Your Lifetime ISA, toward your first home.
See what your LISA could be worth by the time you buy, and exactly how much of that is free money from the 25% government bonus. It builds in the £4,000-a-year cap and the £450,000 property limit, so you know the bonus actually counts. Free, no sign-up.
Assumptions — tweak if you like
A guide, not financial advice. The 25% bonus applies to up to £4,000 of contributions each tax year (so a maximum £1,000 bonus a year); anything above £4,000 earns no bonus. To use a LISA for a first home the property must cost £450,000 or less, you must be a first-time buyer, and the account must have been open at least 12 months. Take money out for anything else before age 60 and you pay a 25% government withdrawal charge — which takes back the bonus and a little of your own money too. Rules can change; check gov.uk. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
Free money, within the rules.
The 25% bonus is the whole point. Pay in £4,000 in a tax year and the government adds £1,000 on top — paid monthly, so it starts earning alongside your own money. Over several years that's thousands of pounds toward a deposit you'd never get from an ordinary savings account.
There's a ceiling. Only the first £4,000 each tax year attracts the bonus, and that £4,000 counts inside your overall £20,000 ISA allowance. Paying in more than £4,000 a year doesn't earn any extra bonus, so most people cap their LISA at the £4,000 and put further savings elsewhere.
The £450,000 limit is strict. To put the LISA toward a first home the property has to cost £450,000 or less, anywhere in the UK. Buy above that and you can't use the LISA for it without the 25% withdrawal charge — which claws back the bonus and bites into your own savings. The same charge applies to any non-home withdrawal before 60.
Cash or stocks & shares. A cash LISA is steady and predictable; a stocks & shares LISA can grow faster over a long save but can also fall in value. The government bonus lands either way — it's not affected by how the money's invested.
Buying your first home? Get it organised.
Stead keeps your whole home in one place from day one — the mortgage and bills, the certificates and renewals, the jobs that need doing. Work out the stamp duty, weigh up renting versus buying, and track the running costs once you're in.