Do lots of people have these sorts of savings? Or am I bloody right?!

[moneuapme]

I feel like utter shit after a meal with friends at the weekend. We all have decent jobs but I am still a long way down the ladder after re training. We don’t usually talk about money but will go to nice places for a dinner etc which I can afford easily too. But it turns out that 4 out of the other five of them are saving between 1k to 1,500 a month and already have over 50k savings?! The other woman there said she has no savings and I just said I had some but not that much. The truth is I have 2k to my name and save around 150 a month usually. I earn 53k. I feel really stressed and worried about the future now as I have nowhere near the security they are talking about. I have tried to keep telling myself this week that that’s surely unusual but is it? Have I just massively fucked up somewhere? Last week I felt really content and lucky and now I just feel like a failure.

My husband and I have a combined income of £95k and save £1,500 a month. We can only do this because we have a shared household and no childcare fees. If you are living alone, paying for childcare, etc etc then it won’t be a reasonable goal.

That said, saving what you can makes a huge difference to your financial security. It would be worth cutting non-essentials (assuming you have any to cut) for a while to prioritise this if you can. I appreciate that just isn’t possible for some people though.

It sounds like you have good long term career prospects. You will likely have more scope for saving as your career progresses. You are far from a failure - everyone’s circumstances are different and it sounds like you’re doing fine.

It massively depends on their circumstances. I earn 45k and I save about 1k-1,2k a month. I live with my partner and we share living costs. No small children. I hardly ever spend money on clothes or entertainment but I do have a few expensive hobbies. I have about 30k in savings. But I always lived very frugally. When I was a student, I managed to save about 10k from my student loan over 3 years. It's all been spent to pay off the remained of the mortgage on a property abroad which I am selling next year (hopefully for a profit)
When I lived alone, I was only able to save £300 a month.
I will say though that there is no right or wrong way of doing it. My partner is rubbish at saving but he had a great time when he was younger - travelling around the world, climbing mountains... I had a much more restrained lifestyle because I grew up in poverty and would rather have savings than go on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

What bullshit. So unless you have 6 months salary squirrelled away you shouldn't have a meal out with friends? So only the very privileged should be able to enjoy a night out, a theatre trip, a holiday? A ridiculous thing to say.

has some statistics on averages for savings.

If you're single then it feels like you should be saving more than £150 a month on that salary but so many things have been missed off this post that would help answer whether that's the case. I'm mid 40s with 2 kids and don't save that much but make huge contributions to my pension which feels right for my stage of life. Also pay school fees.

We save differing amounts each month, we have about 20k saved plus another 15k saved for the kids. Would have more but just bought a new kitchen.

How long is a piece of string? Single, kids, mortgage, rent - too many variables. Personally I'd be saving more and spending less on nice dinners if I were you though.

I have always kept savings, even when single of £5-10k, now that I'm married with a child we keep our savings at £50k+
We went without a lot for a long time to build that up initially and now are not currently in a phase of life where we can continue to add £1k + to savings each month but we also don't dip into these savings, so are living within our means technically still

I think that’s unusual amount of monthly savings. There was a brief period I was saving that much, but Im a high earner and that was when I had no kids and was saving for deposit!

There's obviously a big difference between those with a household income of 40k and those with a household income of 90k. It's almost supposing those on 90k aren't saving more!

I have about £7k in savings, civil servant so excellent pension. One toddler and baby on the way which limits me saving more. We overpay the mortgage rather than save more at the moment as well.

I wonder if that is savings for specific things, like holidays, car repairs, home improvements. We save a bit each month towards these things and then have a little bit excess which has no allocation except savings. If that's what your friends are talking about well lucky them having so much! However, the only excess you really need is 6 months salary and a decent pension pot (which I don't have btw). Spend the rest and enjoy life.

Surely age matters? How old are you? People who bought a long time ago will be more likely to have no mortgage or a smaller one so can save more.

Depends on what you have in assets. I don’t have much in savings (circa £15k) but do have 2 houses with a lot of equity and 2 defined benefits pensions (1 final salary) so I’m less fussed.

If I was in rented with no pension that would be different.

I also think alot of people say they save that type of money but then spend it on holidays, car repairs, clothes etc that most of us pay for straight from earnings. If they save £1500 a month that's £18000 a year. How much do they have in savings?

Calm down! If you read what I said It was that the OP can't "easily afford" and I stand by that. Everyone can spend their money how they like but don't then complain that you have no savings. That is the choice we make. And if I had less than a month's salary in savings, I would need to make some hard choices about meals out and holidays. That is surely common sense.

I think these sorts of conversations with “friends” are just an excuse for people to show off and make other people feel shit about themselves.

There will always be someone worse off and better off than you. Don’t worry about what others are doing, focus on living your life the way you want to.

We have 68p in savings 🤣 dh and I have a fairly good income for our area but we are big spenders and eat out a lot, go on holidays etc etc - we use credit cards (0% interest) to pay for holidays and pay it back. But we don’t have a mortgage - own outright since our late 30s- so we have that security that others don’t. So we know if we really needed to we could downsize / remortgage etc for a small amount for repairs etc. But yeah if you asked us re savings we don’t save anything, can’t be bothered and would rather just live in the moment (Ds and I severely disabled).

There are so many factors to consider with this type of stuff it’s really unfair for people to sit there and say “oh I save £££££ a month” and expect everyone else to do the same.

This is true. I never know what to count as savings on these threads. We 'truely' save about £5-600 a month from my salary. This goes into share saves & premium bonds. We don't have any immediate plans for this money. At some point if we ever reach a decent pot if maybe a house deposit or a car but mid 40s now may never get on the ladder as its only in the last 12 months we have been able to save at this rate. We don't touch this without a proper conversation and agreement. Would usually only touch this for something really needed / specific. We have circa £10k at the moment.

Then we put £100 a week away from DHs salary but this is in the accessible savings that has to cover holidays and Christmas, so not really savings I don't think, more budgeting but some people would say its savings as its a standing order to the savings accounts. This pot is the lets go on holiday fund. Can we cover from this pot, yes lets book it. No, then no, keep saving / look for a different deal.

Everyone is different. Some people choose to spend money more than others (i.e. luxuries, meals out, etc), whilst others choose to save. Some have childcare costs or mortgages to pay.

We save around £1500-1800pm at the moment (take home pay £5,600 between us). We're about to have a baby, so we're saving a bit more than we normally would so it covers my mat leave. Once I'm on mat leave, we'll probably be only able to save a couple hundred pounds a month... and when I'm back to work, we'll be paying childcare. Saving ability will fluctuate with circumstances xx

So with less earnings than you I am saving substantially more

Is that because you have more costs or am I just tight ?

How ridiculous.

Depends what they're saving for. If I had enough disposable income to easily afford plenty of nice meals out, but didn't own a home or have a decent pension, I'd prioritise saving towards those.

I don't know anyone who saves that much, and 50k would be a dream come true. To be honest, most people I know are struggling and living month to month, while working full time.

There will be posters im sure who comment on how much they've saved, but comparison is the thief of joy. I think it's great if you can save a little each month, especially if you've just retrained and are working your way up.

It's almost supposing those on 90k aren't saving more!

if you are paying high housing costs and childcare saving 1.5k out of 90k is unrealistic.

We do now have these kind of savings now (early 50s) but didn't have two pennies to rub together when we were younger.

We were particularly skint in our 30s - young family, big mortgage, smaller salaries.