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 have a SGW fund (shit goes wrong) and try to put £200 a month in it, first month I put into it I had an emergency car repair bill for exactly that amount lol. Right now it has 4 figures in it and would see me through a few months if I lost my job for any reason or the boiler broke or I had a massive roof repair.

You say you overpay your mortgage, if you are still on a good mortgage deal I wouldn't bother and just shove any overpayment money into a high interest savings account instead. (And pay it off at the end of your mortgage term) That way you have the benefit of savings incase you need them for an emergency and they'll earn more interest if you're still on a good mortgage deal.

I'd put it in a completely seperate account though if you're a spender and will see a big fat holiday just waiting to be had when it gets to 4 figures lol. Xx However if it will get spent maybe overpaying mortgage is sensible. (You can always ask for a mortgage holiday if you overpay too and shit does indeed go wrong)

I agree with having nice holidays and making fond memories though then just saving rentlessly for retirement (as long as it doesn't put you too much in the black) there's definitely a balance to be had x

I'm late thirties, bought my house in my early 20s, saved my own deposit and haven't really had any significant financial help from family (parents bought washing machine and fridge freezer when I bought my house, grandparents bought and insured my first car for me for £500 for the car and I think about £600 for the insurance).

No student debt - was fortunate to go to uni with and NHS bursary and NHS funded course. I did go back to uni and took a significant pay cut to do so which meant I lived on my credit cards. Built up quite a bit of credit card debt during that time and have almost cleared that now. I used most of my savings to pay off a significant proportion of it. I have about £2000 left in savings now. I have four savings accounts and I have a standing order set up to pay in to them on pay day - only small amounts but it's something. At the end of the month, whatever is left in my current account, I pay to my savings and the credit card (I pay into my savings the odd amount above the hundred, the hundreds to my credit card eg if I had £275 left, the £75 would go to savings and the £200 to the credit card). I'm not really very good with money though I am getting better.

I have some savings now, but didn't in the past. As a single mum with periods of unemployment due to several redundancies, never getting any child support and paying for every single thing for my child by myself it was impossible. I used to go without food sometimes and it was tough. Did pay off the mortgage though and put a little bit of money away after I had done that. My problem was caused by two things, not having much money and being financially illiterate. I really wish I had been taught about money management, I had an academic education but it did not equip me for life in the real world. I also had parents who never discussed money and how to manage it and while I take responsibility for my own incompetence I do think it would have made a difference if money management had been a thing when I was growing up. Always worked though and paid my own way and have of course paid into a pension.

Since I've been earning money I have always had savings. When I was growing up with a single mom we never had any money for emergencies like new boiler, broken window, etc. I wouldn't say I'm tight as a result but I make sure I live well within my means and save at the very, very least £250 a month. I'm eating into savings a bit at the moment on maternity leave, but that's something I saved for intentionally. And the amount I can save will probably lessen temporarily when I go back to work and have to pay childcare.

Some people can't save, whether because they don't earn enough or because the more they earn the further they upgrade their lifestyle. Others are just bad with cash.
I think the majority of people have SOME savings though.

We have 6 months expenses in cash savings, working to get this to a year. We also contribute 20% to our pensions. We have separate investments that we don’t touch but not adding more to that at the moment because we are prioritizing getting our cash savings to 12 months. How we do it, we are both high earners but have kept our lifestyle in check, we have one secondhand car we paid cash for that is 7 years old, won’t replace it for at least another 5 years. No debt and never had any apart from student loans which were paid off early, and mortgage which is fixed at 2.2% for 30 years. We don’t eat out that much and don’t go mad when we do, holidays are nice by general standards but way less expensive than we could afford. We buy good quality but not often. I also work for a big higher end retailer (not UK) and I am able to get a lot of our clothes and sporting goods at a big discount there so can buy good quality at a fraction of the price. I think keeping lifestyle in check is pretty key, but aware that’s easy for me to say with two people earning well into 6 figures. I grew up in a well off but very financially conservative household and have tried to continue same.

I have rainy day/holiday/house stuff savings. I have a very small pot being built for long term.

i also have a work NHS pension and over pay the mortgage too but I don’t see those as savings like you do as I don’t have access to that money.

I've always had savings......even when we were on benefits for a short time, I'd take the cash out every week and whatever was left, even as little as £3 I'd pay into my savings account every week. We've never had a massive income and never had to struggle or go without mainly because I've always had savings and refuse to spend money I don't have.

I’m (hopefully..!) 10 years away from taking early retirement and so suddenly everything becomes very focused - no longer a theoretical conversation about stopping work ‘one day’.

I have a final salary pension from a former job and I now pay into a very generous pension where my employer doubles my contribution.

I have 4 months’ equivalent of monthly expenses saved for unexpected expenses. This is purely for emergency use.

We have sinking funds for holidays, house expenses and presents that we contribute to all year, and also regularly use.

We are overpaying the mortgage each month with the aim of clearing it within 5 years. Once this is complete this payment will go into ISAs to help fund retirement.

I find it very difficult to save without a goal, but clearing the mortgage in 5 years feels very motivating because of the life benefits it will bring.

I pay into a pension and I used to have savings in a joint account with my ex partner. We broke up because he was becoming increasingly abusive, social services became involved. The day I ended the relationship he emptied our joint current and savings account. I work part time since having children in a professional job, I cannot increase my hours due to the issues with social services and the children. He so far refuses to pay child support. All of this means I am struggling month by month often going into unauthorised overdrafts. But its also beneficial for me not to have savings right now, I need legal aid and you are not eligible for legal aid if you have too much in savings. Once cms have changed to collect and pay I will be putting abit aside each month as best I can to cover winter fuel bills.

Yes quite, I agree.

Sounds like you are doing ok, OP, just carry on as you are.

I think with the massive inflation this year and energy prices doubling and more people are doing ok just to be managing TBH.

I'm just glad we've managed to afford household expenditure going up by about £500 a month in a short space of time.

A lot of people could save money if they weren't required to pay directly into the CEO of energy companies' and banks' wallets.

Mumsnet is very odd in this respect. If you go by MN you’d think that everyone has pots and pots of savings, and puts aside about half of their income each month.

I don’t think that’s most people’s reality.

I get paid into account A and transfer enough for all bills into account B + £300.
that builds up to maybe a few k and is my oh shit fund for when the car breaks down, the boiler explodes or whatever. It never gets bigger than maybe 5k but I’m also never in a position where I can’t pay an unexpected big bill.
I should add tho that I’ve a good pension through work and pay a bit extra on my mortgage sometimes so it has some decent equity.
I’m a single parent though and have been since my child was 5, with zero help from my ex who quit work rather than pay child support. Sigh. So it’s important for me to feel in control and able to cope when shit happens
’Child’ has just finished University now so maybe there will be more chance to save.

Probably worth adding that I never go on holiday or eat out and the £300 is probably more like £150 since the cost of everything went up

@AperfectMess I think you were replying to my comments there. We have lots of enjoyment in life, being frugal and not holidaying annually doesn't mean there is no fun or enjoyment in life! I personally don't like to holiday every year, my husband would but at the moment he knows it's not something we can do. We're aiming to be mortgage free within a certain not too far away timescale and when that time comes, we will start to have annual holidays. But we're also planning a large house extension so we're also saving for that too. So it's not like we're saving tens of thousands just for the sake of it, they are for good reason and will bring us a much better lifestyle in the not too distant future.

But as I said above, our life is filled with enjoyment, we're not boring and our children very much enjoy their life!

I have savings that sit in premium bonds, as does my partner. We overpay the mortgage and I know he has some stocks and shares.

I've always been a saver, I used to squirrel away birthday and Xmas money as a child. I'm still the same now, not sure what I'm saving for though! Sometimes I get a bit obsessed with saving and need to remind myself to relax and enjoy life.

@horseyhorsey17 I didn't mean scale up your writing in terms of taking more work, the advice those people I mentioned give is about strategies on selling your books, so once you've finished your book, how to effectively market it etc. So I just meant how to effectively scale up your earnings from the book(s) that you are already working on.

I was wondering this! But it has a very middle class readership so I suppose this isn't surprising.

Mind you, I am very middle class and none of my close friends has pots and pots of savings. We've always been a bit of a party-loving bunch though so that may be why.

My fiancé is 40, I'm 27, we don't have any savings. Always had to private rent, and paying off debt from years ago.

This is how people get into debt. What happens if you put something on credit card then get made redundant the following month?
I can honestly say I have never in my life booked a holiday or weekend away without having the money to pay for it before I book.
That meant that several years I did not go away, but then it also meant I have never had to worry about money despite only earning an average salary.

Mumsnet is very odd in this respect. If you go by MN you’d think that everyone has pots and pots of savings, and puts aside about half of their income each month.

I don’t think that’s most people’s reality.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing it's annoying isn't it? Another classic is "i only have x thousand because I'm on benefits/single Mam/rubbish at saving." I do get it can be dependent on age, and how much mortgage is paid off, salary, and what kind of state the property market & economic climate was in etc but some of it seems very far fetched.

Just need to finish it! It's won a prize and stuff though (despite as yet being unfinished) so I am hopeful I'll get a good agent and make some money, but obviously it's not the sort of thing you can count on in any way, shape or form.

Bit of a tangent - I haven't been on MN that long, but are there people on here who, well, just make everything up? Maybe live a bit of a fantasy life online? I read that cat thread and thought 'no way is this true' and like you say, so many of the posts just bear absolutely no resemblance to the reality I live in - which isn't unusual, it's just a normal working mum in a south east town!

We have savings in lots of different forms.

stocks and shares isa (1 for us and 1 for children)

1 year fixed saver
easy access saver
private and workplace pension
2 rental properties on repayment mortgages

I’m 29 and DH is 34. I can never remember what generation that makes us 😂 millennial?

Mumsnet has always had it's share of bullshitters. But also really polarised extremes depending on the thread.

And some posters just like to be contrary I think.