To ask how much you have in savings and what you are saving for?

[Watermelonade]

Before anyone jumps on me, this is not a boasting thread. A few years ago we had nothing and felt like we were drowning, so now I am very cautious with money and save, save, save.

I have 8000 which is strictly for emergencies and is never touched.

Then I've just started a holiday fund which has a small amount of 550 in it.

What about you?

On what is the future - well it is a good idea to put some money aside for the future rather than assume you might die this year so no point in saving it. Examples of that are the FLDS group in the US - told by their prophet the end of the world was coming at various times, they sold businesses, gave the money to the group and waited and it never happened; or occasionally people are wrongly told they are dying so spend every penny and then find out they are going to live.

Most people feel happier with some savings as a cushion against hard times and lots sensibly save up for goals of various kinds. I believe 1 in 4 people in the UK doesn't have a penny of savings.

I have £7k & I’m saving up to sell up & relocate.

I don’t know how much I need to save though

We have £6k saved for:

• Mat leave starting Jan
• Baby stuff
• Any bits needed for the house we will shortly be moving into (rented)

We have all the school fees for 2 x DC from now (age 8 & 10) all the way through to 18. It's a lot on paper, but given DH lost his job in November and doesn't seem at all bothered about looking for a new one, it will get spent. Which will leave us with nothing going into retirement. I'm not impressed with DH's attitude right now.

What a lot of pointlessly stroppy posts! Being curious about what people are saving up for is no stranger than many of the gazillions of threads people start about what other people get up to. People like to be able to compare other people's lives with their own. It's perfectly normal human curiosity. If it offends you or makes you paranoid suspicious, why click on the thread?

We've got about £7000 in savings - we are saving up for a new kitchen. Planning on getting some quotes soon, just so we have an idea of how much longer we'll need to save.

Yes, if people aren't interested they don't need to read the threads. I think it can be useful to know what other people do and have.

Obviously if you can be identified and are rich be careful. A man who writes for the weekend Financial Times this weekend wrote about a burglary at his home and of his safe there and the watches they too. I think he wrote about having the watches and other expensive stuff a few months ago. Mind you my £12.99 Argos watch is not going to be on a burglar's hit list.

A few things I've found useful:

• All bills out immediately after pay day, and also a set amount to a savings or investment account on the same day so you lose it before you even notice it. Then you know what you're left with. I then transfer at least half of the remainder into a savings account attached to my current account, and move back and forth as needed, within seconds on banking app. It means extra safety if my bank card is stolen, and makes me think twice about expensive purchases.

• An easy app-based account like Moneybox, where if you see you've any extra cash at the end of the month, you immediately transfer it into the app. It quickly starts adding up. You can also set it to round up any 0.95ps etc and moves the 5p into your account automatically, that also adds up and you don't really notice it.

• Bonuses go straight to savings, earmarked either for a new kitchen, say, or school fee account, and any pay rises we generally have a nice dinner out and then increase the amount we are saving instead of upping our spending. (Obviously this is easier if you already have a very good quality of life, some may be desperate for the extra cash just to survive.)

• Remortgage as soon as fixed rate ends. In the market of the last 10 years, our mortgage rate has always gone down, so we pay less (obviously this could change significantly in the future if interest rates rise). We usually shorten the mortgage term, so we are still paying the same amount, but the mortgage will end sooner. If your finances are more precarious then it may be better to stick to same length mortgage but find one where overpayments are possible, and overpay when you are confident you can.

• Paying off your mortgage earlier may not make sense if you can get higher (though not guaranteed) returns through investments instead. We could pay off mortgage now, but it doesn't make sense when our interest rate is around 1.2% but we can make 5%+ gains through investments instead. Obviously you can also lose money on the stock market, so you need to be secure enough to have a buffer, so that a temporary fall of 20%+ due to e.g. corona, isn't a catastrophe.

Please, this is no way meant to be a smug post, my husband and I, are in a totally different position to many of you, We lost all our parents in the space of 18 months ( aged between 76-85 ) and have inherited £150,000 and £120,000 between us, I don’t have a pension pot but my husband has a pot of £125,000, we are both mid fifties, We don’t know what to do for the best, Both hate are jobs, find it very hard to go to work each day, probably not enough money to retire on, ( state pension 67), Dont want to waste it as we know we will never have this money again, and are to old to retrain and get a job and not much time till retirement, My husband has a bad knee and mild arthritis in both wrists, Yes, yes, I know it’s a first world problem, but we had less problems before we inherited the money and both wish our parents were still alive

Exactly. I can't really understand why people think that, as a random MNer, naming a sum of money could be identifying or dangerous. Tbh someone could probably quite easily identify me in rl by looking back at all my posts. Even then, how on earth would them knowing I have 7 grand in the bank rather than £100 or 100 grand (if I'm being truthful) benefit them?

Not much, a small pot for emergencies or a couple of months of one of our salaries. We've recently moved house, have a toddler and are planning another. I've accepted that until paying for childcare is no longer necessary and I go back to working full time, our savings won't be going up anytime soon and will probably be depleted.

Approx £45k which I thought was for an extension/renovation but partner is now keen that we quit our jobs and go on an extended travelling jaunt before we have children. So... we will see.

£170 I'll probably spend it when we go camping next month

I've found this thread really interesting and extra motivation as I've been assessing my finances for the last few weeks as things have changed (for the better) and for the first time I actually have money that can be put aside.
So I currently have £450 in my general saving account and I'm very proud of it too as it's the first time I've ever been able to save money and £250 in the government help to save scheme.
For the next 6 months I plan on saving for a little run around car and insurance, if I pass my test (fingers crossed!) After that I plan on saving between £250-350 a month for 5-6 years for a house deposit and in that time retraining to a job which will double my earnings.
For context I'm 28, a single parent with 1dc, private rent and will not receive any inheritance or cash gifts from family.

Not trying to boast here - have just under 200k combined as a couple (36 and 32) - no inheritance or windfalls - had a few good years of income in finance and saved quite a bit - have invested 150k and the rest just lying in savings accounts - have an outstanding mortgage of 190k which I can clear but don’t see the sense in it given the investments return much higher than the interest on the mortgage so just clearing as long as I’m working.

Approximately £260 million. I plan to take over the world in 2022, pandemic allowing.

Oh my life 200k that's amazing, good for you
I've about 5 or 6 k. We rent out two houses that we bought prior to getting married and they are an investment. So I am trying to save a bit harder.

£14,500 and I'm saving for a house. I feel like I should have a lot more saved based on my salary, so I'm trying to be mor careful in 2021 and maximise savings.

I don't even know how much I realistically need to save. I'm from a very poor background and nobody I'm close to has bought a house. I know I need to aim for a 10%-ish deposit but I have no idea about the surveys and stamp duty and everything on top. I suppose I'll start looking into it seriously when I have £20k.

Jointly we have £10k

Saved for maternity leave but will be back to work soon so haven’t needed all of it

There’s so many things we want to save for that we wouldn’t be able to decide how to spend it so it’s likely to have nothing done with it until it goes towards the mortgage when we give up

We would love to save for
A decent camper an (£35k)
A garden room (£15k)
An extension on the house (£100k)

So really it doesn’t even touch the sides
I keep looking at handbags and think I might as well treat myself instead

Zero. We have lost everything in the pandemic. We're hoping we can keep our house.

I'd like to say that three months is nowhere near enough.

We had £20k before the pandemic and that wasn't enough!

About 70k...some of my own savings and the rest from pension lump sum and redundancy.....my friend jokes about my frugality and asks if i am saving up for a stair lift....!!....actually have one in the garage that my aunt used...!!

About £25k in isa / premium bonds
£30k or so in my pension.

We want to move up to a family house in the next five years so aggressively over- paying mortgage - currently have about £60k equity and hope to have £150k when we move.

We have what works out to be 16 months income saved in case of emergencies, DH is considering retirement in the next 8 years so it'll be put in the pension pot if not used.
A savings account for holiday home- 74k
Savings account for holidays/cars/renovations- 56k

Not a boast, DH works hard and we had inheritance from 2 family members.

Around £22k, split across premium bonds and two ISAs. It's all for emergencies too of course. but mainly I'm saving to eventually buy a house. I live in London right now and I'll never be able to buy here so it's for a long long way in the future when I've settled down and moved out of the city. I don't touch it for things like holidays.

I'm in my early 30s and since last year I've earned a good salary but I still live a studenty life. I houseshare with a number of other people and don't buy myself much. I bought myself new jeans recently because I only have two pairs of trousers left which are getting really old and which will go soon.

I do find myself longing for my own place and a nicer lifestyle. I could afford it, but then I'd have nothing to save. But then sometimes my savings goals seem so far in the future it doesn't feel worth it. So it's swings and roundabouts.

I just keep telling myself it's the sensible thing to do. And I am in a much better position than many so I have nothing to grumble about. I would really love to rent my own flat though. I would kill for my own kitchen which I don't have to share with 5 other people!

About £2,500 - £1,500 is in stocks and shares which is there for a rainy day or to cover our help to buy scheme.
£1000 is from our Christmas money - to be used on our first proper holiday abroad when covid is over