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)

So why do you give a shit what other people think?

It’s useful to garner other people’s opinions on what they’d prioritise in similar situations, it’s literally the basis of MN

Absolutely, talk about humblebragging.

I'm still trying to recover from getting fuck-all support off the government during COVID. I'd kill for 20k in the bank.

So you take regular breaks and holidays and you are not intelligent enough to ‘read the room’. My daughter who is renting is having her first holiday this year because we are paying for it . She is a SW and is highly intelligent,studied for her MA with a toddler and literally couldn’t afford for her car MOT last week.
Using a MN expression…give your head a wobble!

If you're smart enough to have just paid off HTB and bought a car outright, you're smart enough to know it's a good amount. You're also smart enough to know it will grow.

You're not smart enough to know this is a ridiculous question to post online on the very day thousands are devastated their CB payments haven't come through.

I remember reading that it was advisable to have about 3 to 6 months worth of outgoings saved up, in case of losing job and trying to get back on your feet.

If you have less than that, it is worth trying to save.
I remember having very little savings and the washing machine breaking and I did fret about how to replace it. I managed to eventually!

After that time, I started paying attention to the 'pay yourself first' approach of putting money into savings straight after getting paid and then living on what was left. That helped me loads to grow my savings so I don't find myself in that situation again.
Obviously this can be difficult to do. I started with £10 a month into savings, but I realise not everyone can do that.

OP I think you’re getting a hard time on here! We have a bit more in savings but it goes up and down depending on the latest renovation / money pit requirement for our house. No holidays or extras though for now!

If I understand correctly, between you and your husband you have a great monthly income (I think about 6k?!) and only 3k a month outgoings (which seems really low, is that for your mortgage, childcare, everything else, food, bills, petrol, hobbies, presents etc?!) so that leaves 3k a month that you could save to build your pot back up to a level you are happy with, and you will earn interest on this too. Then you also have your bonuses, maybe you should use those for your holiday budget.

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

Yes ask, by all means, but use some tact. You've shown absolutely none. In fact you doubled down. Maybe try reading your OP back and imagining yourself skint?

I'm weighing up a bit of a "diamond shoes" problem myself ATM. I wouldn't dream of posting the way you have. This thread is cringeworthy.

so we get 6.2k a month (3k+3.2k)

and you’re right that’s not everything that’s bills without childcare. It’s just shy of 3k for all bills minus childcare on top varies from 500-700 depending on if it’s term time or not

then clothes and present and whatnot we pay out of the personal allowance we give ourselves

Spending £20k on a car then saying you’re worried about your savings is somewhat unreasonable.
I had to get a car urgently for work 5 years ago and as I didn’t want to cut into my savings, I spent £2k on a low mileage 2009 Nissan micra which was supposed to be a stop gap. However it’s been an amazing car, never breaks down and just keeps going. I’ll run it into the ground.
I could have spent £30K on a new car but didn’t. It all comes down to choices and taking responsibility for ourselves.

I’m sure you can get something similar, maybe a bit bigger for around £5k.

I think there is an issue in this country of a showing off, “beat your neighbour” attitude.
Then complaining of the “ cost of living crisis” because they got their priorities wrong.

Well if you want to worry less, then take fewer holidays for a few years and put that spend into savings. If you'd rather have the holidays, then clearly you are not that worried.

We don't have any savings at all

I have £5.45 in my savings account. Fortunately not enough to worry about so all good here. My outgoings are small though - to match my income. I do own my own house though.

It’s loads.

If you are 35 years old you should aim to contribute 17-20% of your earnings towards your pension pot. You might consider less frequent holidays or cheaper holidays to achieve that.
Overall, you seem to be in a reasonably good position but there is nothing wrong in asking for other's opinions.

Even though your employer doesn’t match it? 13% is the ceiling for my current employer. I can put more in by its un matched.

i need to sort my pensions out, I’ve got one that’s pretty flat and another that’s performed well, I need to move the flat one to the well performing one.

new one I’m not sure how it’s going to do yet

Aware this won’t further endear me to this thread, but I’m a penny and the bun sort of person, then I fret about it after.

You can set up a SIPP, you will still get a rebate from HMRC which is free money. It might help you in retiring earlier with a decent pension. Even with employer's pension you will pay less tax even though your employer won't match your contribution.
Ask your employers and get more info regarding SIPPs and private pensions.
Not qualified to give proper financial advice but just telling you what my daughter is doing. She is 33 years old.

Well you have a lot more than average then.

A lot of employers don’t match, or only put in a very small percentage (think my partners is 3%). If you contribute via salary sacrifice you will save lots in tax (particularly at the 40% rate), and this will bring down your income for child benefit calculations. You also benefit from the fact you’ve got years for that money to grow in your pension, and you can withdraw 25% tax free at 57 (although this rule might change in the future). We are putting in a really high percentage to avoid the high tax rate and we are playing catch-up as my partners pension is no-where near what it should be for his age and we want to retire early

I know from last years self assessment our pensions definitely don’t mean we have to pay back less cb. I thought it would be, but had a rather substantial bill when we had to pay it all back.

apparently few pensions are

Are you talking savings as a catchall phase or literally money in a savings account? If it's just in a savings account I would look to split it out into different places, invest some etc. Interest rates will be going down slowly.

But yeah I'd be looking to build it back up if I were you.

The child benefit bracket changed this year in the budget (60-80k) so that should help you pay back less going forward. I’m no expert but I thought generally CB was calculated using your net income figure (so adjusted income figure after salary sacrifice deductions) but that would probably also include bonus payments too which may have bumped the net figure up resulting in you paying it back

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-high-income-child-benefit-charge/information-on-changes-to-the-high-incomechild-benefit-charge#:~:text=Contents&text=As%20announced%20at%20Spring%20Budget,60%2C000%20from%206%20April%202024.&text=For%20instance%2C%20you'll%20be,income%20that%20exceeds%20£60%2C000.

Catch all.

i do want to build up more so I can invest some but atm i don’t have enough.

so it’s split between an isa, fixed rate, and monthly saver (all rates are above current inflation)

Yes! I’ve started claiming again.

so dh filled in the self assessment tax return online and it didn’t take into account the deductions he’d made as part of his pension. It just put his gross income at like 65k so it all went back