What amount of savings would you need/want to have before you stop saving?

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Basically the question in the title. Is there an amount you would be happy with before you would start living a little more etc? Just starting to question why we keep saving so much and wondering if we should stop for a while and be a bit more spendy?

@crappycrapcrap i started by saving £1 a week into an account for ds, plus my mum saved some money for him. It’s worth thinking about.

So ideally, no amount as stability is important to me, and I want to save for my kids’ future, considering COL might be even worse when they grow up.

However, once you get over a certain amount, I believe the interest is taxed, so it may be more beneficial to do other things with spare money such as pay extra off the mortgage.

We have saved a lot and spent a lot! It’s not one or the other. We’ve saved for old age and we’re fast approaching that. On the way we haven’t gone without. We are t saving now but our investments make money and are reinvested. Upon retirement we will draw down from savings.

We won’t stop pension savings until it’s maxed it out!
I’ve got an investment account which I add a £200 a month to, that’s earmarked for university fees for DC.
DH has an investment account which he adds £100 a month to, earmarked for DC post university.
I’ve got 6 months salary tucked away in an ISA which hopefully I’ll not have to touch. DH has the same. These are not currently being added to, we’ve moved those contributions to pensions.
We’ve got a joint savings account that needs building back up due to incurring unexpected house expenses this year - that gets £400 a month
We’ve both got personal easy access savings accounts which get added to monthly but also get hit annually for car expenses mainly. We can have £5k in each of those before we lose the higher interest rate. Average £200 a month each in those.
We also do a £300 a month mortgage overpayment.
A long winded way of saying we’ll never really stop ‘saving’ but we split savings over several different accounts/types and we move the focus depending on what is going on in our lives. We also aren’t afraid to spend money on something we really want to from those savings

To be more specific, that 12 months of income is sacrosanct and we never ever dip into it. It’s in a fixed bond that yields an ok return, so is accessible at any time (but we would lose out on the interest, so really only for dire emergencies).

That means we feel more comfortable spending the rest. But as others have said, the saving mindset is strong, so even then we still save if there’s nothing we really want to spend it on. We sometimes have to tell ourselves to actually enjoy life a bit more now.

We’ve both seen people close to us spiral into debt when we were young and seen the effects of that, so the fear is strong.

I will never stop saving, ever. I think it's a good discipline to get into and whats the alternative? - spending every penny you earn every month- why would you do that if you dont need to, that seems like spending for the sake of it to me which is not a healthy attitude towards money.

As other posters have stated if it it is in you to save I dont think you ever stop. We have realised we have a lot and maybe need to ease up and spend a bit more. We would save a similar if not a bit more on good months to original poster. The teens were so delighted when they were informed that they could have multiple large purchases for Christmas. This is something they are not used too as we have always been saving for their futures and they understand that.

In terms of pension savings, until I retire which may be forced early by ill health or redundancy.it would never be sufficient because I dont earn enough to save enough to support myself without a state pension too. Scary.

In terms of just cash in accounts/isa/premium bonds. All my savings have a purpose, so i stop when the purpose is fulfilled.

I have enough to cover the household bills for 6 months of redundancy or illness strike. This is meant to give me time to stop direct debits, contracts and sell up if need be, as well as look for a job or recover. After that I would be dependent in the state.

Then i went with section which was enough to replace my car, the boiler and see a consultant for a health issue if nhs was too slow.

Then more of a short term account for holidays.

It sounds unnecessarily feast or famine.

We save up but spend chunks of it on a new bathroom, replacing a car etc. Having the saving habit is an important part of being able to afford these things. We are not holding off on all these things until we have all the savings we'll ever need.

I think if I had the mortgage paid off and 12 months worth of salary I would start spending more. We have done holidays before, but it’s driving in Northern Europe or the UK, not flying somewhere exotic.

However we’re a long way off rhe mortgage paid off and that level of savings, and whilst there is “nice” house jobs we put off, things that have to be spent (doors that no longer lock, boilers, fences, etc) are boring and expensive.

I dont have £1000s spare to put away as such. I put small amounts away over a long period of time. So i started saving when i was 17 and started full time work. Its 30 years later now. I didnt just start with 6 months bills put aside in one go. My salary is under 2k. There were some patches such as when childcare fees were high where nothing went in at all.

I said 'ooo I'll have a treat when I reach x amount' in savings...did I...no. I said the same after another £5k saved...nope.
In all honesty apart from holidays I just not fussed about spending money.
Also, I might like to move house so in the back of my brain is the thought that £5k, for example could be that bit extra that gets the house I want rather than wasting it.
I come from a family of savers and from the get go as a child I'd save some of my pocket money. Perhaps sadly I get more pleasure out of saving than spending, other than when I give charity donations. I do like having available money to just give to good causes as they appeal to me

£50k is my ideal amount and I have much more than that in various accounts including PBs, but most will be pulled out next year for a house deposit. When that happens I’ll start saving again to get to £50k.

Agree. I've got quite a high amount of savings but don't really see myself stopping at any point because I've never really started deliberately saving. I just rarely see stuff I want to buy!

I'm focused on retirement savings (into pension, cash ISA and regular savings) and I don't think I'll stop until I'm not in a position to save. I've tried to work out my numbers as to how much will be enough but I honestly don't know. Just keep saving whilst I'm able.

I'd like more in cash ISAs so I can look forward to free interest for the future but I think the chancellor will be putting a stop to that in the next budget (or greatly reducing what I can save) which is a shame. I don't really like the idea of S&S but I'm giving it a go with a small amount.

As others have said, I'm very much a saver, I don't think that will change.

How do you know what "most people you know" do or dont though? I literally have never told my friends or family how much I have in savings and they'd almost definitely be shocked to hear it because they know roughly how much I earn and my lifestyle appears similar to theirs, and I still have the "cost of living is so expensive" moans with them because it still affects me, even if im lucky enough to have a buffer.

I dont earn megabucks either or have "thousands spare" to put away. When I bought my first house 9 years ago I was on a salary of £25k and put down a £55k deposit which was solely from savings, no inheritance or gift etc. As pps have said its mostly a steady drip of small amounts over time. I've been a saver since I had my first part time job at 16 for 2.95 an hour!

I also think never is the answer, but maybe when I retire that will change. Savings build, then we use them for e.g. house renovation, support DCs through uni, so they need to be built back up again.

How do you know what "most people you know" do or dont though? I literally have never told my friends or family how much I have in savings and they'd almost definitely be shocked to hear it

Same here! I am sure my friends wouldnt guess I had that much savings either but I do. I've been squirrelling it away for years. I dont talk about it because why would I? it would simply come across like bragging or like I think I'm superior or something. I never talk about what I have in the bank and I never ask anyone else because it's not my business to know.

We have always saved but more importantly invested, we have retired early. Our pensions and investment returns last year covered all expenses including enough for 2 holidays and dinner out every week.

We have 15 years living expenses saved that are totally safe and for the standard of living we would like, obviously inflation is factored in but it’s a guess with a margin of around 20%. We then have investments that would give another 15 years, these are in moderately risky products, we are almost 60 so there is not enough time to recoup. You do the really risky stuff when young.

Can you not just have a break from saving and enjoy yourself for however long? I regularly don't save some months because I want to buy something or go on holiday. If I had 12 months salary in the bank I'd definitely be enjoying myself now and again. Where do you put your savings?

I feel like there's always something to save for. Like holidays etc.

Assuming I had 6-12 months of our basic outgoings in an account (nowhere near this ATM!) and another which could cover annual fun spending like Christmas, meals out and holidays, then at that point the saving would be overpaying on the mortgage and topping up pensions. At that point tbh I can't imagine we wouldn't have money left over at the end of the month so would probably end up putting more in savings for the kids!

You haven’t given a lot of info. Do you both have pensions and what do they look like? How old are you both? How old are your kids? Do you have a mortgage etc? All of these things will impact on how much savings you need short and long term.

Depends on so many factors like age, lifestyle expectations, income and it's security, how many people you are supporting. Also whether you want to continue working or are looking to give up.

What is a fortune to one person is woefully inadequate to another.

The Financial Flowchart and the 'die with zero' concept will help you decide what is right for you.

Yes good pensions, 2 dc who are 12 and 10, we are late 30’s. We have a mortgage yes. We have over 200k cash savings at the moment between accounts. We will put some into the mortgage.

@Bjorkdidit we will definitely have to continue working. We are not at the stage of being able to give up yet unfortunately. We need to build the pension some more

I’m currently saving to buy a house and whilst I’m earning decent money I’ll continue to save at the rate I am as I won’t be in this location and salary forever, so making the most of it.

I am sensible though and save any bonus or payrise.

I was a nightmare in my 20s and in a lot of debt.