How much savings do you have and what’s your income? Are my savings disproportionate?

[turtlessswim]

I earn 65k and save 550 a month. I know that’s not a small sum but it’s hardly moving mountains financially. I wonder how much you have to earn to actually have a decent buffer? I would feel comfortable with 100k saved and it feels impossible. I’m 37.

@towering

Nah, for every person who posts about their massive pension pot (which the OP didn't even ask about) and their huge ISA, there will be 100 more just like you

Hope so - this thread has made me worry! We just had no money when kids were tiny. Need to pay off overdraft before eldest goes off to uni 🤔

Absolutely hate tone deaf threads like this.

Losts of Mumsnet members are really struggling, having a miserable time, and we get these humble brags of 'only' saving £550 per month.

To make it worse you get people chiming in with how normal they are with paid off mortgages, and bulging savings accounts and pensions.

damn these posts make me feel like I need to ask for a pay rise 😄😵

is mumsnet for the high earners.. I better find the door 🫠

Both your comments have made me give a sigh of relief.

So thank you both @5125128gap and you.

I have no savings because I always end up needing them for some reason or another.

Did start a pension very recently, which I'm happy about and looking to add more into this year by upping my monthly amount.

I wasn't taught about pensions or savings by anyone at all.

I have no savings. Just debt. And with each passing year where my salary doesn't increase but my bills do, it gets worse.

Well sorry for going without to pay my mortgage off. If it is any consolation, my home isn't our 'forever home', so for us we probably won't always be this financially comfortable! Our salaries are average. Why can't people just be happy for other people that have worked hard to get where they are 😒 most of us will still go through hard times.

Thanks - that makes more sense to me then scrimping on income to put money you will never use in the bank. Especially over the very low interest years. Each to their own though!

Quite. There is a lot of bitterness about those in different financial positions.

I am comfortable with a high income but I’d swap it to not have my health issues. Money makes life easier but can’t fix everything.

Puhlease...

You do know it's acceptable for you not to be able to relate to every single thread on here right...?

@Growlybear83 sounds like you could have saved, but chose not to. In later life, you i think savings would give you more options for your future care

Well, my take home is probably about £700 less than yours and beyond short term savings (for holidays etc) I save zero….
But with 4dc and a big mortgage it’s not possible to save and have a modest holiday each year, so I choose to enjoy my money a bit (3k a year max on 1 holiday so not frivolous). I do have a pension I pay into monthly if that counts?

I earn £65k plus bonus and save £1,000 per month. DP takes home about £55k pre tax and saves £500. He puts a lot aside for tax as he’s self employed but then will usually have a few thousand leftover once he has paid his tax bill so could be saving more monthly.
We saved to buy our house, then to renovate it and now to get married so essentially have spent everything we’ve saved over the last few years. Once the wedding is over we’ll go back to building up our savings again.

It’s so interesting to see how the other half live. Honestly

I should also say that we don’t yet have any children and bought a house under what we could have afforded based on our salaries so we can afford to save what we do while still living a fairly frivolous life.
If we had a higher mortgage and childcare bills, things would be very different.

I am on 35k a year and a single parent.

I currently have 1.5k in savings but I would like around 3 months salary saved away, which would be about 6.5k as a buffer.

Earn £50k per year. Put away at least £1k a month, but in reality it is about £1400 if I factor in money towards holidays etc. I have no mortgage to pay anymore so am lucky to have a lot of disposable income. I have only started saving that much since mortgage went. I don't have that much in savings, about £63k.

Meant to say, I still spend money and have a good time. Life is too short to save all the time.

@Onthebusallday

To make it worse you get people chiming in with how normal they are with paid off mortgages, and bulging savings accounts and pensions.

When all this interest rate hike malarkey kicked off I was surprised to read that only 28% (IIRC) of homes in the UK are mortgaged. I thought it would be a lot more. So maybe it is more normal than we think.

Yet on the other hand average pension pots at retirement are around the £100k mark. I can't see that paying for many Saga holidays.

That doesn’t mean the rest are owned outright by the occupier- loads are owned by landlords, councils etc.

We earn about £150k between us. Husband saves nothing, I have my local government pension building up, I put an additional £500 into it via salary sacrifice and then I put £1100/month into my ISA. I consider it joint funds but it's all in my name. About £30k in there at the moment.

If you can't save, fair enough

If you could, but choose not to, I think you're foolish and will regret it

I have an amount in cash that would cover mortgage, all bills & supermarket food shop for at least 6 months. DH separately has the same. We each do this so that if some thing weird happened to one of us and their bank accounts etc weren't accessible, the other has their own pot to cover everything for a few months. Then have some separate investment pots for long term savings as we may move house.

Im a pretty high earner though and aware that this is not common. I reckon most people have way less.

@0rangeCrush No I'm aware of that, I just thought it would be a lot higher still.

Me too. I've always been quite thrifty, but over the last 5 years 3 of my school friends have died. All of cancer. A friend of DH also had a massive heart attack and died last year. I've persuaded DH to retire early at the end of March at 59. He can get a good chunk of his pension at 60 plus a lump sum. The mortgage is paid off our kids are all in their own homes. I think we can manage financially and once we reach 67 we will get our state pensions. Now we are so looking forward to doing more stuff together and going places and even just extra walks for the dog. DH has been looking at a few additional hobbies he can do. He's decided to go back to cycling to get fitter.

I just can’t save anything, impressed by the figures on here. My mortgage is just under £2500 now (was £1600 until last year - sob). I’ve got three kids so x3 school lunches, clothes, food, outings, birthdays etc. I earn a healthy amount so can cope and I’m not struggling, my husband also works but earns a third of what I do. I overpay my mortgage by £200 a month unless I have unexpected expenses, but otherwise it’s pay check to pay check. We do have holidays but in uk or driving to France, rarely have takeaways and have an 11 year old car. Maybe if interest rates drop I will start to save - for now I’ve no chance. Luckily mortgage went up just as I finished paying off my student loan so the difference was paid for from that, but it’s a shame as I was looking forward to finally saving up a cushion in case of emergency.