How much do you have in your personal savings? Does it feel enough to you?

[TabithaTwitchel]

We have joint savings which are decent but in my own savings I have just 3 grand and I just can't add any more to it really right now.

I think I'd feel more comfortable with 10k and it made me wonder what you would consider a decent amount that was just for you?

Just for you to do what with ?

I mean, it's an odd question without context.

Being a single mum, I don't have shared savings, just mine.

Which means the responsibility for the mortgage is all mine but when the house is paid off, it will be all mine too.

I have about £23k in savings plus my pension fund which I won't touch until I retire (I hope).

Savings for what?

I have several savings "pots". One buffer of about £3k for unexpected minor house repairs and/or bills if I get made redundant. One for major house repairs/replacements (currently saving in this one for a new boiler/central heating overhaul). One for a big once in a lifetime things to do before I'm old/frail/die holiday.

Retirement taken care of with company pension which I pay extra into, plus whatever the state pension will be.

About 40k, mostly made up of redundancy money but also a bit of inheritance and money i saved during lockdown. I’m not actively saving right now due to mat leave and nursery fees.

£1550

$200. I'm sure it'll really come in handy.

owhere near what I would like it to be.

I think the number is relative to income, or more precisely bills/spending.

I worked out an average monthly bills amount, plus an average monthly bare-bones “me” amount, and times by 3 to mean it would cover me for 3 months. I saved that amount, and didn’t feel entirely comfortable, so I moved up to 6 months, with the “me” amount increased a bit. So effectively I have 6 months of spending saved up. If I lost my job I could go for 6 months at my current lifestyle before getting another income. Obviously, if I did lose my job I would cut discretionary spending and it would probably last longer. Obviously too, if my emergency wasn’t job loss, but rather massive house repairs or something, using the same lump sum would probably cover most things too.

That’s when I felt “safe” or that it was enough.

I realise this is high, and many people only say 3 months of expenses, but I am single and have a mortgage, so I personally felt without a partner or second income to spread the risk, I needed to feel safer with a higher nest egg.

Zero. No-one else is going to say it, but not everyone has savings

Just beat me to it🤣 zero savings and it's likely to be that way for many years

Idk why anyone would willingly offer up that information. Malicious intent can be disguised as something so innocent.

I've got £32k in savings. I'm 40.
I had £80k a year ago, but I paid for DH to retrain, bought him the equipment he needed, bought him a van, and paid £30k off of our mortgage when the rates shot up.
Yes £32k feels good to me. We've got incredibly low outgoings (which is how I was able to build up such a savings pot), so I'm comforted that I could not work for 18 months if ever I lost my job and struggled to find a new one.

Just over £250,000. I've lived frugally for decades and always had money left over at the end of each month which I invested in stocks and shares. Yes it feels enough.

Just over £250,000. I've lived frugally for decades and always had money left over at the end of each month which I invested in stocks and shares. Yes it feels enough.

More than I've ever had before. We're spending a lot of it on structural stuff for our house though.

'Enough' is a very subjective feeling. In my family I'm watching a couple's entire life savings, more than I will ever see, spent on top-end dementia care. I don't think it's a great use of money, but what's the alternative? By the time she needed care - tbh a long time before that - she was much too cognitively impaired to make significant decisions. Cheaper care, that I've also seen in the family, looks pretty awful. I won't be able to afford anything like the expensive stuff. Do I have enough? Not if that's the measure.

About £30k which is earmarked for a new kitchen at some point.

Exactly

Many people in this position or worse in the minus. With col it's unrealistic for so many people to save

When I was married, I didn’t have any savings in my own name, but then neither did my husband, all our money was joint. At one time I earned more than him then later after we had children he earned more than me but that did not matter.

Now divorced, all my money is mine and I have more than enough for my needs - gained from hard work, good investments and inheritance.

Threads like these pop up about once a month and are mostly meaningless. You get the 'at least £200k brigade' arriving sharpish to remind you that if you have less than that, you're a total failure, through to the person who is struggling to make ends meet.

Having some savings is usually a good idea so that you have a pot to pay for unexpected expenses. How much that is, is relative to your personal circumstances. What someone else has in the bank is irrelevant.

Zero

Zero

I've got about 5k in my own savings. I've splurged on some quite expensive stuff lately. It feels like enough.

I have £2000 in premium bonds that DH doesn’t know about. That’s it.

I was a SAHM several years ago when DH was off sick for a long time, so I now like to keep at least 6 months of basic needs money in our joint savings.

What are savings?!