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.

I do have savings but I honestly have no other assets. My savings are it. I assume your friends have paid off their mortgage.

Well apparently 30% of adults in UK have no savings whatsoever, so you aren’t doing so badly OP.

As everyone has said, income is only one side of the story. I earn similar to you and save at least £450 per month, but I am late fifties with a small mortgage and no childcare costs.

As a rough guide, I have always tried to save 10% of my net pay as a minimum, but of course there were times in my life where that was impossible.

People mean different things by savings tbh.

People will say they save £1,000 per month for example. But then they’re « saving » for Christmas and a summer holiday. So basically their « savings » will be spent in 12 months or less.

To me that’s not really saving. It’s funding a lifestyle.

As a couple, me and DP save about £7K per month.

It’s not bullshit at all. If you get made redundant and it takes you a while to find a job that’s why it’s recommended, now if you can’t afford to eat or fuel the house then obviously not.

Life stage is relevant here! DH and I have separate finances, because it's a 2nd marriage for me, and I don't want to merge finances again. Also when we met my kids were young. I'm not entirely sure what he saves each month, but I do save about £1500. That said, this is only in recent years! After my divorce I was absolutely broke with an enormous mortgage. We didn't have treats or holidays. I couldn't save when the children were young, or when they were going through Uni, as I supported them financially then. Now they have left home and are working, I don't need to send them money. The mortgage payment is (finally) tiny. But I'm mid 50's and it's taken a long time to get to this point.

There's so many variables. I have a lot of savings but we are currently renting and hoping to buy somewhere soon. After that I will have zero savings and will have to build them up from scratch. We are able to save a decent chunk of money currently but that's only because there's 2 incomes. I'd be saving virtually nothing if I was single.

Peak MN.

I don’t put anything like that in my own account but we put money aside every month for our children and a bit more into savings for us. We also put holidays on interest free credit cards so “save” in reverse for them, paying off over the year. Depends how you look at it.

This. There's a lot more to compare than just the individual people and their saving pots.

Do they or you have joint income and are your/their partners equivalent.

If you all married someone earning a minimum wage, all had 2 children and all bought houses that were the same price at the same time and all had the same job, then yes, you're doing something wrong, but I'm sure there's much more too it than that.

Remember the phrase of comparison is the thief of joy. Also, one other friend says she has no savings at all, so you're not all the same. To be saving £1k+ a month is, I would imagine, very unusual.

It's not a bad thing to revisit your finances and see if there are any things that you're paying for unnecessarily, but don't think you're a failure just because you've not got £50k in the bank.

We have always managed our lifestyle and outgoings based on savings between 20 and 33% of our take home pay.
We were saving for deposits we bought our second house in 2022 and are now likely to stay here for some time so the money is going on renovations. This year we have had the flat roof of the garage replaced with a pitched roof, patio doors installed and a new kitchen so a lot of our money has gone on that this year.

We like to have enough cash to pay for a 5-8 yo second hand car if one of our cars breaks and any other emergencies. I have a disability and I have had to have time off work so we like to have a buffer in case I need time off work. My partner is in a career where short term contracts are the norm so there's the chance of him having time off if he can't get contracts to line up

My guess is that most people with children at home or university are not able to save anything at the end of the month. Breaking even is hard enough with rising costs and stagnant wages.

To be fair, we have the 6 months in savings (nice to meet you!) and now the interest alone on that is paying for our yearly holiday abroad. We just "zero" it down to the lump sum and roll it over to the next yearly fix, interest goes in the holiday pot.
My "get rid of money as fast as possible, saving is boring" DH declared his "mind blown" that money works like this.
Don't think for a second that financial security in and of itself is miserable or dull.

I’m saving around £3.5k a month but that’s only recent since the mortgage was paid off. I live pretty frugally but that’s about 60% of my net monthly income. Some of that goes to the DC’s ISAs rather than for me. DH earns more than me so is probably saving about the same.

tbh if you earn a good salary, it is a lot more money. 6 months take home pay for us as a couple is 42k. We have around 15k cos 6 months bare bones spending (with a mortgage of £1282) is a lot less than 42k. though tbh that is probably more like 4.5 months so we are looking to replenish our savings.

We have done other things like pay off majority of DH's student loan and overpaid the mortgage (which is now starting on a 4.37% rate from this month).

What is your rent / mortgage and do you have a partner
These are the 2 major considerations in what you can save

What a lovely friendship you have! You feel OK talking about savings! In my group of friends everyone is 'on the need to know basis', i.e. does not divulge. My mates, some of whom are senior associates in London law firms, probably spare me (I am a freelancer) and all they do is whinge about hardships. You have real friends if they are open about such subjects in your presence.

Do you include contributing to a pension as saving - or do you mean saving on top of that?

If you are saving into a pension (hard to know what's appropriate for you but 10-15% of salary is usually the minimum) then it may not be al that important that you save anything extra on top.

I know people from millionaires to paupers.
We talk about money, but not amounts of money. One as there are more interesting things to talk about, and two, where is the joy and benefit in comparing oneself to others? People aren't always entirely honest anyway, and there are so many moving variables that make comparisions unreliable.

This. I don’t understand how anyone had £1500 ‘spare’ to save each month!!

for some reason

the Op doesn’t wish to share any detail beyond the Op, which sort of makes her entire Op… daft

I save next to nothing- but I do pay 10% of my wages into a pension. I do already have an emergency fund though.

If I was only saving £150 a month on that salary, I would be scaling back on the naice restaurants.

Please don’t feel bad. I’m on 70k which you would think leaves me loaded but the mortgage crisis means my house is now 2.6k a month (used to be 1.7), and my two kids in full time nursery are 4k together. I save a grand total of 90 pounds a month and can’t spend more than 40 quid a day (including petrol, food, activities, hair cuts, trips, clothes, bday/xmas presents, everything…)

You’re going on holidays so obviously enjoying yourself which is great.

There are so many people on the thread saying they live frugally so they can save. That’s what I find sad. You’re only here once.