To think for most people having savings is very difficult

[NEVERQUIT3331]

There always seems to be rising bills, unexpected bills e.g. boiler breaking down, washing machine etc... And if you do accumulate savings most will go on needed repairs, due house improvements, getting a new car cause your current one keeps breaking down.

Wages have not gone up for most people. Lot of people are worse off e.g. job losses, no pay rises for years etc...

Even with two incomes, most people in my circle are just about managing and these are people with decent paying jobs. Cannot imagine how hard it must be for others e.g. single parents or those unable to work because of a illness.

To think after the furlough scheme ends in September, we will see a lot more people struggling?

YANBU. It is only in the last year (since covid) that we have been able to amass savings that have not been dipped into for some reason or another. This is because we are not spending on commuting, childcare or kids extracurriculars.
We are very fiscally conservative and have a higher than average household income, so I totally understand that most people can't manage to get together a decent pot of savings before 'life happens' and it's needed for something.

Possibly. A few years ago when i was struggling to build savings a opened an account and it was sacrosanct. I put in whatever I could afford - sometimes very small amounts and left it alone. \Took a while but gradually it grew and used as the base for my now healthier looking savings.

I think a lot of people struggle to save but I wouldn't say most.

We’ve only managed to save a bit this last year as both DH and I worked throughout the various lockdowns and had nowhere to spend money. In a normal year savings tend to disappear into a black hole somewhere. Our wages haven’t gone up much (retail) but we’re fortunate to have received a small bonus that we’ve put in the savings pot

We didn't manage to save anything of significance until our kids left Uni, which coincided with our mortgage being paid off. We had a business that was busy in winter, especially Christmas, but quieter in the summer months. We usually managed to keep our Christmas profits keep us going until about August and then had to use overdrafts and credit cards to get stocked up for Christmas. At one stage we sold our house and moved to a lower prices house to give us some respite.

Surely like everything else it depends on people’s personal and financial circumstances? I’m sure a lot of people struggle to save but equally a lot of others can and are able to save well, even before the pandemic. Personally, most of the people I know are financial secure (some even financially free) but I wouldn’t be naive enough to think that was representative of most people.

I find it very hard to save. Single parent, UC, low wage job.
Every time I try to save it doesn't get very far before it ends up having to be spent being spent. I think there's about £60 my saving account at the moment I'm lucky if it ever gets to £100.
Ive had plenty of times where my current account is down to a couple of pounds though.

I don't know if it's hard for "most" people though but a lot of people.

Many people struggle to save, yes.

Many people don't earn enough to cover the bare necessities, particularly if they have young children and have to pay for childcare.

And many people do, but eternally struggle to save because their lifestyle expands as fast (or faster) than their income does. Or because they make improvements to their lifestyle in anticipation of their earnings increasing, and are therefore always playing catchup. I see all the time amongst people I know, who mentally spend any money they receive before it even hits their bank.
I'm not talking necessities or big flashy expenditure here - just modest lifestyle improvements that are always justifiable but the end result is there is absolutely no room for anything to go wrong.

The opposite of saving is spending so a lack of spending will naturally increase savings. Even if it's only a little. I have learned hard lessons...such as on payday when I was younger I would feel flush and spend 100 on some clothing...and then 3 weeks later my tyre blows and I need a new tyre. If I hadn't spent it in the first place on a dress I didn't need then I could pay for my tyre without stretching myself or dipping into my little savings.

After time I learned to save first!! The more savings I have the better I find I can manage my money, I spend less then and therefore I save more again.

Start small.

I think for a lot of people saving is difficult for one reason or another. We are fortunate that both DP and I are able to save fairly easily each month, not masses, but we always have enough to fall back on. We save less than we could, as we chose to spend more than we 'have to'.

I think those who struggle fall into two groups, from observation of my circle:

• those who struggle money wise through circumstance out of their control (relationship ending, an illness, loss of job)
• Those who spend more than they 'have to' when they can and don't plan ahead. Loads of people we know have maxed out their mortgages, have 2 cars on finance/lease and always have big holidays. But when times get tough have no plan on how to survive then.

DP and I have always taken advantage of over time, promotion, education to earn as much as we can, whilst only ever borrowing (our mortgage only) on the basis of affording it on one salary. So I guess we have more to save as we have planned ahead when making financial decisions.

I absolutely accept we are hugely lucky to have those options available to us and many don't, but it's not all down to fate. Decision making does play a part. It's why we don't face a massive house, new cars on finance or lots of expensive holidays. We could also both support ourselves in the current property on our own if we had to.

Some people can't save, it's probably not most.

If people with 'decent paying jobs' can't buy a new a new washing machine when they need one, they probably need to review their budget and make a few choices about what they spend their money on.

Because if you have a car, house or pets, they will need money spending on them sooner or later so you should be putting money aside for this eventuality before spending on less important things like regular food and drink out of the house, takeaways, beauty treatments, clothes you don't strictly need, latest phones and other tech, TV subscriptions etc etc.

Many people could save, but it would involve reducing their discretionary spending and they just don't want to.

I think things are tight for lots of people. I try and live within my means so I have an old vw polo that's cheap to run and insure. A cheap mobile and I spend less than tenner a month with giffgaff. No Sky etc. cheapest broadband, lowest cost energy provider, heating off unless kids are home. I buy most clothes for me off Ebay, capsule wardrobe so not masses of stuff. I've had one takeaway this year as a treat.

I think it all frees up a few hundred quid a month. So I live under my income level (I work full time, get some universal credit, some help with childcare costs, some maintenance). It'd be easy to splurge on a better car/ mobile/ new clothes and accumulate expensive debt. I've just paid off my overdraft which was at it's max when I was unemployed (thanks Corona). A 2K overdraft at it's max will cost about £60 a month, cheap in comparison to a rip off payday loan but over a year it ads up to a substantial chunk of money.

That's my situation though there are lots of people (often single parents) who can not earn enough to pay for childcare/ necessities and live to any kind of decent standard. Those are the ones society doesn't work for and we should be addressing that through increased minimum wages, better childcare help and more social housing imo.

If you live a hand-to-mouth existence, then it's impossible to save.

I don't think many people actually live like that in the UK where every single penny goes on life's basics, for the rest the choice is about discretionary spending versus savings.

I think it’s actually more about the type of person you are. By that I mean your approach to saving. I have often read comments along the line of, ‘if people can save money from their benefits then clearly, benefits are too generous.’
I disagree with that because there are people that see saving as so essential that even if they were given a tenner a week to live off, they would save two pounds. A lot of people are acutely aware through bitter experience that ‘not affording’ to save today will mean not affording something even more pressing further down the line. For example, if I knew my kids school shoes were on their last legs or my car only had 6 months left, I might go without food or electric today, or even regularly, to ensure savings for those things further down the line if I were ever forced into making such difficult decisions.

People make different decisions about how essential saving is. Affordability is largely down to how high on the priority list saving is. For some people, buying food and saving money are of equal importance.

There is a lot of people whose incoming only just cover outgoings and that's without the outgoings being excessive or non essential.

Wages aren't increasing in line with raised cost of living.

I saved for years over a decade - then we bought our first house, when the kids were young and DH took a huge paycut to get ahead and get specific experiience to get ahead long term.

We had years and years of trying to build savings up for something else to go wrong and wipe them out or put us in debt - we were still struggling when DH wage went up considerably as there was a sort of backlog of things that need money from the even leaner years.

We eventually moved - which reduced some costs, got a better mortgage rate, a house not needing constant work an an area with costs of living is a bit cheaper. It made a huge difference to our finances - we can save and afford more spending generally and we could get ahead. We can save and over pay the mortgage.

It did find it slightly annoying when money was constantly tight to be lectured at by people who had never saved the amount we did for the house deposit - the assumption was we were being frivolous without any evidence rather than making hard choices and coping with some near constant bad luck.

I think once you get behind it can be really hard to get ahead with savings and then it can be constant firefighting.

I generally think “not being able to save” falls into three camps:

1. People who are budgeting to the penny and have absolutely no room to manoeuvre, maybe they manage to save a little bit but as you say it’s then wiped out by a sudden bill or emergency. If your income = your expenditure and you lead a very frugal, carefully budgeted life, there’s no way you can cut back anywhere to save.

1. People who earn well (or reasonably well) but have no idea where their money is going, take out credit/loans rather than cutting back or budgeting and/or people who end up trapped in an cycle of debt, regardless of what they earn, because financial education in the U.K. is poor or because taking on debt was the only option but it is now preventing saving.

1. People who just don’t prioritise savings. My best friend earns enough to live on her own in the outskirts of London, has a successful small creative side business and a good full time wage on top of that with a reasonable amount of disposable income. Only recently in lockdown has she managed to save a few £100 - not because she couldn’t before but because it’s not a priority or interest for her. I haven’t a clue what she spends it on! I couldn’t do that personally - I would always save before giving myself spending money - but it’s her choice and she earns enough to do that.

I was a debt and eventually cleared it a few years ago. The only debt we now have is mortgage and a small car on finance.

I have saved enough to survive for 6 months and after a recent health scare will try to get a years wage in the bank. I’m in my 40’s and if I get an illness I’d like to have buffer financially.

From the people I know a lot don’t seem to have control over their finances. They talk about being careful with money but are anything but that. Constant takeaways and new big cars, buying unnecessary stuff. The problem is they all consider them necessary.

I have a friend whose income has gone up hugely in the last 6 months and obviously has less opportunity to spend on holidays but has some how managed it on basically rubbish. Her boiler broke and she had to borrow money from a parent and has does nothing but moan about money.

I think a lot of people don’t know how to do without.

Covid has shown me that my lack of savings was down to my choices not my circumstances. It's a boring life without all the extras but I've amassed a nice savings pot since covid started.

Won't be the same for everyone of course but I'm not high income.

It is hard to save. I have only been able to since I met DH and then our earnings increased. When i was a single teacher at the start of my career saving was really tricky.

paddingtonbearsmarmalade I agree that list covers it.

I think most people tend to assume 2 or 3 in every case.

Though also think as we've entered our late 30s/40s have slightly more money - Sam Vines Boots Theory kicks in - you can buy once rather than buy cheap buy twice.

When we had overpaid mortgage it put us into a better rate -as LTV improved once we've got ahead it's had knock on positive effects for us - amount we have to pay drops but we continue to pay at same rate meaning we're overapaying still and overall we're paying less interest.

The more time I spend on MN the more I think it’s a bubble of those who just cannot see that most of the country does just work to survive. Then there are huge areas where people struggle to find work at all. The “average” wage in the uk isn’t high, and being the average it means 50% earn less than that.

Of course “savings” is quite a broad term. What would be seen as a pittance to some would be a fortune to others. From odd conversations with friends etc. Most of the people I know have a month or two’s wages max set aside at any one time.

I, like many people, have seen my wages stagnate while the cost of everything else goes up. I’ve adjusted my lifestyle accordingly so I still have some spare cash for other things. But I am “worse off” than I was 10 years ago.

YANBU but be prepared to be lectured about lattes and avocados and foreign holidays.

@movintothecountry

YANBU. It is only in the last year (since covid) that we have been able to amass savings that have not been dipped into for some reason or another. This is because we are not spending on commuting, childcare or kids extracurriculars. We are very fiscally conservative and have a higher than average household income, so I totally understand that most people can't manage to get together a decent pot of savings before 'life happens' and it's needed for something.

Same. The savings on childcare means we've been able to actually put aside a significant amount. Without that, we'd be putting something by, but it'd be more like £100 or so every month and get wiped out in the first major problem.