Savings for the average person

[expatinspain]

How much money do you think is realistic for the average person (say in their mid 30's - 40's with at least one child) to have in their savings account? I'm not talking about high earners, rather those on a lower - middle income. I was talking about this with DP today and in my opinion he doesn't live in the real world.

He comes from a country where many people live with and are supported by their parents well into adulthood, basically until they get married usually, and many go to work for the family business. University is also fully funded by parents. The incomes are lower than the UK, but obviously living at home and having literally no outgoings, it's pretty easy to save a large amount of money.

He has a sizeable chunk in his savings, but feels like it isn't enough. He doesn't seem to get how I don't have savings, but I moved out of home at 18, had to fund uni myself through loans, lived in London and ended up as a single parent at 33 after splitting up with DD's dad and had to support her with next to no financial support. I think it's pretty easy to see how I'm not going to have a spare 25k in my back account for a rainy day!!!

So to settle the disagreement. How much do you think the average person I mentioned above has saved for a rainy day/contingencies?

In the way you define avg, about £3k cash they could get hands on if they had to pay a ransom tonite.

I think the way things are in the UK at the moment means a lot of people can only dream of having any savings at all. I would say it’s more common to have debt than savings.

fairylea I agree!

I am mid thirties and no savings whatsoever! Once I've paid to live there's nothing left.

But surely we'd all just be guessing, there must be some data about this somewhere.

The rule of thumb is six months’ salary, I think.

44 and zero savings!

If he wants to save let him crack on!

We’re mid thirties and we have about 6k cash. We have more in investments, but we worked abroad tax free for 3 years. And my dh doesn’t pay tax with his job so when he gets it back we save it.

I think most people don't have savings. Cost of living is so high. I am putting 9% of my salary into a pension, I'm a teacher so it's a decent scheme and I've always paid in. I currently have an isa in addition to this ,but only because I've inherited some money. Before I inherited I saved enough for a modest holiday and for Christmas and spent it all on those things.

I think most people would rather be paying a mortgage than building up savings and see that as a safety net for old age.

I'm fairly cautious and keep my savings at a level which makes me feel comfortable. I feel I live well but stay within my means. Holidays are our main expense. I shop around for everything.

If they dip, I cut back in every way until they return to usual. I won't say exactly how much, but it's enough that I could leave my job if I ever needed to and still pay the mortgage while taking my time to find a new one. Dp is the same. I find it quite liberating and do appreciate the position we're in.

carlywurly I definitely think that's the ideal situation, but unfortunately unattainable for many people.

We’re average earners, having no debt except mortgage and £2k in savings for us and £9k for our ds. We want to get the mortgage clear and the well concentrate on saving more. Should take 6 years. We’re late 30’s and early 40’s.

Our savings really fluctuate. At the moment, I'd say we have about £3.5k, but we are having our garden done shortly which will cost £2.5k and almost wipe us out.

I say "we", my savings are around £2.5k at the moment after just paying my car insurance upfront for the year and I'm sure DP said he had £1k a few weeks ago. I'll pay for the garden upfront and he'll give me half of the money when he has it.

We are average earners and always try to put money away each month but there will always be something every so often that takes out a sizeable chunk, for example last year we paid £1.3k for a new boiler installation which knocked us back down.

I'm on maternity leave at the moment so my savings have been dipped in to a bit whilst off, but when I return, I hope to pay in £200-400 a month to top it back up after paying out for the garden, though how realistic that'll be when paying nursery fees, too, I'm not sure.

But I'd say at any given time, we probably average £2-3k between us.

statistics for UK are that 15% have adults have no savings (53% of under 30's) and 33% have less than £1500
55% of men save every month compared with 43% of women

average savings for someoneunder 24 is 8K, in thirties is16K, it peaks at 49K at age 65 when it starts to fall away; it is expected that people have maximum savings just before retiring then slowly use it

I personally have about £1500 in my savings (it’s for something specific so will be paid out soon). Dh and I have about £100,000 in joint investments and savings (it’s for a house deposit). No idea what dh has in personal savings.

I don’t think that’s at all normal. We earn well above average and both got inheritances in the £10-20K range when we were younger, which we saved.

Someone suggested six months salary.
I dont even have six days salary in savings!

I get shit pay right enough.

I have what I consider to be a low salary - not enough to be taxed. I’m working really hard to save and have roughly £1300, buy £1k was a lump sum inheritance. The £300 is what I’ve managed to save since September. I’m early 30s, 1 DS, live with DP. I also have debt though!

I work on a contract basis and have gaps between jobs. I'm a single income household and our outgoings are fairly low, maybe £500 a month, so I do have a few years of savings if necessary. But that's largely because of the nature of my work.

I earn a good salary but don't have any savings. I did have £10k but spent it all a few years ago on a major life change that I don't regret for a second. Been working towards financial stability and it's just starting to pay off so I'm hoping I'll be able to start saving again soon and build up a buffer quite quickly.

We have somewhere around a years worth of salary after tax in cash, due to drop down to about 6 months worth when we pay off 30% of our mortgage when we come out of our 5 year fixed term.

FYI we’re early-mid 30’s. DH is the saver, I’m a bit useless with savings as I like to book too many holidays

I'm mid 30s and work part time. 4.5k savings in a LISA plus around 6k across various accounts which is used for my second income so I need it to make more money with. Until I started this we rarely had more than a few hundred. My siblings have no savings, which is normal in our circle.

We're both 40, average jobs (teacher and customer services) I've got about £12k and DP about £33k, which includes £15k inheritance.
We live in a v cheap ex local authority house (it's massive and lovely though with 3 big gardens) with small mortgage. Both looking to retire early.

I'm 32 and am only in the position to start saving. Currently have about 2k and think we will have 32k if we keep saving like we are in five years.