Should I be worried about my savings?

[Sosomuchpain]

or lack thereof

We’ve got 20k between us. I don’t know, it hit me today that some people might consider that incredibly low. Is it? Should I be putting my sole focus into building back up my savings.

2 adults 2 children (one nursery- 15 hrs)

atm it’s a moderate focus. Spare cash goes towards travel and savings

from my old financial advise days it was around 6 months living expenses in savings which I think that is. Am I flapping over nothing?

(we just shelled out 40k for our htb and 20k for a new car)

Could’ve sworn I said in my OP it was about 6 months expenses but I’ve just re read it and i didn’t . My bad.

we can’t guarantee we won’t lose our jobs at the same time. It seems improbable but it’s possible

Well I've got £700 savings and I'm approaching retirement age. So if I were you OP, no I wouldn't be worried. I'd be ecstatic!

@Sosomuchpain it is a baity post because unless you have been living under a rock you would absolutely know that many, many people would have no savings whatsoever. It's either baity or you are very out of touch. Which, given the current political climate, is quite worrying.

But people from different backgrounds and income levels can all worry about their nest egg. Especially given how much harder it is to save nower days

Only nest egg is my pension, in 12 years I can retire.

Hear hear 👏👏👏

I know you didn't ask for sympathy OP, my point was saying that you wouldn't get any from me.

Sorry but you come across as a bit bratty.

YABU . You have a good chunk of savings, you have just spent a good chunk of savings (you could have spent less than that but decided to get a warranty etc too).

No you shouldn't be worried. Yes you should be more aware and read the room.

OP seriously. You’d have to be living under a rock not to know how this post would be perceived.
Ideally people should have 6 months expenses saved up but most people probably don’t.
Those of us who are in a position to save should acknowledge that we are in a privileged position and take our queries to a dedicated money section or site perhaps.

ive seen different figures, that the average is 11k or 17k
So you already know you are doing better than average so why worry

Some people will have more, some people will have less and some people will have nothing at all. We have no idea of your living situation, financial outgoings or anything else - how are randoms on the internet supposed to know how much money you personally need?

It sounds like you’re doing ok. There, is that better? 🤷🏻‍♀️

My question was more on, if you were me, would you put your focus into building back up your savings and pausing all travel and holidays or basically don’t sweat it and carry on as is, gradual build up

It’s the sort of question that really is irrelevant because for starters you haven't put your age or possible career projection. You also haven’t put what a years living expenses are for you. That’s the starting point to all budgeting with a % increase for inflation.

No, you shouldn't worry because that's a waste of time.

Sit and work it out, what happens if the roof needs repairing? The boiler blows up? One of you had an accident and was on sick pay for a year? Whatever other calamity comes about...(or a few at once, as is sometimes the way)

Then decide - yes I need more savings, or no I don't and own your priorities.

I would always choose the rainy day fund, there have been some very wet times in my life.

But the average is clearly skewed by the very wealthy so that's not representative at all.

65% of people don't have enough to last more than 3 months so you're well ahead of most.

Dh would get 100% for 6 months and then 65% still state retirement

id get 12 weeks and then 65% til retirement

boiler and roof ? Yikes I’d have cow, no idea how much they cost

We’re mid 30s, fairly good progression. I earn 52k (+ 10-15% bonus) dh 57 (15% bonus). Dh Closer to his next step than I.

biggest outlays are childcare and mortgage. we spend about 3k a month and then budget about 6k annually for holidays.

Just realised you meant you’ve paid off your htb loan? In which case that’s not too bad. I would want more than £20k if it’s your total savings, and also make sure you’re putting enough into your pensions and also saving for your DC. £6k ok holidays each year is a lot when you only have the basic emergency fund, could you half it for a few years and build up your savings quicker? Then go back to the more expensive travel.

Well if my posts in the child benefit thread is anything to go by, a lot of folks would say you're extremely lucky to be in tbis position. I, however, disagree. In my view, you should have atleast 6 months of your net salary saved up to cover any eventualities. Whether or not this is achievable for you, I don't know - but that is my view!

Yeah just paid most of that cash to minimise rate shock.

that was this year, we had a big hols. Year before we did 4k
yeah it’s our total savings.
we still save £75 a month for each kid.
pensions dh has 14% of salary and I 13%.

I would personally prefer an emergency fund covering 12 month's expenses and a good amount saved in pension before i prioritize travel. A car bought for more than 15k is a saving opportunity wasted.

I'm guess your house is fairly new as you had HTB so hopefully won't need repairs or updating so yes £20k sounds fine. Are you putting any extra money into your pension and also never too soon to think about university costs.

I just see you posted about pensions, they look fairly average.

It’s max matched we can do atm (aware we can do more if we chose but atm have chose to have it as savings)

I guess because because we’ve got another 35 years working we’ve just figured we’ll keep that building up.

we couldn’t really get a newish 7 seater that fits 3 across for less than 17

So about 36k!

i like this 6 months net. It’s a nice figure to work with, probably take a year/ 18 months to get there, depending on expenses