to think most people don't have savings?

[horseyhorsey17]

I realise this is going to get a whole range of different views and experiences and I am interested to hear them all, but I recently read some research saying that most families in the UK have less than £600 in savings. This got me wondering - I am a single mum with two teens and a mortgage, and I don't have savings as such but I do have a private pension (had it for nearly 20 years now) that I pay roughly 5% of my salary into (as well as a work pension) and I overpay on my mortgage. I consider this a more effective use of my money than saving, which I can't afford to do as well. Do most people have pensions AND savings? Or neither?

Just really curious as I spend my salary every single month and all my friends do the same. That might be just my peer group! I suppose I could save if we never went on holiday - but I'd rather have the holidays tbh. You only live once and you can't take it with you, etc etc.

I've always had savings even when I was a poor single mum. I don't waste money, if I have any money left after expenses at all I put it into savings. Even if it's £5 it all adds up.
I know a lot of people just don't have anything left after expenses now but everyone who does should save as a priority. It's really irresponsible not to do so.

Even when I was a student and spending £10 a week on food, I still saved (albeit a tiny amount now).

I think it's just a habit to be developed, like anything else.

Having a decent cushion and not having to ever worry about money is worth forgoing a few bits here and there. But then everyone has different tolerances for risk etc.

I have about 4 months of bills in savings, but in reality it would last 6 months by cutting back and with child maintenance. I'd prefer to have a bit more really but I also want to enjoy my life.

I used to overpay my mortgage but it's currently on a lower rate than my savings account so I'm mostly putting into savings now.

I have just a standard pension through work. I think it's 5% from me and 3% employer.

I have savings. They where saved by myself when alone, DH has no savings and we keep finances separate (because he is crap at saving despite making over twice what I do). I have been homeless and do not want to end up back there with my kids so always have at least 6 months if all income stopped.

I don't have a pension, virtually no one in my family actually lived to pension age and I'm one of the very few left. With my genetic health issues they say I am estimated to live to 70 (decade shorter than average expectancy). Thats not including illness or injury (both of which are increased for me too) so I could easily go long before then like everyone else.

I don't have a mortgage, I saved a deposit fairly young through my savings (but struggled to get a mortgage due to low income). Then unfortunately due to losing basically all my family young I have received some inheritance over the years to feed into my saved deposit until it was enough to buy which I am aware a lot of people don't have.

Prior to that (as I saved up) I just rented, cheap non city area and stayed in 1 place for decades with the rent locked so it basically never went up.

I would go for savings every time, I want to be able to access money as needed during my whole lifespan. While I agree with saving it up there is no point locking it all away for a future you are not guaranteed.

Yeah, your maths is definitely wrong. It doesn't work like that. You would be much better putting the overpayment for the mortgage into savings or pension.

I think it depends on what stage of life you're at. I remember scrabbling round all my pockets and down the side of the sofa as I literally had no money left until payday and desperately wanted to pay off my £2.50 overdrawn bank balance as I didn't have an authorised overdraft, this was back in the times of ridiculously high bank charges, single parent no maintenance (selfish pig), working part time and universal credit didn't exist.

Not eating for days as could only afford food for DC, ended up weighing just under 8 stone at one point when I should be around 10st. It's a wonder my kidneys didn't pack in as I was pretty much living on water to stop my stomach rumbling.

Now I'm happily married, both working full time, mortgage free and no dependent kids and I'm so lucky to have more coming in than ever goes out so can save now. I'll never get used to though and know the good times might not last forever and I think I'll always be careful with my spending even though I don't really need to be now.

They’re safe, tax free and instant access. We have the maximum amount at which point you can think of it as an interest paying account as you win every month (I think in ten years there has only been one month in which I didn’t win). If you only have a small amount in them, so there is much less chance of winning, then it’s not really an attractive investment. If you want growth then an equity ISA is a better choice. But they’re fine for cash savings as long as you can save a substantial amount.

I think thats it. Some appear rich but are never the ones that are rich. If you spend it you don't have it anymore. Very few can have their cake and eat it.

My DH for example makes more than me, but spends every penny. New phone, new car, hobbies etc... he often runs out month to month and puts things on credit then pays it with half of his next pay check and rinse and repeat.

I have more money than him that I could access right now if needed because I save it and I only buy thing second hand like a secondhand CEX phone and cheap part-ex older car.

I have the stuff I 'need' that does the same job but I have the money too because I don't care about things being the newest or best like DH does.

I have no savings and no pension. According to gov statistics our household income is quite a bit above average, and yet we can't afford to save or have holidays abroad and have debt. These posts always give me massive anxiety and confusion about our budget, but I really think the demographics are way off average, and therefore pointless to ask.

WC parents instilled in me the need to have "rainy day money", save as much as you can because you will, at some point, need it. My parents refused to let me have anything from my friend's mum's Kays catalogue - you don't buy things on tick, you save and buy what you can afford. I remember them being very nervous when, as a student, I got a credit card.

The only time I didn't have savings was in my final year as a student - and it made me very nervous, I relied on my CC. I had no one to fall back on financially. I've always lived within my means since then and pay my CC off every month. I'm nearly 70 now, and still can't bring myself to waste money. My savings are my security blanket.

The figure the OP quotes does not surprise me.

I don't drive a car, am not someone beholden to the latest stupid fashion, don't do things like 'big' birthdays (all are 24 hours long), and save drinking for when going out. That enables me to live and save some money.

I have pensions which I'm trying to sort out. All work schemes so basically enforced but I knew they would be good to have so didn't argue about having them. My saving has been done via work share schemes. I didn't get the money in my bank account therefore I didn't miss it. I'm currently waiting for the stock market to recover so I can cash in about 20k shares.

And I do have significant savings but only because I can't get at them. There in another country and the only way I can move them to the UK is to go into the bank branch over there and get the money shifted to an FX account. I'm off in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll be able to get it all done. And fix up something that I can manage from here in the future as my foreign state pension is going into that same account.

So basically I've not really done anything myself - but have been forced into having savings.

I totally agree - I wouldn't worry about what people say they're up to on here, who knows how much is real anyway!

Nobody said that it did. PP was pointing out that they have money in an easy access account so that if something breaks it can easily be replaced or repaired without wondering where they will find the money. It could just as easily have been a boiler that needed replaced as a tumble dryer.

Talking about that I strongly suspect your OP usws Lloyds article. Lloyds said 80%of THEIR customers have less than 500 or 600 with them, not in savings general. I am one of these people. All my savings go elswehere because lloyds wouldn't match instant or near instant access rates. Theae are quite different mumbers to overall UK situation

There's a generational difference. Most GenX friends do have savings/security, most millennials I know don't. Domestic set-up and career are factors here too.

Personally, I have almost the recommended 3 months' salary in savings. However, as I can only save £100/month, this takes ages to build up and is quite precious. I really begrudge having to dip into it when rainy days happen. Even though notionally it's a rainy day fund, it's also there to go towards supporting DD at uni, if she needs it. DH works p/t and currently doesn't have anything spare to save. If we really needed to we could find more, but small luxuries are also important. And as fairly senior professionals with a respectable income (sub £50K), it bugs me that we should have to scrimp to save.

I find I get tied in knots about everything I am supposed to be stretching my small savings and little spare cash to cover. I should be paying off a credit card (currently on 0%, and not even a 4 figure sum, but unavoidable major renovation work coming up, so will have a scary new balance). I should put it towards said renovation costs to reduce the borrowing. I should be paying more into my pension because I started it late. I should be overpaying the mortgage while we're on a low rate fixed deal. I should be starting a pension for DD, to make up for not being able to save more for her when she was younger. I should be saving for the longer term, when DH retires, or when we need a new car, or more home maintenance. I should be prioritising self-care and me-time.

And as a PP noted, rainy days do happen, sometimes too quickly to recover from the previous one.

I don't think of it as savings, but yes I keep enough for a washing machine or computer breakdown/replacement and enough for a holiday in the UK each year.

I have no private pension, just the state pension, and don't own a home.

I thought the majority of people in the UK lived in debt.

@Msbluebozooka Premium Bonds are worth considering in certain circumstances:

1. You’ve already maxed out your ISA allowance for the year
2. You’re a higher rate tax payer
3. You can afford to buy a large amount of PBs

While the prizes on PB are tax free it is worth noting that unless you have a large amount of PBs you are unlikely to win much - the odds of winning £25 in a given month are 21,000-1 which are massive odds if you only have a few Bonds, but if you have the maximum holding of 50,000 then “on average” you should win 2x £25 per month.

However, odds don’t work like that and you can go months without winning anything at all. The “average” rate of return on PBs at the moment is 4.65% but not everyone will get that, most people will get less and some people will get more. With savings accounts/fixed bonds available out there at the moment offering up to 6.2% (albeit taxed) it all comes down to whether you are happy taking the risk of not getting a decent return. If you’d rather guarantee interest then PBs are not for you.

Beats me how I would pay my bills.

Im sure there's a LOT in the same boat.

I save about 1/3 of my income a month.

I save by:

• Moving that 1/3 each month straight away on payday into my savings account
• When it comes to the point that month that I think I might need to dip into it, due to an unexpected emergency i.e. vet trip, I don't spend it until I am 100% sure I have too. So, if I need to do a food shop in that last week of the month I will plunder the depths of my freezer to avoid having to dip into that money - even if that means I eat sausage casserole for 6 days in a row.
• Being frugal; I don't buy new clothes often, I don't drink, I don't eat out, I have a coffee machine at home, I go on holiday on 'off-season', I didn't pick the biggest house/mortgage I could afford etc.

For some people saving is a luxury they can't afford to do and for others it's a choice.

We are very fortunate that we paid off our (small) mortgage 2 years ago by over paying monthly and in larger chunks when the fixed terms ended, so are able to save quite a lot each month.

we both have workplace pensions, I pay in 10%, think husband is about the same. £500 a month in to my workplace sharesave scheme. Money is guaranteed, so if the shares plummet I won’t lose anything and can just take back what I have put in. Each scheme is fixed for a couple of years, and I have 2 on the go at £250 each. I save a minimum of £1000 per month in to my savings, husband does the same. Try and aim for a bit more if possible.

we have 1 older car which we share and own outright. We will be buying another house next year, as we are relocating to be nearer family. Will be taking out another mortgage of about £150-175k but plan to over pay and get rid of it within 5-10 years.

we are 40 and 42

I think for many people there is a tipping point in middle age where your life is established and you suddenly find you do have enough money to start saving seriously. I'm in my 50s. When I was in my 30s/40s, I could have written the OP's post. But I'm now in the position where our house is almost paid off, our children are almost grown-up, my career is established, I no longer care so much about keeping up with the trends, etc, etc.

Also, I think how you think about saving is relevant. I have always saved and it comes out of my account as a direct debit / standing order at the start of the month along with my mortgage payments and other bills. It's just a bill I pay along with all the others. Then I'm strict about not spending more than I have and about paying my credit card off in full every month.

We have a savings account that we direct debit into on payday. Has a few thousand in it as got wiped out last year when we bought a new car.

Also have £10k aside as a house/sudden unemployment emergency pot.

And both pay into private pensions and premium bonds for ourselves and DC (although mine tends to build up and then run dry when I book us a holiday - we don't touch DCs)

I'm under no illusion though that compared to a lot of our friends that's either a shockingly high amount of 'spare cash' or a shockingly low amount of savings. (Working class backgrounds/family and middle class Uni/work friends)

I'm very grateful to be in the position I'm in which compared to most MNers is 'poor'

No savings no rainy day fund, tons of debt, financially I’m in a hopeless situation, kids spent 6 week hols doing basically nothing because I don’t have any money, but I know I’m far from the norm, most people I know have savings unless they’re not working etc.

One of your earlier post you mentioned 'the bank of mum and dad', many won't have received cold hard cash from the bank of m&d but if they can allow you stay at home, rent free, early in your career even if you contribute to the food and utility bills, while you save for a deposit that's a huge leg up.

Must be impossible for young people to be paying rent & trying to save for house deposit.