To think every woman should have at least £20,000 in savings she can access independently?

Possibly something to be said for keeping a small stash of cash in the house (thinking of people who need to escape dv, financial abuse etc) which is my argument for keeping cash, tangentially.
However most people are not going to be able to save anywhere near £20000; we have had nothing done in the house except absolute necessities for 20 years. I now have an inheritance from my lovely mum but when the kids were small I often had nothing at all; I remember being exceptionally grateful to find 20p on the ground!

Yes. 100%.

Never let yourself or your kids become so trapped that you can do nothing but stay trapped.

Always have an escape.

Are you going to give it to me? Where am
i getting 20k otherwose since my income
goes on bills and expenses?

I think it’s great to have savings and yes gives you loads of security.

£20,000 is unrealistic for most women.

How wealthy are you and your family OP? You sound massively out of touch.

I’m 30yo.

I will die of old age before I manage to save up a spare £20,000.

I am genuinely baffled how people like yourself fail to understand how real, ordinary working class people live.

I wish I could save 20k! Mate at this point I wish I could save £20 at the end of the month! I’m not on a terrible salary, but I earn too much to get UC but struggle each month. I’ve even started looking at evening and weekend jobs intop of my 8-5
I’m sure a lot of Us would love to be able to have a 20k buffer , but it’s just not possible

If you are on UC, you wont be allowed to have this sort of money. Your benefits would stop.
Some disabled women are totally financially reliant on their DP/DH. How would they be able to stash away £20k with no one noticing?

If you are married, your husband would get half anyway.
DM had a secret stash of savings that DF had no idea about it. But if they had divorced, he would have got half (and drank it all away, hence why it was hidden to begin with).

I remember a thread on here where OP's DM managed to save up £thousands when she gave up smoking... and she was called all sorts for keeping the money secret from her family.

I bloody wish!

Totally unrealistic! How will women on minimum wage ever achieve that. Even nurses and teachers wouldn't be able to do that on their salaries with the cost of living.

Low income women wouldn’t benefit from this at all. They wouldn’t qualify for benefits because of their savings. Sorry but this is lalaland. And wouldn’t benefit all women. You fill your boots though

Not all families are in a position to assist and it takes a while to apply for benefits. Any amounts received will be too low to cover costs in any meaningful way. Ditto support from charities. They won't be able to cover my rent for a month.

Unrealistic but maybe we could aim for something like £2,000. Enough for a deposit for a private rental property, for example .

For a lot of people the goal of saving 20 grand over time would be for a house deposit, not to just have it sitting as spare money.

As somebody who is in that situation (by default not necessarily 'choice') I would point out there are serious financial downsides to having lived your whole life without a partner. There is a lot of power in dual incomes.

I have, admittedly, been very financially irresponsible in the past - so maybe would have a different view had I been more sensible. But even saving a house deposit is a mountain. I will be nearing retirement before I manage to get on the property ladder and then only a flat (leasehold to boot!)

Yes, you are right in general, but not guaranteed. To be able have enough to leave immediately with children and get a plane or train, or go to a hotel, or put down a deposit on a flat straight away, would be nice.

( So far from being possible for most people though, I realise.)

I earn much the same as my DH and could support myself if we split

Not quite the same, but I have told my young adult son and daughter that they should establish a career before they have children if possible. Without a doubt.

Family/charities/benefits can bridge a gap if needed. Being able to get a job and work your way out of that is more important.

I think every woman needs a “fuck you fund”. The exact amount can vary, but she needs to be able to escape an abusive partner without worrying about how to provide basics like food and shelter.

its actually the thing I would suggest parents save for their children instead of contributing to weddings. Just set aside a bit of money in case your child ever needs it one day.

no - ideally you should have either a considerable amount more or under 16k so you can claim benefits if you fall in hard times. But realistically most women do not and cannot save that amount.

Where possible, all women would have at least £20k in their personal bank. They would also have a wonderful DH who was supportive, generous, hard working and earned 6 figures so he could also have £20k for himself.

Where possible, the woman would also be a size 10, cook from scratch, never feed her two perfect DCs UPFs and hold down a high flying charity job which was wfh and enabled her to do the school run.

Where possible, she would also have someone in to do the ironing so that woman (the ironing lady) could where possible, save up enough money from ironing to have her own stash of £20k for herself.

Have I forgotten anything? Sounds like Utopia 😇

sometimes known as "running away money"! lovely idea but almost impossible to achieve, sadly. I am still amused by the memory of a train guard asking me when I once bought a single ticket to Nottingham "running away, my duck?"

If I could go back or if I was young today I would give this serious thought

100% agree many women rely on a man and continue working part time even when the children grow up and then if the husband leaves they are bereft but yes being trapped was never part of my plan