To ask how much/what percentage of your earnings goes into savings? I think I’m going massively wrong!

[Hmmwhato]

Excluding pension, I save 300. I often wonder what’s the point! I have 1,900 to my name which wouldn’t even pay for an emergency. Should I be saving more?! I am stretched as it is

I have £52.00 in savings currently and that will be gone before payday!

It’s better than nothing, and presumably you add to it every month? It’s £2k which is far from nothing and would make a big dent in a lot of emergencies.

It totally depends on your income and your outgoings, I have a lot in savings but it was from before kids. I'm saving £400 a month and that's 16% of my take-home pay, I used to save 35% but we've got childcare to pay for and cost of living has affected everything, our mortgage is 50% higher than it was 3 years ago.

Remember 300 a month is 3600 a year so if you don't need to touch it this time next year your 1900 will be 5500!

I save 500pm. Its a stretch as I'm not a high earner..I bought a house last year and I live in fear of something requiring maintenance so I'm trying to amass a healthy pot.
I realise I'm very privileged. I had an IVA in 2012 so I've been at every end of the wealth spectrum..

Its around 30% of my earnings. I should also mention that I do casual work on weekends to make my months spending a bit more pleasant..

Currently about 20% off joint income. And 20% on mortgage.

It’s better than nothing, just keep adding what you can, make sure it’s getting decent interest and it will soon start adding up.

How would £1900 not pay for an emergency?!
That would buy you a car, repair a broken boiler, enable you to take a week of unpaid leave to sort out an emergency… many things!

You 'should' have access to three months expenses as emergency savings. So obviously 'how much' is dependent on your expenses. Once you have emergency savings, you start saving for longer term savings. And pensions etc.

£300 a month is a good amount. It will build you quickly.

Half of mine goes into savings , trying to build a retirement fund

20% of joint income usually. We allocate budgets for everything (monthly bills, food, holidays, presents, fun money etc) then sweep any excess from each budget into savings when we get paid the next month.

Op I also agree that's a good amount!
As pp said you need to build up 3 months of savings first and then an emergency fund.
Make sure its somewhere earning interest or in pb for fun!
Like trickabric we put all our money somewhere each month including savings not a penny is left but we do set money aside for fun as well as big expenditure each year like Christmas and holidays.

Currently I save 210 each month, hopefully a little more can be saved after August.

0% currently, I hope in a couple of years to be able to start saving. If you’re struggling cut back a little on the savings but keep it going, £1900 is better than nothing if something goes wrong.

Save what you can. The fact others may save more or less is irrelevant. Keep chipping away and start to build that safety net.

I don’t see how my savings would sort a car!! I know it’s not nothing but it feels like a never ending struggle to save something then you look at it and wonder why! Different if it was 30k or something but circa 2k feels really worrying

I don't understand your question OP? Surely you have to start somewhere? Your 2K now will grow and then you'll have more. What is the issue?

Unless you're saying you never manage to save enough and every time you reach a good amount something pops up?

If you don't have a lot of spare money you've done great to save nearly £2k.

It would pay for a car repair, new washing machine or replace your wages if you were off sick and didn't get paid.

Think about how hard it would be if these things happened and you didn't have money aside to deal with them.

50% of my salary goes straight into the joint account which pays for household expenses ( mortgage, bills, food, DC activities) of the remaining 50% I try to save half so 25% of my take home pay. This also pays for holidays. I put whatever is left in an ISA in March each year.

This feels very gloaty, especially in current times. Many people myself included are living in an overdraft and can only DREAM of putting £300 away each month. Jees.

I pay 8% into my pension and have a few diff saving pots but not massively long term. One is for Xmas, one for unexpected bills and one for ‘fun’ (holidays, special treats etc).

I have a longer term account that I put £50 a month into. It’s a small amount but I’ve been paying on for 16 years so a good healthy, rainy day account!

If you can keep saving £300 it will soon add up - if you don't need to use it!
Don't be so dismissive. Saving nearly 2K is a fabulous start. And as many say, it would sort a new appliance, or a trip to the garage for the car. It would also make a massive dent in e.g a new boiler. How would you do any of that I'd you didn't have savings??? Debt or go without, I'd guess.

We try and put half on any payrises onto the savings direct debit. So, say you get a payrise that gets you an extra £30 a month in your paypacket, increase the savings to £315. It really starts to add up (until you don't get a payrise for years, and/or cost of living makes it impossible).

well, it depends what was wrong with it, surely? It would cover a new battery, new wheels, new gear stick etc. £1900 would go a good way towards a new boiler, for example.

One of the best things about savings in the current climate is that it's finally rewarded by banks in terms of higher interest rates. £3600 a year in a 7% bank account (which is the highest easy access currently available) -= £3852. That's not to be sniffed at. If you do the same the next year that's more than £500 of 'free' money in interest.

But regardless of how much, surely the whole point of savings is anything is better than nothing?

You can’t get to £30K without first saving £10, £100, £1K, £3K, £10K etc.