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.

@Bellebelleagain

You are absolutely right we just don't mention this stuff to children it should be worked through the curriculum.

You said oz has compulsory savings?

Waiting for someone to say "Don't have much at all after we've paid for the kids private school and Waitrose shop!"

@AffIt

What interest on bonds

I didnt have any savings until I was 35 and lockdown happened! I worked loads of extra hours for the NHS and they were paying good bonuses. I spend a lot less these days and have a nice amount in my savings account now. I sometimes have to dip into it. Most months if I have anything left in my current account(even £50) I transfer it over to the savings. I have a pension too.

I was brought up with my parents never having savings and having to put holidays and Christmas on credit cards. I then carried on doing the same through my 20's. Getting store cards and credit cards. I honestly saw it as free money. If I had money in my account I actually felt a bit uneasy till I spent it, strange as that sounds! Like I have this money, what can I buy?
I got to about 30 and just wised up and paid back any debt I had. Then I met my partner who is sensible with money and I actually started to enjoy saving and seeing the numbers go up.

We’re more save for things rather than just having a pot. I’m not a natural saver either but would like to get there at some point. We both have pensions and contribute max employer allows and also trying to pay down the house. Like you, I would rather have a holiday. Live for now as people in my family do not tend to live in to retirement age.

My parents taught me about savings but I really wish they taught it in maths gcse!

I pay 10% into my pension (nhs) and try to save £1000 ish a month. Back when dc were little we’d save £50-£300 a month. I used to be stressed if savings went under £5000 but then we got used to having more so my threshold moved to £10000 and now I like to be over £20000 (largely because I know the main car will need replacing at some point and so we need a substantial amount as we like to buy a 3yo car and run it for years). After the car, I will have to get used to it being lower while we build it up again.

That said, dh’s job is under consultation so if he loses his job the 20k will disappear fairly quickly.

Savings. What are they?? Have lots of debt.
Divorced parent. Mortgage gone up 400 pc. Gas and Lekky through the roof. Food gone up. Decent salary but costs are too much...plus ex husband who just decided that he's struggling and can't pay the child maintenance...300 a month.et he can buy cats and pay for wedding.

That's a whole other thread but no, on an average salary there is no money saved EVER

We save a lot. DH and I both have pensions, we save for both DCs into ISAs each month, I invest via Moneyfarm each month, I have a savings pot I add to each month and then we have joint savings.
Its all taken by direct debit, so I see it as an expense rather than a saving. Ironically, it allows me to be more liberal with the money left over.
We aren’t rich, but we are fairly frugal.

I know a range of people- from millionaires to single parents with only part time jobs.

The range of savings is absolutely massive.

It’s always good to have something saved for a rainy day if you possibly can just in case your washing machine breaks or whatnot. Easier said than done!

@TeenLifeMum.
It would turn the UK around to have this stuff properly taught and drummed in from primary school instead of wasting time on bloody triangles..

@VeronicasCloset

We do similar and yes it means we can spend what's left without feeling guilty.

My work still offers final salary pensions! Maybe not all roles, I’m not sure, but a lot of them

I’m paid the National average for my sex and age (although I have both undergrad and masters student loan which takes a decent chunk out), and bought a house last year. I put about £400 a month into savings, and pay into my workplace pension, as well as a bit extra into personal savings.

I have six months expenses saved in case I lose my job or need urgent repairs to my home.

My friends are a mix. Some live hand to mouth, others have savings like me.

Surely saving is just common sense. If you have the means, you do it. It doesn’t need to be taught.

It absolutely does need to be taught. There's too much financial illiteracy.

I had very little saving when I had a mortgage to pay. Now I am getting old and have savings but with the cost of living I am having to dip into it. The cost of a funeral etc. is a lot so older folk need to have enough for when that day happen so that the family don't have to pay for it. Property rich, money poor that is me.

Better to overpay the mortgage than to have instant access savings. Normally when youoverpay on the mortgage you can then have a payment break or withdraw funds if you get in a tight spot ut in the long term you are saving yourself from the interest on the mortgage.

I am like Floribunda. Holidays are so enriching and priceless memories with my family. They come first but still have a small safety net for emergencies.

This is really difficult to answer because there are so many variables? Most obvious being how much money you make vs how much you have to spend on bills etc.

my level of saving has varied throughout my life. When I got my first job at 14 I started saving because I wanted to go to uni and my parents had no money.

then I saved up for my first mortgage etc. at that stage holidays etc we’re minimal. We saved by putting what was left at the end of each month into a savings account (sometimes £20 or similar). Now that we’re older and have more healthy incomes and our outgoings are pretty stable we decide how much we want to save and put it into savings at the start of the month. Some goes into instant access and some into places that we can’t access until much further down the line.

Overpaying your mortgage and having a private pension IS saving as if you needed to do a big house repair you could take from your mortgage if needs be.

That said, it sounds like you’re not living on the breadline and I do think if I was you I’d find life so much more comfy if I was sitting on even a smallish pile of instant access cash, just in case. Maybe you miss the foreign holiday one year and put the few thousand that you saved into a savings account and that becomes your new minimum?! It’s obviously personal choice and if you’re happy sitting without the savings then there’s nothing wrong with that!

We don’t have any savings, hubby is a good earner circa £63000 p/a and I have just started a new job at a moderate pay, although we don’t have savings we change our mortgage when the fixed rate is up and cut years off our mortgage every time, so although no physical savings in no time we will be mortgage free which will then allow is to save.

I can’t imagine not having savings!
If you’re earning, put some away for future use then you’ll never be in the awful situation of not having enough for something that you need now.
Eating out and takeaways are not necessary. Having savings for a rainy day are.
There will be countless times in the next years or decades when you need money and those takeaways you ate won’t help you then!

I’ve saved since late teens and never spent my whole wage even when it was tiny. Over the years I’ve grown enough nest egg to not have to worry. Better to wait to “treat myself” to eg a new pair of boots or a weekend away or a better car in a few months or years when doing so will still leave money in the bank.

When our income was smaller we scrimped and saved. Clothes from charity shops and only if really needed. Holidays camping. No eating out. No cinema trips. Cheap second hand phones and bicycles. Second hand toys. We had oodles of fun! So much can be done for free. Walk in the park and play board games bought in a charity shop. Play charades and bounce a tennis ball around the garden. Buy fruit from a market and make art from it then eat it. Libraries! Free museums! All low cost and just as enjoyable as buying into the consumerism trap.

Now after decades of that attitude we’re really well off.
I really can’t imagine spending it all as soon as it’s in the bank. Seems mad to me!

Going by the recent thread on the man who feels skint on 65K, no. People are saying I'm decadent for saving £500 towards emergencies. I'm the sole earner and mortgage payer. If I can't pay for emergency repairs, they can't get done. I would not feel secure at all if I couldn't save anything. I wouldn't be able to enjoy things like holidays or takeaways or clothes knowing that if something went wrong, I'd be screwed. I grew up in poverty and was determined not to ever put my children in the same position.

I've sacrificed so much in my pursuit of financial stability, including having children at all. It's really odd to me that the majority of those telling me I'm so privileged have children. No hint of irony. No hint of self awareness that if they hadn't had the children, they could afford to save as much as I do and have spent more time working.

Very odd.

Another thought that’s worth mentioning is, you say if your boiler needed replaced you’d just put it on a credit card which is absolutely fine but what are the chances you’d ever be made redundant? How much payout would you get? We absolutely had not considered this until there were the threat of redundancies at my husbands work. He made about 10 x what I did at the time so it was a massive stress and hadn’t been at the company long so the payout wouldn’t have sustained us for long. We saved harder after that!

Depends on what the rates are. The interest on my instant access savings account is quite a bit higher than my mortgage rate. If I don't need the savings, I can overpay the mortgage with a lump sum. Much easier than what you suggest.