2/5 of people have less than £100 in savings

[Jorginho5]

your thoughts?

I am not surprised. Everything has gone up in price but many people are struggling to either: find a full time job or better job than the one they currently have.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-4348544/Two-fifths-UK-s-workers-100-savings.html

I'm amazed that so many on here have savings but also mortgages. These savings are nothing more than a mirage. You're paying the bank for the privilege of borrowing your own money, now how daft is that!?

The only people I know who seem to have money are retired people with no mortgages and final salary pensions.

I have no savings and a load of debt (car, credit card, finance - about £21K). I massively worry about money every day especially as I’m on maternity leave and when I go back we’ll have 2 childcare bills on top of everything else. Our second child came as a surprise quite quickly after the first and during a house purchase and renovation. Any savings we had are now long gone with no chance of improving for years. I don’t have money to buy food half the time never mind save!

Do you remember the heady days when mortgage/rent was only meant to be 1/3rd of your income. It's no wonder people can't afford to save with massive property prices (and deposits needed to buy) and high private rents.

It's ideal to have a good amount of savings before deciding to start TTC. If you find yourself pregnant you have almost 9 months to save something before the birth, ideally more than £100.

I quite believe the number of people with less than £100 in savings is 40% and I'm surprised it isn't higher. 70% of families are living in poverty.

disquieted We have a mortgage which could be paid off with our savings. It isn't worth it for us. DH has a business which might go through a downturn in the next couple of years and we would like to renovate. We are looking to spend about £250-300k as we will double the size our home creating enough room so we don't have to move. Also, maintaining a home is expensive. I had one winter where I had to replace the washer, one radiator and the boiler. Set me back almost £5k and that was 10+ years ago.

Each to their own.
Generally though I don't understand the idea of having money, lending it to the bank for maybe 1% interest, only for them to lend on a mortgage at 4% that you then take out.
You're paying 3% to borrow your own money!

I think people are deliberately misconstruing what @Savvy is saying. If I may be so bold - I think what she’s conveying is that it’s irresponsible to make an affirmative choice to have a child knowing that you have absolutely no financial safety net. She’s not encouraging a Swiftian solution to the issue or some kind of Cathy Come Home scenario. Only on MN is it controversial to say that you should have some kind of financial backup in place before you bring a child into the world 🙄

We recently bought a new home which ate into the vast majority of our savings. Then I loss my job (mutual agreement for me to leave, essentially pushed though) and it took a month before I could start my current job. It means this month we have to live off our savings as we were missing out on my pay (I'm the breadwinner). On top of that we had to buy a new family car (previous car was a company car and new job doesn't provide one but I need one for work & family) and our boiler broke... luckily my mum has come to the financial rescue and paid for both but now we are in debt to her with no savings.

All this means that this month we are living off £20 a week for groceries, just glad DS(1) is off formula. I'm grateful this is only for 1 month and, although we will still have no savings for a while, we will at least be comfortable again soon.

DH puts money into a share save each month but I see this doesn't count as savings as it is an investment. Not many have cash savings as interest rate is so low. Shares are not counted in this even though you can sell them at any time and this is how we fund large purchases in our household.

So DH could be in this 2/5 people as although I have a normal savings account, DH doesn't.

I think for some people though they prioritise over things over savings, it’s a mindset. I could tell you of at least 10 families I know who have no savings but go on £5k holidays every year, weekends away, new cars.

There will be a really wide range of reasons why this is the case so it is not something that can be generalised. There will be people that:

1. are on low wages and can’t make ends meet to manage day to day life let alone save.

2. people with poor money management who prioritise other things

3. people who face unexpected life events like retirement, sickness, disability and have no choice.

4. people facing temporary high costs/life events like moving house, 2 kids in nursery, building work, mat leave costs etc.

5. people who effectively have savings but class it as something different (I.e people overpaying a mortgage or classing investments as being different. I’ve heard people say they have no savings but are sat on large pension pots for example.

I’ve been in the 4th category but was lucky enough to know it would be temporary. Otherwise I am a saver by nature and feel very uncomfortable without having a safety net of cash, long-term investments etc. One of my friends is firmly in the second. He’s always been crap with money, had 30k plus on credit cards but was a high earner.

It is the people in the first and third categories that deserve sympathy rather than comments about ‘irresponsibility’. There is something very wrong when so many people are paid below the real living wage.

I am not sure if I am surprised. I'm curious what the saving rate is like along my generation (mid 20's) because I certainly don't have the mindset that I must put x away etc, it was very much I want a house let's get a deposit sorted and then all the money has had to go on the house(s). If you net off interest free credit cards we have a few k and are trying to build on it now. I have good sick pay, DH's is OK, we both have income protection and life insurance so anything over £5k and I'd be reasonably happy.

I think this, depressingly, shows how unequal our country is. Seems like people either have tens of thousands or basically nothing.

We’re about to zero out our savings with a house move then be unable to save much for a year until DS starts school. It does make me nervous but I think it’ll pay off overall.

I don’t understand the poster saying you shouldn’t have savings until your mortgage is paid off. What if your boiler packs up? Or you want to replace your car or your kitchen? Also I can only overpay 10% a year.

I think people are deliberately misconstruing what@Savvyis saying. If I may be so bold - I think what she’s conveying is that it’s irresponsible tomake an affirmative choice to have a child knowing that you have absolutely no financial safety net. She’s not encouraging a Swiftian solution to the issue or some kind of Cathy Come Home scenario. Only on MN is it controversial to say that you should have some kind of financial backup in place before you bring a child into the world 🙄

Thanks triwarrior! There are actually some sensible people on here it seems haha. I mean how utterly ridiculous to suggest people should be able to support their children financially before they breed

Should only rich people have A child then Savvy? Savings are ideal but actually you can build these up during the course of your child's life.
Are you really suggesting if savings are not possible due to low paid jobs or circumstances then you should not have a child?

In an ideal world we would all have savings.

I found myself a single parent after domestic abuse. My ex partner cleared me out. He left me in masses of debt and emptied the house we shared. I was then evicted.

Luckily I worked and I managed. We sat on the floor for years as I couldn't afford a sofa. It has taken me 7 years to clear all the debt and only now am I in a position to save. I have about £500.

I am about to move from private rental to council where my rent will half and I intend to save the difference to buy my own house in 5 years.

I think the issue is the two very different faces of the argument.

1. It's best to be able to afford to have children, before you have them.

I think that's a reasonably sensible argument and in the best interests of the children.

The problem comes when you follow that to its logical end, because that would mean that

2. 2/5 of the UK population shouldn't be allowed to have children.

But that's obviously bloody ridiculous!

I don't know how to reconcile those two in my head to be honest...

Weve got a couple of thousand but that's it, enough to cover emergency things but not job loss etc. Our surplus cash goes into getting shot of the mortgage as early as possible.

@SavvySaver24

How much do you actually have in savings, then? Unless it's more than 10k I don't really see why you're boasting, that could easily get wiped out.

I actually agree with savvy. UK feels like a twilight zone at the moment. Responsible adults would plan about having children and how they provide for them. Not expecting the government to feed their children. Maybe because I have lived from a country with no cushion whatsoever so people have experienced the worst. Say what you want but many many parents here are irresponsible. I am not saying poor people should not have children but let's face it. It isnt ideal, having children is a privilege not a right. Your child could starve if say the situation changes and the benefit pot is empty. As parents you are solely responsible for their wellbeing. What are you going to do then?

In a nutshell savvy is saying irresponsible to have a child with less than £100 in savings.

I really can’t see what’s so wrong with that assertion. Seems sensible to me.

To the PP who criticised people's grammar and spelling, god you must be so perfect. I speak 4 languages and I edit my post as I type and can't be bothered to fix it even if I spot a mistake. I am sorry you are that angry and sad.