How much of your salary do you save and why?

[SnugShaker]

I know everyone has different financial priorities and responsibilities, but I’ve been wondering lately how much other people set aside from their income. It seems like we’re always encouraged to save as much as possible, but realistically, everyone’s situations are so different, and sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re on the “right” track.

AIBU to wonder if most people save as much as they could (or should)? And if you’re comfortable sharing, how much of your salary do you manage to save each month? Do you have a specific goal in mind, or is it more about building a general safety net? I’d love to hear how others approach saving, especially with everything getting more expensive.

Oh this sounds very like me! I live alone though and so my mortgage is even more miniscule than yours. My bills are £400 a month, then I give a chunk to charity, spend a fair bit on diesel commuting in my wonderful much loved workhorse of a car that's done 150,000 miles and still going strong, then save about £6-700 a month (just over ⅓). I stay in backpackers hostels for holidays, it's only in the past few months I've started to realise I can afford HOTELS when I go away! Most clothes are second hand or eBay, coats and shoes only ever bought in sales. Never buy the latest phones etc. All furniture apart from the bed is second hand. TV was a display model. I have a freezer of simple foods and if I eat out it's only a quick meal in Wetherspoons. I go to quizzes as a hobby and help out volunteering a bit. I've also got a medical condition that (luckily!) means I have to spend lots of time in the bath or lying in bed, so I've got used to peaceful early nights just chilling and relaxing and reading books.

Boring is VERY underrated - I absolutely LOVE being boring!!

I'm trying to save around 40% - across a range of different pots (my pension, DCs pensions, my savings including ISA and also premium bonds for DC). We're very fortunate to have paid off our mortgage and be in a position to do this as our salaries aren't mega bucks.

Oh this thread is so depressing! I thought we were doing OK but all these people saving around 50% of their salaries each month!!

£0

Although I might have 90p in an old building society book somewhere.

Save 20% split between

• confirmation for DS and DD
• boarding school for DS and DD (one year, like a very supervised gap year)
• general saving
• private pension

I bet the majority of people save very little, more likely nothing!

Between 20 and 25%.But if a household expense - eg vet bill or medical bill comes in that would come out of savings.

Thats outside of the pension I pay into at work.

I think you’ll find most people are not able to save either. I wouldn’t take all these posters saving megabucks as representative of the U.K. I think they live in a different universe!

Nothing because a) I usually run out of money before month and b) I have debts so if I did have a spare tenner I'd put it to one of those.

Other than pensions, I just transfer whatever is left each month before I get paid into savings.

I save 32% (£1k) per month. I am single no kids though. Half goes for emergency savings the other half holiday fund. Still have £700 left over for general spending and food and I should really tighten up on how much of that I spend and save at least another £200. I do want to do my kitchen and bathroom up but not in a rush and can wait a few more yrs.

Fuck off Keir

Nothing

You have to consider life stage, though. I’m one of the ones saving more than 50% but that’s only been the case recently with the mortgage paid off and only having to fund myself.

In my 30s, I just about had enough to cover my pension.

barely anything at the moment used to be about 10% but having to pay mortgage and bills on my own again so that takes over 50% of my pay now

60% of pre tax income goes into a SIPP. I'm past retirement age, working because I want to and it keeps me (mostly) out of the 40% tax bracket. When I as younger and had childcare costs, school fees, mortgage etc I saved nothing.

I get paid every four weeks so it depends. I'm on my own so no other income coming in. Sometimes I get paid twice in a month or sometimes my pay packet misses a mortgage payment, but sometimes everything goes out and I don't get left with anything.

2k a month into savings.

DH and I take home around £7.5k a month net after pension contributions. Our pension is the priority so jointly £3.5k goes into them per month.
After pension, £250 into work share schemes, £150 into kids savings and £1400 into joint savings but the latter is for holidays and emergency things. So we save around £15k a year into joint savings but £10k goes to holidays.
We also pay school fees and have a couple of years fees saved in an account for that.

I save about 2/3 as I'm very fortunate that we have paid off our mortgage.

Im on universal credit and they assess income after pension contributions so any income after about 900 pounds a month is subject to around a 50 percent deduction on universal credit. So I pay more into pension and get more universal credit. I was a top rate taxpayer for over a decade before kids and when the kids are both in school I will go back to a higher salary so I don't feel bad for relying on more benefits now as I will have contributed on average throughout my life as a high rate taxpayer and securing mine and my kids financial security on the future is my top priority.
That said I'm living on very little and everything has to be tightly budgeted. 300 pounds for groceries a month, no new clothes but hand me downs , haircuts, TV livence or subscriptions or extras at all, I put 10 pounds a month to toiletries for makeup etc. I have a sinking fund of 50 pound each per month for car maintenance, holidays and Christmas and presents and try to do everything on the cheap, Facebook marketplace etc. Hopefully when the kids are at school I can increase my income.

My wife is the only earner in our house.
I am full time stay at home dad.
We are fortunate to have zero debt.
Saving about 33% of her salary every month.
NS&I accounts.

I'm glad that my taxes are funding your 54% pension contribution.

No wonder this country is going down the toilet.

Or we have different priorities and budgeting outgoings

Being childfree saves us a lot of money. We bought a smaller house for less than we could of got. Low gas and electric use. One car household. Shorter city break holidays/u.k. breaks rather than AI 2 week breaks. Neither of us needs designer clothes and i buy 3/4 on vinted nowadays.

I pay myself a good chunk of money a month for fun. We aren’t frugal i like spending money and enjoying life. We like meals out, seeing friends etc and the odd take away but activities can be free like long walks.We get the £5 deal at the cinema. I have things at home for fitness rather than the gym.

I never used to be a saver i was in debt at one time. But i love to see it build up and not rely on any credit at all ( bar mortgage)

We save about 20-25% but we tend to spend it on hols/xmas/birthdays. We are lucky enough to have other savings

I think at some point we need to start topping them up so will cut down on hols