In thinking most people don't have any savings?

[Hammy02]

I was having a conversation with DP last night and he reckons most people in this country have some savings. I said I thought a small percentage might but not the majority. It's hardly a big issue but I just wondered what you thought? I always assumed most people pretty much live on their income and have little, if anything left over at the end of the month?

We had some savings (not tons, a few thousand) but they quickly got swallowed up when I couldn't go back to work after having DD2. Even adjusting our outgoings dramatically left us short each month, as we suddenly lost my 800-1000 a month wage.

We're now saving a little each month but it is short term savings to cover things like the car service and tax, the house insurance and other hefty annual payments. We don't have any long term savings apart from our endowments and equity in our property.

Most of my friends have very little left over each month, especially lately, and none of us are able to save much.

can i just ask,do you good people with pensions set up and contribute yourself 100% or are they through your work

if when older you are single and have no pension provision what happens

I have always believed in saving, after 10 years of SAHM they are seriously diminished and I will start job hunting.

I do think there are far less savers than there has been previously.

With current rates of interest it is no so attractive.

theywill - mine is through work. my old job, they contributed x amount, and I contributed to x. I think my current one is similar (should probably look into this), but my employer does not contribute as much as my last employer did. I have not combined them (as they're with different providers), in the event that one provider goes belly up.

As for what people with no pension provision do ... state pension. That's it. Or helpful DCs (if you have them)

I'm super paranoid about having one (which is arguably a bit dim, as I'm in my twenties), because my parents have practically no provision for their retirement, and are (fortunately? unfortunately?) able to keep working, despite being past retirement age (naturally with their employer's consent). In a way, I am rather annoyed with them because of this, as they seem to have the expectation that my siblings and I will provide all the support they will need and they refuse to take any government assistance as it's "beneath" them. But that's a whole other long thread and possible lifetime of psychiatric treatment.

'What will you do aout the net loss if you don't mind me asking.'

Nothing at present. A good portion of our income now goes to service debt.

It's as Riven says, that's the way it is.

The big problem is that we are on a keyed meter for power. We have to be, as catch up bills on direct debits in the past really screwed us up.

Well, it's an old drafy flat with ancient electric storage heaters and nothing over the floorboards but a couple of rugs.

Our power costs a fortune. About £55/week to run one heater in the living room in winter.

I kid you not.

We were supposed to get gas heating, but then Connaught went bust, so no telling when that will happen.

The cost of food is huge now, and transport.

No, we can't move. We could never afford it, for one.

That's how it is a for a lot of people, we are nothing out of the ordinary.

Oh, our home is rented. We can't make alterations to the heating system ourselves and can't afford carpets without even more debt.

Storage heaters are evil - I refused to look at several houses in cracking locations... because they had the evil money sucking ineffectual things of doom in the photos!

Lived in a flat with them for 4 and a half years - never did manage to get them set so they weren't toasty warm when I was out at work and freezing all evening... these days I'm just freezing in the house on my day on my own because I can't justify having the heating on just for me on me tod. Mind you if the bills come in high I winge at hubby twice over because he puts the heating on, and he works for the evil eleccy company anyway so it's doubly his fault!

expatinscotland you could google or ring EBICO. 0800 458 7689. They don't charge extra for prepayment meters like other companies.

If things are so bad, would it be better to use the services of consumer credit counselling service? Or google or ring them to look at your options. It is free. They work out a budget of your wages etc and outgoings and arrange with your creditors what you can afford to pay. In many cases can stop the interest. It is likely to make you uncreditworthy, so you wouldn't be able to get credit for years and difficult to move,(but you can't afford to move anyway) but at least you would have more money left to live on, pay for heating, pay the rent etc. and still an arrangement to eventually pay debts.

It is nothing out of the ordinary, you and others are right. Lots of people live from month to month and struggle, through no fault of their own.

Wish I had a suggestion for the lack of carpets problem.

oh While I was writing my post, (so slow and keep getting interupted)Riven offered some spare rugs.

do any of you have a secret stash?????

i use to when married not a great deal but ex dh was rubbish with money till i took over

i have never had a joint account and cant imagine sharing the money,yes i was am a control freak

when i said to my friend did she have a secret stash she was horrified

Yes absolutely, we both have money that the other can't get their hands on but we both know it exists if that makes sense.

ah yes i meant that the other dosent know about

'It is likely to make you uncreditworthy, so you wouldn't be able to get credit for years and difficult to move,(but you can't afford to move anyway) but at least you would have more money left to live on, pay for heating, pay the rent etc. and still an arrangement to eventually pay debts.'

That's why we don't do it. Once DS goes to school, we'll be able to swap out shifts and both go FT again, barring catastrophe and hopefully pay it all off. But our debts are another big part of our problem.

It started back in 2005, when tax credits claimed we overpayed and cut us off pending appeal.

We went into free fall, living off cards, until DH was able to find a part-time evening/weekend job around my day job.

Seven months later, our appeal was upheld, as there was overwhelming written evidence that the error was theirs.

They paid us £100 compensation.

We were privately-renting in Edinburgh at the time, the third-most expensive city in the UK.

We had racked up about £4000 of debt from which we never truly recovered.

We just have the one rug in the living room, Riven. It was all we could afford.

Sometimes, every now and again, I play Lotto if it gets high, and I always think of you and another friend. How I'd just get rid of your mortgage, if it were me who won.

I have v. little actual cash saved.

But I do overpay my mortgage by about 50% each month.

This is more cost effective as my mortgage interest rate is sig. higher than the interest rate on any available savings account.

As for pension. Once I tire of living like this or have very ill health, if I'm so blessed as to live until my children are adults, I will stop taking the drugs that control my blood pressure and, probably in the near future, my heart condition, and let nature take its course the way my uncle did once his wife died.

Everyone who can should save as it will give you a buffer to fall back on, although with interest rates at their current level and the high rate of inflation you aren't getting a great return on them. I think the Government should look to incentivise saving more

I don;t have a pension either; we both did and now we can;t afford it. That seems to be life. DH plans to work for ever, he prefers his job to not doing anything and is self employed anyway: let's hope he can do it.

Every time I get back to work something happens- got a greatc areer job, ds1 diagnosed with ASD. Got my degree and ready to train as a teacher- ds3 diagnosed. Started MA- ds2 picked up with issues at school. planning to do social work cobnversion- ds4 is regressing.

it ain't gonna happen but I can't not be about either ebcuase I will always be carer to at elast one, potentially more of them.

Some savings that we don't touch at all - emergency funds.

We stopped adding to it about 2 years ago when I stopped working. Hope some time soon to get a job and we can start saving again, but with only one salary coming in, times are tight.

We save just over 1/3 of DH's pay each month, goes into ISA, some stocks, mortgage overpayment and savins for the children.

I don't have a pension though which is a bit of a worry.

DP and I both have great pension schemes. I have two and he has one. I didn't realise that pensions were so unusual.

However, we have no savings (well, £220 currently). DP's all got eaten up buying us a house and I'm ten years younger than DP and was previously utterly terrible with money, so I've really been concentrating on paying off debts for the last two years. In about four months I'll be at the stage where my personal debt is only my student loan and our combined debts are only the mortgage and car loan.

We're having dc1 in April, so saving is starting in earnest for baby stuff. We'll probably spend £1k on baby stuff and save after that. I figure that excluding baby costs I'll be £330 a month better off in April (less petrol on mat leave, child benefit, loan and credit card paid off), and DP will have paid his student loan entirely and we won't be going on holiday abroad so we'll be able to save a bit more for a rainy day.

We overpay our mortgage and try to maintain a buffer, fortunately DH makes a champagne salary and we have beer tastes so it is not too hard for us. Our buffer has taken a hammering with our move back to oz though so we are both feeling a little uncomfortable, still overpaying the mortgage but that cash is not really accessible in an emergency. We don't use a credit card if we don't have the money in the bank to pay it off so no debts apart from the mortgage.

'We'll probably spend £1k on baby stuff'

Please don't. It's used for such a short time and the more you can get second-hand/free the better.