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?

Why, why @Watermelonade do you want to know this stuff? Comparison is the thief of joy. It really is. You should be happy with what you have saved and good luck with saving some more.

My DW and I have around an MP's salary saved. I can't bring myself to type out figures it just seems so crass.

I must admit I hate threads like this....it’s like the ‘how much do you earn’ type threads - which at a time of financial strife for many OP, is insensitive to say the least.

@Lightsabre

Agreed re pensions, but everyone I ever talk to about this always says "my house is my pension", there are "no better savings than bricks and mortar"... so it will fall on deaf ears

@Bakedbrie

Agreed wholeheartedly.

Nothing much, but we’ve been working towards a debt free life instead of saving. This is almost done now (own a modest house outright). No mortgage, no overdraft, no credit cards, DH has a small personal loan.

Trying to decide if we want to buy somewhere slightly bigger or get a loft conversion.

£2.5k, saving for unemployment!

As you don't know how much I earn, how much I have already saved, how much is my house and how much are the mortgages, what my outgoings are, the figure I could give you is utterly irrelevant

I just checked my savings account and I have £23.84 which I'm probably going to blow on a takeaway for me and ds to eat in front of a movie tonight. We haven't had a treat or anything remotely pleasant for a very long time.

OP, you may not have started this thread as a stealth boast (benefit of the doubt), but others definitely use it as a way of feeling superior to others and I'm sure they're congratulating themselves on their fabulous life choices.

I'm certain that if we hadn't had bereavement and a long run of shitty luck we'd have more than we do.

There is no way I am stating figures on a public website but I don't mind saying what we are saving for or how we go about it. A general savings account doesn't work imo. We have multiple accounts. One is a university fund account, one for house improvements, one for holidays, one for cars, another contains 6 months worth of living costs in case of unemployment. Depending on circumstances, some accounts may be full (ie contain the amount we have agreed we need set aside for that particular cost) or completely empty. We have robbed one account to fund another, if needed, but generally find it helps to have certain funds set aside for specific purposes. We have always aimed not to touch the 6 months living costs until there is literally nothing else to use, and so far this has been possible.

All of this makes us sound like we are in a very healthy position financially but actually, we have mostly lived from month to month for years. I wish we had a retirement fund, but at the moment, there is just dh's pension which is not enough. We are hoping that for the next few years, the need to save for university costs and housing etc will decrease so the retirement fund can increase, and dh will not have to work until he is 67.

We had about 4K saved for home improvements, we’ve made a start on those now though so we’re eating into that. Won’t be used for anything else.

I had saved about £2,500 from my salary to top up statutory maternity pay. I’m due next month. I only qualify for SMP and I’m a supply teacher so work can be irregular, however I had some back to back long term postings and was saving as much as I could and planned to do so up until I went on maternity leave around now. However with lockdown/schools closing that obviously went by the by. I did qualify for furlough but the way it’s worked out I’ve ended up on about £40 a week. So the savings have taken a hit to buy what we need for the baby, plus some work my car needed, and I’ve not been able to top them up. There’s a few hundred left in that pot but it will no doubt be gone by the time baby gets here, we still need a few bits. Husband’s salary is covering mortgage and essentials for now, with my £40 a week topping up food/fuel so we’re luckier than many but it does mean I won’t be able to have as long off with the baby as I’d have liked.

Then we have a larger pot - that’s mainly an inheritance of DH’s though. That’s absolutely not to be touched under any circumstances short of a major disaster. The plan is to eventually use it for a deposit for a larger house (ours is tiny and was definitely in need of the work we’ve been doing on it but really needs more too), and to rent this one out once it’s up to a decent rentable standard. However that would still mean taking on another mortgage and we’re just not in a position to do that, possibly won’t be for a while.

We have a decent amount saved. Our mortgage finishes in 5 years and we had been planning to buy a bigger house, with a comparatively small mortgage at that point. I think we are changing our minds. Our outgoings are low compared to our income. Our neighbours are lovely, and this year has really been an eye opener.

We bought a house last year so savings were used on that. We are back up to about £6k which will be going towards a wedding. We put a set amount each month into a savings account and then dip in and out of it whenever we need to. The plan is to keep a minimum of 2 months salary in there and then each time the mortgage is up move the extra across.

I understand we are very fortunate to be able to do this though- 3 years ago I was in a lot of debt and have changed jobs to a job I don’t particularly love (but pays quite generously) to be able to do this.

Just an observation. During the time that our 2 children were dependant on us and at uni we had hardly any savings. Since they have been gone and various policies and tiny inheritances have come in - plus paying off our mortgage after the 25 year term - we have been able to save more and have a bigger cushion. there are some advantages to being a bit older, provided you have a job.

I've got about 6,000 which has to last me until I'm 55 then I can access some of my pension money. I'm 50 now.

I’ve got about 6 month’s worth of living costs.
I haven’t reached my savings goals though; I’d like several month’s worth of living costs, a holiday fund, a new car fund, and a few thousand for home maintenaince, in case boiler breaks or roof needs mending etc.

So the pot I have at the moment is to cover several eventualities. I also need to think about saving a lump sum to start a sipp, which I’m aware I probably need about 20k before I’m eligible to get any good advice. So I have a long way to go! I bought a house last year so I’m happy I’m on the ladder but of course that wiped nearly all my savings.

Nowt. Just scraping by. Well done for saving. It's a good idea

We have various savings pots which mean we could live for 12 months+ before we would have to start liquidating longer term assets.
We have plenty of equity in property (even if prices drop) so we could free up some of that if we needed too.
However, we are also in our 50’s so are planning for retirement.

Not a whole lot. Bought our first home in 2018 (which we also needed to furnish) and since then we've had two kids, so any savings we had accumulated before then are gone. We also needed to change both our cars for praticality reasons.

However, now we have the house bought, furnished, everything we need for the kids and two cars that'll do us for many years, we're going to start saving again. Obviously CV isn't going to help that hugely, but I'm not stressed about it.

About 2k in cash savings. Generally saving for the sake of it but usual pattern is I make some home and garden improvements every summer, so dip into it then. Also pay my car insurance annually with it and and any other car related expenses.

I really want to pay off my hp car in one lump some but need around 3k, however I also wouldn't like to see a 0 balance in my savings. That is my main goal/thing on my mind.

Have about 2.5k in investments for the longterm such as pipe dream home and retirement.

Nothing at all

About 67k living at home and going to buy my first house soon, but I'm very lucky in that 50k of that was a gift so only 17k actually saved by me.

8k

Don’t have any actual savings but inherited a lot of apparently ‘ prime building land ‘ and some properties which generate income.
The monetary value is there for my children, it will be there for their inheritance, but I suppose if an absolute disaster or emergency occurred we would have to access it.

Nothing. Not a Bean. Nada.

Personal finance is very personal. Often people do not like talking about it. The really rich talk about it. The poor talk about it... Mumsnet has many massage threads in Credit Crunch and elsewhere about making the most of little money - which is handy for all of us as we can all learn from others, such as leaning to cook meals from a few basic ingredients, learn to fix clothes, learn to fix a minor fault on an appliance.

Money Matters has many threads about all sorts of topics. Everyone can learn from everyone else and try different strategies to see what works for them.

No two families are alike so comparisons cannot be made but when reading threads like this you may spot patterns, such as how some people prioritise paying off mortgage and others invest in Stocks & Shares and Pensions. Some people segment 'savings' into defined buckets, others do not.

Some of us have worked through from being in debt to having a positive net worth. Some have had help with that from following a financial plan such as www.DaveRamsey.com and others have done their own thing. There is no right or wrong, everyone has their own financial journey.