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.

Fair enough, but how would you have coped during Covid had you not had savings to live on. If you don't have savings now, how will you cope if something like that happens again in the future?

We do plus a couple of properties but it’s from inheritance, we don’t save much at the moment due to childcare.

We would have been entitled to benefits!

We save a lot every month, I imagine a lot more than our friends (although who knows?)

However although mortgage free, have the smallest house as we haven't moved when they did and would rather save for the future.

We put money away for University (2 kids), house deposits, part-time working, retirement, etc. but will also use it for holidays, house improvements and treats, just not as many as other families!

That's life if you're a member of a democratic society.

You pay taxes and often, you're paying for things that don't apply to you or you never use.

I'm not saying people shouldn't plan for the future or waste money on luxuries expecting the state to pick up the bill but taxes go to societal costs.

I don't have kids, I don't object to MAT pay, free childcare places or funding for schools.

If you are a single person on that salary there is no reason why you are not saving like your friends. If you have kids and are a single parent it might be different, though it would depend on student loans, bills, mortgage etc.

You chose to retrain, you can't really compare based on people who haven't done that because it's apples to oranges. But there must be a reason you decided to retrain - longer term prospects or salary, purpose, etc.

We don’t save anything usually and enjoy it. Spend it on the kids, go on nice holidays and buy what we want. We do ensure our mortgage and bills are paid. combined we earn just over 100k. We are saving for a wedding though atm but that’s it. Who cares it’s literally just money might die tomorrow and no one will think oh I wish I could have saved more for no reason what so ever

I completely agree. I have no issue paying taxes for societal good. What gets me is the attitude of - I don't have to bother because somebody else will pay.

I tend to agree. “easily affording” nice meals out infers that you should be able to have the whole package including savings. I’d aim for 6 months saving too and go without luxuries for a few months to achieve it.

I had a similar thing a few weeks ago. I don’t save at all. I was in a reasonably well-paid job and we didn’t have kids, we got a nice car, went lots of holiday etc but our mortgage went up, we now have two kids, expensive pets and I now run my own business as my job wasn’t flexible at all to be able to be there for the kids while they’re little.

I don’t doubt that maybe one day we could be back at that again. I didn’t take a maternity leave with my second baby (other than a few weeks) as we just couldn’t afford to live off of only my partner’s income. My friend has quite a good job and was able to take over a year off. We were out for coffee the other week and she mentioned that her friend was saying that some people are in their overdraft at the end of the month. She sounded absolutely horrified. She said she wasn’t struggling too much on maternity leave and wasn’t needing to dip into her savings yet.

Meanwhile im nodding along, at the bottom of my overdraft where I’ve been since my baby was born and don’t have any savings whatsoever 😂 It was the sheer horror in her face saying apparently some people are in their overdraft?!

The vast majority of people in real life do not save £2000 a month. It's absolutely farcical to suggest that's true. That's more than what a lot of people EARN per month. Only in the parallel world of Mumsnet do people regularly save £2000 or more a month! 😆

I bet your friends are lying @moneuapme

If you are comparing savings then you have to compare everything

salary
rent
bills
food
essentials
luxuries

Everybody has different ways to spend their money. Are you wasting money on things that you don't need while they are frugal and save every penny?

or do you have higher outgoings than they do?

My favourite post ever ever ever

I have nearly 50k (45k to be exact)
I’ve been saving since 2004 though tbf (two hundred pounds a month and if you do the math you’ll see that, yes, I have spent some of it)

This is so worth repeating 👍🏼

Threads like these are an absolute beacon to people claiming to save 100k a month while investing 5k a day into their pension pot.

Just want other readers to bear I mind these replies are unlikely to be representative of the norm, particularly as 21% of the UK are currently in relative poverty after housing costs.

As a working family with 2 DC we save about £500 a month across kids, joint savings and a private pension for DH. I suspect it's more than many of our friends, the same as others and less than the ones who are mortgage free. I consider us extremely fortunate to be able to save this amount.

I think you'll find that most people don't save "for no reason whatsoever".

Yes, you might die tomorrow but equally you might live to be in good health and enjoying a great life at 80+, as many do.

For most people it's more a case of balance, rather than "who cares it's literally just money".

Same for me and my circle of friends, too much month at the end of the money. I managed to save a little bit each month as I got older and life got more stable and predictable, but I had a long time of counting the slices in a loaf of bread and feeding my kid while I went without.

This is why people shouldn’t talk about money…

if it helps, until very recently I had no savings. I’m 62. I refuse to worry and I don’t give a fuck what anyone else does or doesn’t have.

Not necessarily, being single means no one to share all the bills/mortgage/household expenses with, even on a good salary like £50k, this can take up a lot of the monthly salary.

It’s very short sighted not to save for the future especially when you’re earning over 100k. What if you’re suddenly unable to work long term due to ill health? Presumably you have good pensions?

I only ever read this stuff on mumsnet. Don’t think I know a single person who has 6 months worth of salary saved and most of my friends are in professional jobs.

A lot of people must have really dull lifes. Saving for stuff that might not happen and feeling guilty about a nice meal as they “only” have £2k savings. Live a little ffs

We aim to save £1500 per month. £500 comes straight out of my pay and goes into savings and the last few times I've had a pay increase I've increased that amount.

The other £1000 is flexible, some months, like this month, we've spent it all and had to dip into savings to cover things like vet bills.

We weren't able to save this kind of money until we were in our late 30's, we have very high outgoings (fixed the mortgage with a higher monthly repayment and shorter term when rates were reasonable so we no longer have to panic about rate increases, plus £1600 per month for nursery) and it's really down to luck that we both have decent jobs in fields where, if we've been out of work, we've been able to find more pretty quickly.

We do a lot of things which are a result of my assumption that one or the other of us could be out of work at any given time, which is why our budget looks the way it does.

I don’t really have savings because I upped my pension contributions to every spare bit I have monthly.

I came on to say similar, and also that, from my perspective (between me and DP we have one OK but unreliable freelance income and one income less than MW), truisms like 'it's easier to save if you're a childfree couple' are bunkum.

I save when I can, but have to be realistic and accept that I can't save like my friends with 80–100k salaries, paid holidays and sick pay, good work pensions etc.