Or do you call this normal?? Savings!!

[Tryingtostayyoung]

So just looking for opinions, DH works full time, I'm a SAHM and we are both under 30 (not sure if this is relevant but thought I would say because we've not been working as long as people who are say late 30s). We live in a 3 bed house with one DD, mortgage to pay, 2 cars etc etc (sorry giving all these details to paint a picture)
what do people generally have saved? I think me and DH have ok savings, currently £1500 in the joint and I have £900 and he has around £1000.
Was talking to one of my best friends and they seem to have a lot more which made me think are we not saving enough?!

We've about £85k in a combination of cash, ISA's and shares. On our income we should have more but we pay 2 sets of school fees and enjoy going out, having holidays and enjoying ourselves. We have critical illness cover and life insurance plus DH has life insurance through work and I'd get a pension so we are fairly sorted and very lucky.

We pay lumps off our interest only mortgage, more than we would pay off by having a repayment mortgage. We've around £550 - £600k equity in the house so aren't overly worried about paying off the mortgage as there's more than enough there to downsize and to be mortgage free. We are just 40.

OP the problem with threads like these is they end up being a competitive smugathon. (A bit like the competitive light drinkers "a teaspoon of sherry and I'm hammered"). Anonymous strangers on the internet seeking to validate (or even make up) their lifestyle choices. So you will not get a picture of what average people save. Personally I cringe for some of those who feel they need to announce their savings to random strangers.
Money speaks but wealth whispers.

I have about £1000. But that's soon going to be wiped out by holiday and car stuff. I owe £4800 on a short term loan through the bank. No other debt. I save £40 a week at the moment and pay £100 a month into a pension. Am a single working parent in a council house, so any rent/income if I were made redundant would be covered by benefits, albeit crappy. Once I'm earning more when DC are at senior school, I shall try and save more.

What is wrong with answering the question?

And I'm mid thirties, with twelve years of pension contributions in a local government scheme. So hoping that helps in many years to come.

I'm 25, DH is 31. Both work full time, I'm also a student. We have a mortgage, a little credit card debt and about £4K left to pay off a personal loan, zero savings. We won't even be thinking about savings until we've paid off all the debt! Circumstances vary so widely that I don't think there is a reasonable amount to have in savings, just save what you can!

I'd feel ok if we had £10k in the bank, we have a lot more but if we moved or extended I would aim to keep £10k back - we'd be comfortable for six months with that sum. We are mid 30s with a single income, two kids and a small mortgage for London - 18% of monthly take home pay.

I've always loved saving and I'm not a spender so it's easy, DH has just got a few £k bonus, a lot more than last year and I never anticipate him getting anything so the money is straight into savings when it hits the account tomorrow. And when I return to work I'll be saving everything over the cost of childcare and commuting. We won't spend the extra money just because we have it. I purposely save money each month to cover annual costs - this can save money as paying monthly can be more expensive, if we pay less than budgeted or manage to pay using the current account we then automatically save that sum.

I have all our savings in accounts earning 3-5% which makes about £130 a month. Our mortgage is only 2.5% so we are much better off not over paying on our mortgage. As I don't earn it is mostly in my name. And now most people can earn up to £1k per year in interest without being taxed on it. It's much better having money in savings than overpaying for us because it's much more flexible, if we hit financial trouble we would have immediate access to cash rather than being refused a remortgage. I would rather take a mortgage out if we extended, eg £50k extra, than empty our savings. Some people use 0% credit cards to spend and transfer the cash they would've spent into savings to earn interest. We taken loans when not needed to keep a decent amount in savings. Debt isn't always bad if carefully managed.

Attitudes to finances are personal.

I'm self employed (expecting dc1) DH is employed but has just changed careers so is earning substantially less than he used to.

We have a mortgage (north London flat)
1 car
I have savings of £30k (£15k in investments, £15k in cash)
DH has savings of £7k
We have joint savings of £9k
I have about £5k in my current acct
DH has about £1k
We have £3k in our joint current account

Despite this, can we afford a house? Can we fuck!!!

I know that sounds like a lot of money but DH was made redundant when a company he moved to went under.
I had just gone self employed

Without my savings (DH had none in those days) we would have been in dire straits. I would have had to take another job as well as working on my start up. It has taken me a while to build my emergency fund back up.

My advise is to save as much as you feel you comfortably can. We needed 9 months mortgage and I'm thankful I had it. We could have asked for a break or to go interest only for a while but thankfully didn't need to.

I was brought up in a family where money was always very tight. Uniforms and shoes were saved for. Broken appliances were a nightmare and food was inexpensive. I think I have inherited my mother's obsessive budgeting and saving but with different overheads and a different income. But I feel comfortable and confident that we won't be wiped out of another series of unfortunate events befalls us (because of course the washing machine and Hoover died in that same period too) and that's what's important.

Each to their own. DH used to be a man who could spend his (bloody good) salary and get to the end of the months with £1 and be happy. Loosing his job was a massive wake up call and he's a little more frugal but still buys lunch out all the time!!!

Money speaks but wealth whispers.

I wish that sodding tenner I dropped had spoken a bit more bloody loudly.

If anyone finds it, PM me.

We had very little savings when we started out. We are ok now because we took risks.. I recall a period when ds was about one when we had £7.39 to get through four days. DH is professional, I'd given up a high paying job to be a sahm because ds was sickly.

We stretched ourselves in the early 90s, taking a huge risk. We have always spent money to make money but rarely on fripperies and are careful about discretionary spending.

I am 28 and DH is 32, I have around £18k in personal savings, DH has around £20k plus £100k that were donated to him and are currently sitting in his account (but he is not to use those money). No DC, no rent and no mortgage, only bills + council tax + management fees.

I was made redundant last month and I honestly thank God I saved all I could while I was employed. Now I am unemployed but I don't need to accept the first crappy offer that comes through, I can afford to be picky and look for the right job for several months, if necessary.

I wouldn't have this luxury if I had no savings.

I had no savings in my 20s and was heavily invested and in debt (I was in debt to the tune of high six figures) but that was whilst I was building business. It's now the complete opposite and we could save £££. I chose to invest instead, stock market, properties, etc. I don't think keeping a lot of liquid cash is useful. I make our money work hard!