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

I have sole access to almost all of our (DH and I) family savings, following
inheritances and redundancy payment.
I think he has about 30k in his own name after I transferred some. Just the way it worked out.
I am not unhappy about it…. And he’s not bothered.

Exactly. Check out fuel costs right now OP. It ain’t pretty!

Good grief another one.

What don’t you get about the broken economy of the last 20-30 years and the impoverishment of working people?

Ideally, that would be wonderful.

Not realistic for the vast majority though.

This is true.
Unfortunately children don’t often have a lot of control over what kind of education they get.

Meanwhile in the real world...

Not if you have no other way of paying the mortgage. 20k would last hardly any time if you're drowning in debt with no income.

Agree with this.

Exactly. No way would I be looking to aim for £20k in savings which would then mean no entitlement to UC. Absolutely silly logic for those who rely on it.

Getting an education and having a good job is far more important than having savings. If everything fell apart tomorrow being able to work would last much longer than any savings.

I earn less than £24000 a year, I'm not sure how you want me to save £20,000 any time soon. I've got £160 in my savings after paying for a holiday this week.

This is the second thread like this in two days. Odd.

Why only women, should men not have the same?

But with a HH income of 60k I don't think we'll have 40k saved up quickly.

I’d easily save that much if I didn’t have to ermmm buy stuff!

Laughs in housing and energy costs. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

You can be as direct as you like. Although ideal, for many women, this is completely unachievable. Think women in MW jobs? Women fleeing DA where access to funds has been cut off?

There are so many other situations where having access to a 20K buffer isn’t possible.

I think the principle is sound, but actually what you're saying is everyone should have the means to escape from a difficult situation or a safety net in case of redundancy/death of partner/sudden disability etc. This shouldn't be income dependent where only the rich can free themselves from suffering. Instead we should support the social funding that is there to catch people. Rather than stigmatize it and make it as hard as possible to claim we should be proud to build a safety net around ourselves.

It's a good idea in principle to be financially independent. But £20k is a lot, and plenty of people won't have that.
If you have kids you have to justify holding that for yourself instead of spending it on, or saving it for, them.
If you're married and your husband has less or you're roughly equal you'd need double as half would be his when you divorce.

I don't think you understand how insulting this concept is to the husband in the sort of relationship I've described.

Everyone thinks about finances differently and couples manage finances differently. You can't just say all women should have individual financial security, when they operate in a couple who has joint financial security. This effectively means that resources are being withheld from the husband. All animals are equal. Except the pigs.

Finances are often a finite resource. £20k ring fenced does prevent making shared decisions such as I described. Since in the real world we have to prioritise how much we save and how much we spend and how that money gets spent eventually. "Sorry love, we both saved for 5 years, but that money is mine because that's what I decided. We'll save for the next five years for 'our' money and we'll decide how to spend that together"

It makes very little sense since their assets are legally joint due to their marriage. Unless they are jointly financially planning for the husband to become financially abusive in the future? "Yes love we've been married for 30 years and supported each other through births, deaths, illness, stress, but you never know. One day you might turn on me"

There’s nothing more amusing than watching a clueless OP try and back pedal so much 🤣

I don’t think you have a clue about the real lives of most women OP so perhaps keep your stealth boasts/personal suggestions to yourself.

Wonderful in principle. Impossible and wildly unrealistic in practise. And not just women - everyone.

More important (and achievable) however is that nobody gives up their financial independence; having a job and the ability to earn future money is far more important to stop becoming trapped in a partnership or left in all sorts of financial trouble if the relationship breaks down.

I don’t think £20k would be enough to start over anyway, seems like you just plucked that figure out the sky. As others have said, even that is unattainable for a lot of people.

I’m financially dependent on my dp.
All of my money comes from him.
We have a great relationship and he has supported me through 25 years of disability.
Should I be asking him for money specifically to put into savings in case I ever need to leave him? Or doing it in secret, hiding it from him?

Do parents really have to be sacrificing everything to their children until the bitter end? Even at the expense of their own future security?