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.

We are high earners (combined £250k) but high spenders too. We have a huge mortgage £500k+ and savings of around £150k. We’re early 40s. It’s so subjective and depends on so many things - family help, lifestyle priorities, children etc.

@moneuapme
You've proved that the old saying "Comparison is the thief of joy" is true.

But don't be despondent, instead look ahead. You are on a very good salary at the moment, so try to plan for the future. It's sound advice to have enough in savings so that you could support yourself for six months should the unexpected occur, so perhaps make that your savings target. Or if that seems too difficult, perhaps lower the target to three months?

While it's important to have a savings target to aim for, it's also important to be able to enjoy daily life, so be flexible and find a balance that works well for you.

I earn about 35k DH about 28k, we have no savings at all and like a lot of people live pay check to pay check. We have no emergency fund either, recently DHs car failed it's MOT luckily my DF lent him the £700 he needed otherwise we would presumably have barely eaten for a month. We have quite a bit of credit card debt so any spare money I have goes on paying that off. I'm not very good at being careful with money and DH is horrific at overspending and seems to think of money as a goal to get rid of it as quick as possible!

There are some things we could cut back on, we have an expensive TV package as we don't go out for example. But life is just expensive at the moment

@monmoneuapme I'm 56, my hubby is 55. No savings, not a penny. Not in the situation to do so. Can't do anything about it so I don't worry about it!

I'm surprised you know all the personal financial details of all your friends and acquaintances. Clearly the idea of being financially secure is anathema to many people on this thread but hey ho, everybody's different. For me, knowing that the next bill isn't going to leave me in difficulty, because I have worked and saved, is what enables me to live "quite a lot".
Going back to the OP's original issue, I don't think it's about how much you save per month because we all have different incomes and outgoings, but few people go through life without having some unexpected expense.

I have to admit that me and DH do have good savings, and could survive for quite a while if one of us lost our job. But no way do we save £2000 a month, and we never have. (And we have very low outgoings now!)

As I said, most people don't save that much.

We are mid 50s now. our kids are independent/got their own home, and we are mortgage free, and we save £750-£900 a month at the most. Occasionally it's a bit more, and some months it's less if we have extra outgoings - like an unexpected car bill or vet bill, or if we do more socialising than normal, or go away on holiday, or if it's Christmas, or if something needs doing in the house. Also saw some our savings go when we helped DD and her now husband fund their wedding! 😬

We spent the first 20-22 years of our marriage though, never cracking 4 figures with our savings. It's only been since our two DC left home, which coincided with us being mortgage free that we started to notice our finances were much healthier! Literally just the past 7-8 years. We were stunned at how much surplus cash we had with no kids to support, and no mortgage. We still never save £2000 a month though!

We do both work 22-26 hours a week though and not full time. So we may save more if we were full time, but then, tax, and national insurance, and private medical insurance through work, and our work pension contributions would be higher, so we may not bring home masses more even if we increased our hours!)

As I said though, we were virtually 50 before we started to have quite a bit of surplus income.

I can't afford to save the sums quoted here. I manage between £50 & £200 a month. I'm a single woman with a big mortgage living in London. I earn a good wage but most of my money goes on bills and food. I don't go out much and I tend to buy clothes and things I need on tick, paying off £50 a month. I'm in my current predicament until DD moves out, and she may well stay with me whilst going to university to cut costs. Once she has moved out, I plan to go and live somewhere cheaper and save much harder.

Thankfully my pension is good and my parents are likely to leave me a small inheritance, so it's not all bad. I currently have about £7k in savings.

I'm a bit ashamed of how I've spent money in the past but since becoming single I've changed a lot of my habits.

What's the old saying...comparison is the thief of joy...!

I am sorry so you lost your brother so young, 💐 Your dad sounds like an awesome man.

Like other posters have suggested. The devil is on the details, I’m a single mum earning (as of this month) 42k net per year. But my immediate bills are 30k so I’m left with £1000ish per month. Sounds like loads but I have three kids to keep entertained and clothed and driving lessons. Driving lessons alone are £312ish, and by the time I’ve paid pocket money and done one day out somewhere and a take away for us. There’s maybe £500ish left of which I put £400 into savings and £100 for me/birthdays/misc.

I am one of the lower earners in my family and friend group and the only single parent also. I suspect I’m the one saving the least.

We're lucky to be putting away quite a lot on a monthly basis, about £1100 pcm. We currently have about £1600 sitting in there as we're doing a lot of decoration and renovation on our home at the moment, so the money is going in and being earmarked for certain projects - most recent fitting an understairs toilet.

This is relatively new. Until about 2021 we were a single salary household and were putting nothing away, maybe £50-£100 a month if we were lucky. Because we budgeted in that bracket though now a fair % of that second salary is that savings fund.

I save about £100 a month but we currently pay £1,000 childcare fees and £1,1000 mortgage a month so I imagine as we get older we may be able to save more, it’s all circumstantial.

Oh, and I have absolutely no idea about how much friends and family are putting away, although I would assume not much with local friends as I live in a very low-income area.

My best friend has recently retired. I’ve still got four more years to go even though we’re the same age. This friend also has a loyal husband who’s been by her side for the last nearly forty years and never put a foot wrong (I had to bring up my children alone because my ex put his foot wrong a lot). She lives in a house at least double the value of mine and also has a holiday home. Professionally we had the same type of lowish to pay middle jobs she just struck lucky with her husband’s well paid career (which she fully acknowledges). She has a lot of things I don’t have but I’m still thankful for the things I do have and I love her to bits.

It’s a choice how you feel about these things, try not to focus on what you don’t have and focus on what you can improve and change.

Wow. We save sporadically (I'm self employed so my income varies, dh is very low paid NHS worker) and every time we manage to get a couple of hundred quid saved, it goes on a car emergency or something. We don't have holidays (other than a recent 3 day honeymoon paid for by our kind guests' gifts) and don't eat out, but we are supporting eldest dd through uni and youngest dd. We manage with an element of juggling and are luckier than many, but I would love to be in a position to save regularly. I don't have a pension either, though DH does (not massive, either). We're in our 50s and both have good degrees, but family and caring responsibilities have hugely impacted our earning. I definitely feel like a failure in life just keeping our noses above water every month at our ages.

I am mid 50s, mortgage paid off so I am saving a substantial amount every month as I worry about job security or health issues and/or would like to retire before 68!

When I was in my 20s/early 30s I mostly lived month to month.

Early 40s when the nursery years were over I sometimes built up £5-10k savings but would then spend on a new used car or much needed home improvements. I always had a savings account for ds.

Best financial advice I ever got was “pay yourself first”, ie, as soon as you get paid, 10% goes straight into savings, and then all expenses are budgeted out of what’s left, rather than having savings as an afterthought.

holey moley, some people are saving almost double what i earn in a month. maybe i need to come back to blignty!

I’m 70 and, until an inheritance in the last few years, I never had more than £1k to my name. I was the main breadwinner, working in the charity sector and despite slogging my guts out working 50+ hours a week, I never got more than £42k a year.
Now I do have a solid amount behind me c£75k, and I can actually stop worrying about paying for things. My state and NHS pensions mean I am comfortable, DH has his state pension. I still pay for almost everything but at least I can stop dreading unexpected expenses.

I think on MN people seem to save a lot!

At the moment I haven’t got a lot of money to save but my pension is quite good so that’s something.

Everyone’s different.

We have £1500 in savings at the moment. That for us is SHIT. The key being for us - for a lot of people that’s a lot. For many money people that’s back pocket money.

We can put £1k away a month when both working full time (we both work 2 jobs each) but at the moment I’m on maternity leave, after multiple set backs we are left with just £1500. And I need to use £700 of that to get through next months bills.

I’m sure we will be fine, I hope. But once we are back to normal then yes we will put a hefty amount away each month - we will be savings for our holidays etc as well though so we get enjoyment out of it.

@moneuapme going against the grain and believe it’s important to compare and review the differences. You might learn different money saving hacks or it might become obvious what life circumstances afford them the ability to save more.

£150 a month isn't hardly anything considering you earn such a good wage. Do you have high rent? Or mortgage?. Do you have a partner you live with?

What is everyone saving for..

OP hasn't said how old she or her friends are or whether they have children or a mortgage.

With dcs, I found it is hard to save during their early years because all the expenses (childcare, bigger house/mortgage, nursery/school fees, clothes/uniforms) just fell on our head at once and earnings took a hit due to my going part time. We saved into ISAs what we could spare, but maintained healthy pension contributions.

However, once the mortgage was paid off (later forties/early 50s), our cash savings kicked into high gear as the mortgage repayments had no where to go now. The next milestone is when the dcs finish uni. That would improve our cash situation even more.

If OP is youngish, she needn't worry so long as she continues to work and improve her earnings over time.