How much do you have in easy access savings compared to your monthly outgoings?

[luxxlisbon]

I thought I wasn’t doing too bad for savings but if I thought about covering 3 months expenses I actually don’t have anywhere near.

AIBU to think not a lot of people really have months of expenses in an easy access account, particularly in a time of 10% inflation?

How much savings do you have available?

£32k but that’s recent in the last couple of years prior to that I never had any savings in adulthood (or childhood for that matter!)

@SnarkyBag 32k in non-locked away savings?

Yes

Nothing

I have enough to cover about 3 months of joint expenses and DH has about the same, perhaps slightly more so we would be good for at least 6 months between us (we have a joint current account but separate savings).

I have access to about 4k, although the majority of that is in a stocks and shares ISA so not ideal to use. About £700 in easy access savings account due to recent house expenditure.

My sister sent me an article saying I should have six months of salary saved by the time I'm 30. Considering that would be over £17k and I'm currently doing house renovations/have childcare to pay, it's not happening.

£25k
The rest is in fixed rate bonds, pension and premium bonds

Are you not concerned by the amount it will be devalued by inflation each month?

About 6 months of expenses in easy access.

6 months income in easy access savings. We don’t touch that but it’s there if we need it. Our regular savings are depleting as we’re renovating at the moment. Our big savings are tied up and we’d have to pay to access them.

I have £500 because I'm saving for a holiday. Have a secure job so never really bothered, now I am berating myself for not making an effort to save beforehand. As a single parent there wasn't much going spare right enough.

Not a whole lot! Couple of thousand. Life’s expensive. Aware we should have more and working towards more but it’s difficult at the moment, so I wouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself.

I have £25K at the moment thankfully: I don't have any plans to use it but it gives me comfort knowing it's there and accessible.

Our reserves are low due to ongoing house renovations. I prefer to have over £10k minimum.

Absolutely nothing either in easy access or other investments. I don’t think that’s that unusual. All my savings went on buying a flat (alone) and just when I built some up again, I had to pay the annual service charge. I can’t save enough quickly enough to cover the service charge and keep anything put away. I’ve recently been made redundant and the severance payment will cover me for about 4-5 months, but in the worst case scenario that I haven’t found another job or enough freelance work after that time period I’ll have to think about selling the flat. I do expect to be working again by then so hopefully this won’t happen but I don’t think it’s that uncommon for people not to have a financial cushion, especially if they live alone. My parents are incredibly poor so they can’t help either and don’t look set to die anytime soon so no inheritance on the way either.

I have £50. Our household income is good but only very recently so, so we're putting everything we can towards our debts before saving. To be honest I have never in my life had any savings.

About £100k across three ISAs, the majority of which is made up of several inheritances rather than money I’ve been able to save up from my earnings. I don’t own a home and it’s earmarked as a deposit so I wouldn’t really want to have to spend it on daily outgoings but if I had to in an emergency it could all be accessed. My only other savings are my pension although would have no idea how to access that or if I am even allowed.

6 months of expenses would be close to 20k for us. It just seems crazy to put that amount of money in such a low interest account, given inflation.

About 5 month expenses worth, but they are not in absolute easy access because they had so shit interests, i would make more printing my own fakes fgs.
Some require notice of month or so or are limited in other ways, but not completely blocked

Not in the short term no

Not that we have 20k in cash savings.
Up until now we have always saved big chunks, but it was for a purpose - deposit, renovation etc so it felt very temporary.

General savings going forward feels totally different.

Enough to cover the bills for a few months. The rest is locked away in longer term investments. Inflation - and previously, low interest rates - makes keeping loads of money in easily accessible accounts a poor financial decision, really.

A lot, because we're saving for a new house and have absolutely LEATHERED ourselves putting cash away over the past couple of years.

In terms of instantly accessible draw-down funds (so outwith ISAs / monthly bills etc), about £75k.

These threads are always a bit weird, though, because they're so context-dependent: we're both high-earning senior professionals in our early 40s and have no children by choice, so our ability to save is very different to that of a young family of four.

Apples and oranges.

We currently have 7 or 8 months of expenses in easy access savings. We usually have a year's worth put away (my job is very vulnerable to recession) but we've had some big expenses recently. Our current top priority after bills are paid is to get back to 12 month's worth of expenses put away. I am very aware that we're privileged to be able to do this, but we've had hard learned lessons in the past.

I currently have around 3.5 times my salary in easy access savings
However, I typically save around 25% of my salary monthly, so if talking about outgoings rather than salary it would last longer.