through the options and answer a few viewers’ questions.
First, Matthew Wright asked Lawrence Gold about deflation – what it meant, and was it something we should be afraid of? Lawrence replied that deflation is not good for the economy. Whereas inflation means pricing are moving upwards, deflation means prices are coming down. This delays people from buying everyday items, causing a build up of unsold stock in shops, leading to factory workers being laid off and unemployment rising.
First on the line was Lucy with a savings question for Lawrence Gold. When asked what to do with £15,000 in savings, Lawrence said that there were some building societies currently offering around 3% interest. Egg and ING were 2 examples of online banks paying 3% interest. Bonds could be more profitable, but with more of an element of risk in the investment. The other option would be an ISA, though there is a limit on how much you can put into a tax-free ISA, around £4,000 a year.
The second and third callers to The Wright Stuff asked whether now was a good time to pay off a mortgage. Lawrence Gold said this depends on the mortgage rate. For high rate taxpayers with a low mortgage rate, putting money into a pension may be a better option.
Lawrence didn’t think that the Government would allow Lloyds TSB to go under following reports of huge losses on the HBOS side of the business they acquired last year. He thought the government would nationalise Lloyds if they had to, meaning that savings in Lloyds and other huge British banks would probably be safe.
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