# 25K to put away for college fund



## fingers mcginty (27 Dec 2016)

Hi folks, I'm not great with all this economic stuff. Can someone tell me where would be the best place to put 25K away to earn the best interest. Don't want to leave it in my current a/c. It would be for 5 years when my 1st born starts college. Thanks


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## dub_nerd (27 Dec 2016)

State Savings -- 5 year Savings Certificate, total 5% return (AER 0.98%), guaranteed by the state. See it on the Deposit Best Buys thread, and the State Savings website. Buy it at your post office. You will get €26,250 back after 5 years, total interest €1,250.


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## Lightning (27 Dec 2016)

The simplest approach is to put the money into State Savings 5 year Savings Certificate. 

The approach that might earn more interest is to drip feed the money into a regular saver account. A KBC Extra Regular Saver product allows a 10k lump sum and then requires deposits of 100 euro to 1k per month. The rate is 3.00% AER variable, a lot more than the State Savings product. One needs to be deposit at least 2,500 euro per month into a KBC Extra Current Account to get this rate and not pay current account fees. Also, the rate would need to be watched carefully. Too much hassle for most people but it is the strategy that is likely to earn a better return.


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## fingers mcginty (27 Dec 2016)

OK lads thanks for the replies...


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## fingers mcginty (27 Dec 2016)

So is it just a matter of filling in the downloadable form? then they setu the a/c for you and it's just a matter of transferring the money or how does it work?


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## Billo (27 Dec 2016)

*Highest Term Deposit Rates*


*1 Year 6 Months - *PTSB* - 1.00%            Is this correct ?   i cant find it .*


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## emeralds (28 Dec 2016)

We recently bought Prize Bonds (first time in quite a few years to buy them). We had to give photo id (passport or driving licence), recent proof of address (utility bill) and proof of PPs no. Imagine it would be the same for Savings Certs/Bonds.


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## Lightning (29 Dec 2016)

Billo said:


> *1 Year 6 Months - *PTSB* - 1.00%            Is this correct ?   i cant find it .*



That's corrected in the best buy thread now. Thanks for pointing that out.


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## cbreeze (3 Jan 2017)

emeralds said:


> We recently bought Prize Bonds (first time in quite a few years to buy them). We had to give photo id (passport or driving licence), recent proof of address (utility bill) and proof of PPs no. Imagine it would be the same for Savings Certs/Bonds.


Once they have your details, such as PPSN and email address you can buy future items online such as bonds, certs and prize bonds, using a debit or credit card - I just bought some certs before the end of December this way and it was way easier than going into the post office and filling out a form and then queuing!


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## trasneoir (3 Jan 2017)

fingers mcginty said:


> 25K ... 5 years when my 1st born starts college



If there's any debt in your life (other than super-cheap tracker mortgages), pay that off first. There's no point investing at 1% while you're borrowing at 4% (mortgage) / 10% (car) / 22% (card).

I think Dub_nerd's suggestion of state savings is good, at least for the money you'll need in 5 years. I'm guessing you won't need all 25k at the start of first year though. There might be other options for any money that can stay invested for longer.


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## fingers mcginty (13 Jan 2017)

trasneoir said:


> If there's any debt in your life (other than super-cheap tracker mortgages), pay that off first. .



I have a small mortgage and no other loans


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