If you need motivation to start saving for a rainy day, the ISA 15 Year Value Calculator will show you just how much your money will grow if you set it aside for 15 years. The beauty of an ISA (or Individual Savings Account) is that you are not charged tax on the interest that you earn. Every UK adult has an ISA allowance of 10,200 GBP each year, and if you do not use it before the end of a tax year (5th April), you lose the allowance for that year. Therefore, it is a good idea to make use of this allowance before pursuing other savings options - but you should still of course shop around for the best deal on your ISA to make this saving worthwhile.
Your annual allowance can be used for saving cash (a cash ISA) or investing in the Stock Market (a stocks and shares ISA). A maximum of 5,100 GBP can be entered into a cash ISA in any given year. At the end of each tax year, you can choose to move the ISA savings that you have already made into another ISA account that pays a better interest rate, so it is worth keeping an eye on your past ISA savings as well as continuing to make use of your new allowance. If you don't, you may find that your money from last year is now sitting in an ISA account paying a mere 0.1% a year, and that you're therefore missing an ongoing opportunity to save. Use the ISA 15 Year Value Calculator and you may be surprised to see how much your money can grow over 15 years.