How much should we be saving?

[settleforme]

Income is approx 5.5k pm (after tax)
Pensions are good
No mortgage/rent
No car payments
No debt
Two dc and very little in childcare.

Settle a dispute. How much should we be saving per month?

How long is a piece of string
What are your long term goals?
Do you want to retire early?
Do you need or want to financially support your DC?
Do you have enough savings to bridge if one of you lost your job / your income reduced sharply?

Savings should have a purpose - what are your goals and plans?

Impossible to say without knowing your monthly outgoings for your preferred lifestyle....ie do you pay school fees? Do you like expensive wine? Or have a designer handbag collecting hobby? Like to travel abroad multiple times a year to luxury resorts?

Well what do you want to save for? A rainy day fund? A holiday? Uni costs for your DC? It depends what you want from your money.

As much as you bloody can because we cannot be rely on the state for anything going forward.
In your position I would try and put away 2k a month and prioritise private health insurance as an expense if you don't already have it.
I have seen friends lose so much in the last 18 months.

My goodness. How have you managed no mortgage or rent, no car payments, no debt and with small children? Amazing. I'd want to be saving about 2K at least.

Well you’re in an amazing position. So what do you want from life?

I'd just travel.

Save a small bit and spend the rest on beautiful hotels and holidays

Wow! We earn slightly more but have a hefty mortgage plus car payments but no kids.

We save about £2k pcm but it all depends what your personal goals are! You probably could save £2k - £3k if needed but you need to decide what you actually want!

I’d say at least 2k. Most people on that income would be paying something similar in a mortgage and if you’re mortgage free then you have a lot of scope to be saving. It is a how long is a piece of string question though because you say nothing about your actual outgoings and preferences, how stable your jobs are, goals for the future etc.

Don't necessarily want to retire early. We are mid to late 30's and enjoy our jobs

No school fees..

I want to travel with the dc when they are older (the youngest is 5) so not for another 3-5 years though.

Our car is old so we will need to upgrade over the next few years (but will probably use cash)

We do save but I think we could save more, dh says we save enough. So just looking for what other ppl would think?

What other people think doesn't matter. You need to look at your own circumstances and goals and do some maths. That will tell you how much you need to save.

For me as a single person with no children who wants to buy at some point, if I had that income after tax and no rent I'd save £3.5 - £4.5k a month. But what I'd do isn't reflective of what's best for you.

Does your DH not want to ‘save’ more because he enjoys spending it now on other things?

There really isn’t a right answer, savings is just delayed spending, after all.

It’s about priorities.

2-3k on that salary.

You’re very lucky. I’d save at least half of that if I could.

If we earned that and didn’t have the mortgage or childcare either, and pensions were OK too, I’d think less about saving and more about “how part time can I go to cover the bills and do whatever the fuck I want instead of being a wage slave”. Deeply envious of the choices you have!

Wow I would definitely be saving a lot in your situation. Between us we have roughly the same, maybe a little bit more and we save £2,400 a month. However we also spend £1,500 on rent and car payments so in your position could be saving almost £4K a month.

I realise we could easily afford to spend more and have more holidays etc. but we’re saving to buy a house next year so quite strict with saving at the moment. Plus I think we have a lovely life full of luxuries anyway.

I would be looking to save half of it. However I am a planner so I would have multiple savings pots, investment plans etc both for me and DH and for the DC.

How much do you spend on other bills like Council tax, gas/electric, food, tv etc? Elegars that total? Also, what sort of holidays do you like? Need to take that sum into consideration too.

@hotmeatymilk neither of us are ready to go part time, We both really enjoy our jobs and have scope to go further too. I can see how that would be nice though. Right now the dc are happy with things. They go to school and have Afterschool club (which they see as a playtime with friends to be honest) and my MIL collects them once a week too. We drop them every morning and collect them one day a week too so it's only 3 days of Afterschool care.

@NoSquirrels yes I suppose that's the case for him. Not that I'm averse to spending I just feel like sometimes it could be more

You will potentially have some big expenses as the dc get older. Mine only qualify for the minimum maintenance loan so we are topping up DS1 by 7.5-8k a year. We will do the same for DS2. Funding the two of them through Uni will cost around 50k in parental contributions.

£2-3k.

I earn £4.5k after tax. Am a single mother, childcare costs and mortgage combined of £1400, so with bills etc all outgoings are about £1800. I save £1500-2000 each month.

@Longdistance current outgoings including food/fuel and dc activities is about 1.5k

Atleast half if you can.

It is a great position to be in. In your spot, I would save at least one full salary, and put 500 per month aside for the car replacement on top of that. While the sun shines, make hay. That kind of idea. Having said that, don’t forget to enjoy life with the remainder, and donate a little if you can, too, to share your good fortune.

Because you have the ability, I would use some of the savings to start a college/home deposit fund for the children. If you do it early, it has more chance to gain interest. We use my Stocks & Shares ISA for this purpose, but will not tell our future children about it, so they won’t grow up entitled.

The DC's future in terms of university or house deposit (not both though!) is somewhat catered for already. We should really add to this though @4thtimethecharm yes.