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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How much do you have saved

324 replies

Sergio4 · 31/05/2018 23:20

And how much of your salary do you save every month?

I have about a thousand saved and save around a few hundred a month as I am looking for a better job

OP posts:
coastalchick · 01/06/2018 17:28

37k

1100pcm going into savings, 635 into pension.

But have a property in London with only approx 90k left on mortgage worth 450k which will be fully paid off in 10 years so will be income from then on.

OH saves too though not exactly sure what as he tends to invest in stock market but has doubled his money in a year. He also has a flat rented out with about 100k equity in it.

175k equity in house we live in

But I still worry we won’t hsve enough (even though have done sums and we will)

LifeBeginsAtGin · 01/06/2018 17:30
Confused
Orangecake123 · 01/06/2018 17:40

3.8k saving for my first home, but I'm still a full time student.

Heroo · 01/06/2018 17:43

About £10k but I overstretched myself on the house purchase and subsequent renovations, into which I had to use interest free credit cards.

So I cleared those and now saying £500 a month and £200 mortgage over payment.

auditqueen · 01/06/2018 17:57

I'm building up some savings now but for many years I was on my own and earning around £1200 a month after tax. After I'd paid £800 for rent on a bedsit, £200+ for commuting costs I was left with £200 for food, bills and paying off the debts my ex husband left me with.

What exactly was I supposed to have saved?

There are a lot of people in this country in this position. Prior to that I was living in a £500K house that my wealthy in laws had bought for us for our wedding present. I had a job earning £50K a year and my husband was earning £40k a year. We saved about £1k a month. Trouble was, my husband was a professional gambler and in the space of 6 months we lost everything we had and more besides. He took out loans and credit cards in my name to pay his debts and never paid them back. He was abusive to me and I had to use what little money I had to pay solicitors fees and for a restraining order, p,us the divorce. Then I lost my home and my job and move to the other end of the country to find work. Life can change quickly and sometimes once the savings are gone, they are gone. Maybe some of the smug people on these types of threads need to pay attention to that.

Openup41 · 01/06/2018 18:07

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

LifeBeginsAtGin · 01/06/2018 18:27

But AuditQueen I thought you had a trust fund?

ASauvignonADay · 01/06/2018 18:29

Nothing, but have just bought a flat so savings went into the deposit. Now need to save to do renovations!

theSnuffster · 01/06/2018 18:43

About 5k, but we're looking at booking our first holiday abroad, which has to be in school holidays, so about half of that will be gone! I don't save regularly, just as and when I have a bit left at the end of the month I'll transfer it to my savings account.

lanbury · 01/06/2018 18:53

What are you all saving FOR? Is it old age or have you something in mind for it

I posted way up thread saying that whilst I try to save, the unexpected things in life keep eating away at it. What I would like to be saving for is the unexpected things in old age. I would like to have the luxury of choosing my care. I refuse to be a burden to my son and I'm terrified of "rotting" in some dodgey care home. Ideally I would like to be able to stay in my own home and be able to afford someone to come and help me. But then i might get run over by a bus tomorrow and wished I'd blown the lot in Las Vegas!!

DragonMamma · 01/06/2018 18:56

People on here are a lot better than me. I try and save but not to the detriment of actually living.

We have about £8.5k at the moment and we overpay on our mortgage. We could save more, of course we could but then the DC would have to give up theirs activities, we wouldn’t be able to go on days out and frankly, I didn’t have kids to spend their childhood saving for retirement.

I’m happy with the balance we have.

mizu · 01/06/2018 19:00

£100 Grin we've just bought a flat and did have £12,500.

Mortgage will be more than rent so won't be saving much for a while...

auditqueen · 01/06/2018 19:02

But AuditQueen I thought you had a trust fund

Yes, I did. When I was 21. It was used to pay my way through University, my postgrad studies and to live on when my husband started gambling. I'm now 45. It's long gone.

SporadicSpartacus · 01/06/2018 19:24

I’m in my early 30s and married. We have about 4k joint savings, around £1500 in my personal pot, and are saving about 500 a month. Once we’ve paid our loan we’ll be able to save more.

I would like our rainy day pot to be a bit more full, but we’ve got about 80k equity in the house and have just had some work done to it, which wiped out most of what we had, but probably increased its value and definitely made it nicer to live in.

On the whole, I feel pretty secure financially, although my pension is pretty much worthless. I can’t get motivated to improve it as even if I paid my entire disposable income in, there wouldn’t be even close to enough to keep me in old age. I think not living that long looks like the best option; maybe avocado-related heart disease will get me.

MilkyCoffeeAndSkinnySyrup · 01/06/2018 20:40

Roughly around 7k

Dopplerineffect · 01/06/2018 21:56

I had savings and a 4 bed detached at 28.

I am now 38 and trying to save a deposit to start again. I am actually in debt so no real savings desite working as a teacher

I won’t describe the details why as its a long story.All I can say is those that judge others; just hope life doesn’t change and totally turn you around as it can happen.

I am going back to posting on MSE the people are more realistic abd less judgy.

AgnesBrownsCat · 01/06/2018 22:00

To the poster who asked why I’m saving - I’m saving in case I ever become unable to work and can’t earn .
There are too many horror stories on here about people in good jobs who through no fault of their own find themselves relying on the whim of the government. I grew up without very much , it was character building but absolutely shite most of the time . I’d do anything to avoid that for my family , so I’m very careful with money .
I eat good food , buy books , go out to eat monthly , holiday every couple of years or so and generally have a happy and contented life now .

When people refer to not understanding why people don’t save ,they’re not referring to people who are unable to . I’m sure they mean those who can but don’t bother.

aaarrrggghhhh · 01/06/2018 22:08

AgnesBrownsCat

very sensible. Do you have income protection insurance? Everyone should have income protection insurance unless they are on the absolute breadline but its really underused in the UK I find.

About 95% of claims are paid out (which is higher than house insurance) and can be an absolute life saver.

AgnesBrownsCat · 01/06/2018 22:21

No I don’t have income protection as I work part time and only earn about 14 k a year . I do have life insurance as does my husband . We have invested in property which will provide us with a pension when we need it . At the moment the income from it is being saved to buy another property. We also another venture which provides a good return over a 20 year period . We only had to provide the site . This is also being saved . I do realise that saving for a rainy day sounds like a miserable existence to some but I have a good life ( better than I ever imagined when I was a kid ) so I want to make sure that is passed onto my children and perhaps my grandchildren .

SporadicSpartacus · 02/06/2018 09:40

Isn’t income protection basically PPI in new packaging?

I did have a look into it, but so many things were excluded it didn’t seem worth bothering. I’ve just sort of constructed my lifestyle so that I could afford it on minimum wage, if I needed to.

To the poster who’s starting again - Flowers and no judgement. Shit happens and it doesn’t make you financially unwise. I had more savings at 21 than I do now and they all went on ex-husband related costs.

DragonMamma · 02/06/2018 12:26

We have accident, sickness and unemployment cover for both me and DH. I’m not sure if it’s PPI in new packaging as we never had that previously but it saved our bacon when DH was made redundant whilst I was on extended mat leave and he took 6 months to get another role (his work is frustratingly niche!). It paid the mortgage and insurance for up to a year

twinkledag · 02/06/2018 14:20

No savings just debt from endless rounds of failed ivf 😩

manicmij · 02/06/2018 17:59

Not enough!

BunsyGirl · 02/06/2018 18:06

DH and I have about 30K in long term savings between us. We could have more but my mum died at 61 after receiving one month of her state pension (she never got to claim her work pension). We prioritise having fun with our children including as many holidays as we can afford. Life is far too short.

windygallows · 02/06/2018 18:07

All this thread shows is the importance of having a man to help build up your wealth. I'm fairly confident the majority of those on the thread with high savings are in this situation because of the contribution of income from a (probably quite high earning ) man, so not really something to be smug about unless you like boasting about marrying well.

The issue of savings is actually an important political issue about women's wealth. More important than the 'pay gap' is the women's wealth gap. Did you know that women only OWN something like 35p on the pound compared to men? It's a shocking statistic.

I myself am a single parent and despite having a good pension pot have no savings at all. Better go out and get me a man!