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?

We rent so housing improvements aren't our responsibility.
Car was bought on finance, as were some other high-cost items. A lot of other things were bought 2nd hand and refurbished.

I have a company car.
Home improvements we save up and do it. We've spent almost £50k on the house last year and no where near finished.

People with 5 k and less how do you buy a car with no saving?

You do without until you can afford one, so your earning potential is limited to taking a job that you are able to walk to.

You buy cheap 12=15 year old cars and pray that they run and have no issues.

In my 50s. have one year post tax salary in savings accounts. Also own a house I rent out that I could sell, it’s tiny but worth about 2 years’ pretax salary.

Also have an occupational pension.

I prefer to have at least 10k in the bank - I have more than that right now, about 1 years' salary; but lost my job recently and may have to go into it, although job pay off gives me about another two months' salary before I have to do that.

I only have savings due to inheritance, even when working I can't put meaningful amounts aside monthly, I'm 46 and prioritise paying into a pension when it comes to saving as I couldn't start one until my kids started school.

I have about £15k at the moment which would cover my share of the bills for 6-8 months if needed. DH has about the same. It was a lot more but we just spent £25k on a new kitchen and various other bits on the house.

£14,000. We do not have any family savings though, these are all my saving but we treat them as family savings as my DH pays everything he can towards mortgage overpayments. He has made a lot of these and our mortgage has reduced over the years, no better savings than that!

Around £2k due to exceptional circumstances. Definitely not enough, as the entire house needs to be redecorated!

I try to save my entire salary, plus a quarter of my husband's (he is the higher earner). We are good at saving and we're building up a nest again. In January we were down to £300 😅

About 17.5k currently.

Single mum so all savings is mine .

I have 45k in savings. 150k in stocks. Some pension.

I'm 46.

About £1200 in my own name.

I have access to plenty of credit though and we have good joint savings for the house etc.

£315 🫣 Grateful to have that though.

This thread is making me twitchy. About 4k in savings.

With £4k in savings @HairyToity you're better off than a lot of people - many surveys that haven't been conducted in a group of people that are disproportionately affluent compared with the population as a whole show that a large percentage have little or very minimal savings (under £1k).

@L1ttledrummergirl

Yes my car is 20 ish years old.

I don't know how I could afford to replace it hence asking

I think raw numbers are meaningless. It depends on your situation and outgoings. I have about 6 months living expenses in easily accessible savings. DH similar plus some joint savings. We are both self employed / consultants so we don’t get paid if we don’t work hence the need to keep a bigger buffer.
However, this is a luxury position to be in. You need to be in a position where you have excess income to have savings at all. Someone who is struggling may have worked harder to have £250 saved than I did to have my savings.

I guess I mean, what is it planned to be spent on? Like is it for a house deposit, or retirement, or is it just a really substantial 'in case of emergency' fund?

Enough that I could book a long weekend holiday to disneyland Paris (I checked a couple of months ago on an idle pondering. It would be around £2k not including food.) and buy the kids school shoes after.

I don't think i have enough savings for all the what ifs and disasters that could befall us, or for a serious splurge on all the things we want to buy or do to the house right now.

Approximately 100k, made up of some inheritance and work savings, DH has the same. We are moving house this year and are looking to pay off around £120k off our mortgage and have the rest as a buffer.

Or you borrow to buy one.

It wouldn't be a very wise decision to limit yourself to whatever work is available in walking distance while you saved up for a car if you could earn thousands/tens of thousands a year more if you had your own transport.

As for what all these savings are for, that depends on what life stage you're at. But if you're at the stage where you have a significant six figure sum, house paid for etc, then it's probably time to start spending it, rather than saving it.

We don't have individual savings.

We have savings accounts, ISA's, shares & PB's in each of our names but that is evenly split to maximise savings limits, eliminate tax on interest etc. If we have to dip into any of the accounts to make a large purchase then we take it from the account which is best placed to permit the withdrawal.
We never label money "his" & "hers" or say "this is for me so it comes out of my account", we are a team and everything is shared equally (odd for MN I know😲).
In fact my OH made a large withdrawal the other week (actually a very significant sum) to buy something we will both use but it all came out of his accounts.

Zero

I have no savings. I live pay cheque to pay cheque. And no, it's not enough!

I'm another one with absolutely nothing in savings. Have always lived pretty hand to mouth. Although I do own my house. 50% mortgaged. My hope is to pay off the mortgage then maybe look at saving.

£60 which will most likely be gone by the end of next week 😁 if I know something needs replacing or is on its last legs I will usually save alot more but we had a couple of treats this month. I also have a separate christmas savings pot. We get by and have a decent lifestyle and I do own my house