Page 8 | To ask how much you have in savings...

MakeAHouseAHome · 2018-10-09T19:25:19+00:00

We have just transferred virtually ALL our money over to our solicitor for our first house. I have gone from having nearly £60k to much much less than that. I know everyone does it haha, but just feeling un-nerved at losing that nice safety blanket and I will be immediately starting to build it back up again. Just interested in how much people have in their savings accounts?

Alwayscheerful · 10/10/2018 08:58

@SandysMam Re -overpayment on your mortgage.
I would leave your dIrect debit as it is. Your bank or building society will continue to take the correct minimum monthly payment.
Call your bank and building society and ask for the bank details and reference number account to set up an additional regular monthly payment as a standing order, that way you are in charge of setting it up and adjusting the amount as necessary going forward,
Use the account details to set up a one off online payment and then save the details for future use, that way you can make random one off payments as and when funds allow.
A three way approach will ensure you always make your minimum payment but allow you to reduce your balance and interest paid,

SweetSummerchild · 10/10/2018 08:59

Can I ask how you save and end up with £50k or £100k, has that been saved, earned, gifted?

It’s a combination of things.

£50 a month into stocks and shares ISA over 18 years. Some of those funds were bought right at the bottom of the market

£150 a month into DH’s company share-save schemes for several different employers. When they ‘matured’ any money we didn’t ‘need’ went into savings

Pension lump sum from early retirement

Saving small monthly amounts into riskier investments in stocks and shares can pay off hugely in the longer term (particularly when interest rates are so low).

CaseStudyResearch · 10/10/2018 09:02

We’ve managed to accrue it in similar ways to Shmithe, although different countries.

DH has unique skills, which means he gets paid handsomely but we have to go to where the work is. It will be tricky when we have DC but no family near us at all.

NorthernRunner · 10/10/2018 09:04

£2,000 in my savings account and I’m proud of that. Got married and had a honeymoon this year so that money is just saved over past couple of months.
I’ve never been a saver before but I’m enjoying seeing the money in my account slowly creep up

Vegisgrowingwell · 10/10/2018 09:05

A lot less than I had. My parents had lots of savings and had planned to go travelling but cancer put a stop to that. We now live for the moment rather than save for our old age. You can't spend it from a coffin!

JessieLemon · 10/10/2018 09:05

I have £4500 and OH has £10k (we’re not married, separate accounts but saving ‘together’ for our first property and a baby).

18 months ago I had zero. This is the first time in my entire life I’ve ever had anything saved, it feels miraculous. I used to be in debt. I grew up poor on a council estate and worked NMW jobs for the first decade of my working life. If you’d ever have told me I’d have even £500 in savings I’d have told you you were being ridiculous. I thought savings wasn’t for people like me, if that makes sense.

I save £400 per month now (managed to increase my income quite significantly over the past three or four years via further studying, going for promotions and hard work). We have a help to buy ISA each earmarked solely for a house and a separate account each earmarked to save for a baby but we may well amalgamate the two and pool our resources for a mortgage if we decide to go for that before a baby comes along.

I find these threads very interesting as money isn’t really talked about in our culture. I genuinely pinch myself when I open my banking app and see it sat there as I’ve been so so poor before I couldn’t even afford £7 for a prescription for an infection as I got sicker and sicker. I know I’m incredibly fortunate.

TchoupiEtDoudou · 10/10/2018 09:08

We don't overpay our mortgage as it's fixed rate 0.96% and 15 years. We prefer to build up our savings again (bought recently so most went on the deposit) to spend on holidays etc and just to have a buffer in case it's needed, without having to sell our home.

First flat we bought we had zero savings left over. Built them up for 4 years then sold and bought a new flat with equity + all our savings. Again left with zero. Built up savings again for 6 years and sold and bought current flat with equity + savings but this time kept some savings back just in case. Didn't get our maximum mortgage either just in case.

PeasAreGreat · 10/10/2018 09:09

3k but will be 4k on payday. Just bought our first home too so expecting another 2k to come out of that for final solicitors fees etc.

Lobsterquadrille2 · 10/10/2018 09:09

Middle ground. About £25k but I have £340k in equity, due to mortgage overpayments. And still a bit worried because it's only ever been "me" (plus DD) rather than "us".

I remember only too well exactly the feeling of all the money I'd saved having suddenly disappeared when I bought, 14 years ago. I'm definitely an ant not a grasshopper.

Solina · 10/10/2018 09:18

We have around £15000 but have been saving a lot for our first house together since the beginning of the year. We need a bit more for the 10% deposit so the money will be gone in few months when we hit the target and have found a house.

The plan is to start saving up again as soon as we have the house so that we have a safety net and money to do up the house we buy as it will definitely be a dump.

We are both in our 20s but earn a decent salary together which is why we have been able to save so much so quickly whilst paying quite a high rent. Most of my friends are not in a same situation at all though so we are quite lucky. We are also good with money which I have found to be rare after hearing friends and colleagues talking about money.

IrmaFayLear · 10/10/2018 09:23

This question is also dependent on how old you are and if you have paid off a mortgage.

As pp have said, most new house buyers use every last penny. We were literally pleased to find 5p down the side of the sofa 15 years ago.

Now have a bit of savings, but not nearly enough as we have no pensions (back story).

Some of my contemporaries are now getting large inheritances. It's all very well saying, "Oh, well, I'd rather have the person here," but I'm talking about elderly people dying, not losing people before their time. One person I know has just inherited £1.5m. Her dm had a house in a London suburb, just an ordinary house really, bought in the 1960s for 50p or thereabouts. Another person has just bought her dcs a flat each with the proceeds of two relatives' houses. Envious? Nah, not me... (growling that dh and I have no Great Expectations).

Openup41 · 10/10/2018 09:29

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

JessieLemon · 10/10/2018 11:22

Some of my contemporaries are now getting large inheritances. It's all very well saying, "Oh, well, I'd rather have the person here," but I'm talking about elderly people dying, not losing people before their time. One person I know has just inherited £1.5m. Her dm had a house in a London suburb, just an ordinary house really, bought in the 1960s for 50p or thereabouts. Another person has just bought her dcs a flat each with the proceeds of two relatives' houses. Envious? Nah, not me... (growling that dh and I have no Great Expectations).

I think it’s fair enough to be envious of people who’ve been left money in an inheritance, it makes life so much easier. When I lost my mum when I was in my early twenties she had nothing so I really really struggled financially to scrape up the money for her funeral and a headstone, but I found most people assumed that losing her would mean I’d inherit at least something.

Most people I think who lose a loved one end up with no inheritance at all, the death can mean a financial strain due to having to find money for funerals, having one less income in the house, and it’s absolutely horrible trying to grieve while stressing about money, being unable to have any time off work if you don’t have sick pay etc.

I am totally unashamedly envious of those who lost parents or grandparents or uncles and aunts and ended up with a windfall. While it’s awful to be bereaved, the financial freedom and lack of stress that comes from an inheritance is a humongous gift that I don’t think many people really appreciate. It’s okay to acknowledge that. I know most people say they’d give it all back to have the person back, which I’m sure is true, but you can’t deny that having that money is incredibly lucky when so many people lose loved ones and have to deal with the financial consequences and stress too.

JessieLemon · 10/10/2018 11:25

IrmaFayLear I think people get quite defensive if it’s ever acknowledged that being in a position to inherit is extremely lucky because it’s basically highlighting that the person hasn’t done anything for that money themselves and it’s pure luck they ended up with it. As someone who lost their much loved and missed mum and ended up deeper in debt because of it, trust me when I say I’d much rather have been in the position where I lost her but had a financial breather or leg up (onto the properly ladder for example or enough to have a bit of time off work when grieving).

thegreylady · 10/10/2018 11:39

About £5000 no debts no mortgage

NanooCov · 10/10/2018 11:44

Nothing. But I've just got to the end of my second maternity leave so that has wiped us out. I do have about £15k in shared though. And we own our home.

onewayoflife · 10/10/2018 12:02

Can I ask how you save and end up with £50k or £100k, has that been saved, earned, gifted?

We saved £165k to buy a house but have very little savings currently due to buying the house and then spending a lot renovating it. None of that was inherited or gifted. We just lived frugally and saved between £1500 and £2000 every month from our wages for quite a long time.

VanGoghsDog · 10/10/2018 12:26

The only way to save is, obviously, to have lower outgoings than incomings.

In the past I have rented out a room in my house, I've had three jobs at once, that sort of thing. I spent £12k doing a law degree over seven years now I have more job opportunities and better pay.
I reduce outgoings by not having things like Sky TV, having a cheap phone, my last car was traded in after 220k miles, take lunches to work not buy them......and so on.
I carefully work out how to pay least tax and maximise any interest on savings.

Madmarchpear · 10/10/2018 12:29

About 17k. About to be wiped out on a new kitchen and dining room.

Thebluedog · 10/10/2018 12:29

I put about £900 a month in shares and pension. Got nothing that I could lay my hands on right now tho

smudgedlipstick · 10/10/2018 13:08

We just bought or first home last month so it's gone from nearly 30k to around 2k in the space of a month 😂

MissConductUS · 10/10/2018 13:20

Can I ask how you save and end up with £50k or £100k, has that been saved, earned, gifted?

Saving in low risk vehicles like bank accounts and short term bonds is necessary to have easy access (aka liquidity) to money for emergencies. Investing in riskier assets like stocks is what really makes you money in the long run. The best bet in the long run is a passively managed index fund:

www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/index-active-products

Stock index fund shares that I bought in 2008 are now worth more than double what I paid for them, but I don't rely on them for short term needs.

Openup41 · 10/10/2018 14:59

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

basquiat · 10/10/2018 15:13

How we saved a lot of money despite having young kids:

Bought a cheap house in the middle of nowhere for less than we sold our inner-city flat for (resulting in a tiny mortgage)
Reduced food bills by growing half of our food
Reduced utility bills by using renewable energy supplies
I quit work = free childcare
OH worked for himself meaning salary was directly proportional to hours worked, and so he worked many, many hours for a few years

That was enough to get us comfortable.

user187656748 · 10/10/2018 15:15

Can I ask how you save and end up with £50k or £100k, has that been saved, earned, gifted?

Earned. But we both earn very good amounts.