To think that saving money isn’t optional?

[CraftyNavyDeer]

It feels like common sense but I’m constantly surprised by how many people don’t save at all. At the very minimum, everyone should have an emergency fund - yet plenty of people live pay check to paycheck with no backup.

AIBU to think that saving should be non-negotiable? Or do some people genuinely have valid reasons for not doing it?

This is possibly one of the most insensitive posts I’ve read on here in a long time. Not everyone earns the sort of salaries you see being quoted on mumsnet (there was one over the weekend and I can see how many can say they don’t mind paying a bit of extra tax etc).

I expect you'll now be accused of not reading and being jobless.

Some of the posters on here live in a completely different world, sheltered from the realities that many are having to face. And it shows.

You can’t just teach everything at school just because kids are legally bound to attend it 6 hours a day.

besides, surely you realise do have health and social care lessons which includes this sort of thing?

Couldn't think of a better response than that.

I don't know what it is with the calibre of goady posters at the moment but, ugh.

Not necessarily. There are a lot of people who earn very well but just spend everything that comes in on a very high maintenance lifestyle.

I very much doubt OPs life is different from the rest of ours, they’re probably just less emotionally intelligent than average.

they very much come across as someone who went down a rabbit hole on the Martin Lewis MSE website at the weekend and has been influenced into thinking they know it all. They’ll be onto some other obsession next month

But that’s alright, isn’t it? It’s up to them. It’s their problem if they lose their job and can’t upkeep it all.

In my nephews case he didn't do budgeting etc in school. There is a good advert which says your relationship with money is formed by the age 7/8 (think its a barclays advert). So young children do need to be exposed early to create those linkages.
If primary schools have time to learn songs for things then they also have time for having a very valuable life lesson. In DS1 case it was a building society that came in as part of a schools programme.

I read on here, people saving £1000 a month and more, complaining that their part time job only makes £65k and that the rest of us, on much lower wages, should have studied harder, and work harder.

Some of us have studied, and worked hard, but businesses close and we have to start again.

My company has just made us choose between reduced hours or redundancy, so back to minimum wage, yipeeee.

I can't decide if this is privilage or ignorance.

I agree that savings are important and i always have a little put away for those 'rainy days' i am not a high earner (literally i earn £400 more than my rent alone) and i do receive some benefits as i have children and i always put away £100-£200 a month into my savings but inevitably it comes out again for the car, birthday/xmas purchases etc last week my washing machine packed in so it went on that. If i didn't make these savings i wouldn't be able to afford these repairs or costs.

Friend similar to my situation is a low earner but does have a partner who is self employed and they live pay check to pay check which can also be sporadic due to him having more/less work over the year, he can go a couple months without earning but then receive several grand from a job and they spend it on holidays and treats. They have 2 vehicles and one will be in need of repair for months because they might not have the money at the time to pay for it. Neither of them have savings.

I couldn't live like that but they muddle along just fine!

but surely it’s obvious that teaching 7 year olds to do a household budget isn’t actually going to have any impact on the way adults manage their money?! Bloody hell 😂 it’s not lack of understanding how to add and subtract or record incoming and outgoings that means people don’t use or create a budget. It’s far more nuanced than that

Well yes, it is up to them, but in agreement with the OP it’s common sense to save money if you are in the position to.

That's OK when there's money left at the end of the month but for a lot of people at the moment there's too much month left at the end of the money.

OP wants it to be mandatory 😂

This!

Of course it's optional. The government ensures that many people see it as optional as a matter of official policy. Keeping wages down and prices rising is a deliberate strategy to ensure that people have to work harder/longer to survive - the whole mantra is that people should be working to make profit for their betters. A person who can save is not being squeezed enough.

Then there are all the benefits that are restricted based on income and wealth. The way benefits are set up discourages saving, because if you earn enough to be able to save you will not be able to get your benefits. If you save up enough, you won't be able to get your benefits.

It's all arse-about-face. Work should pay more, anyone who works should be able to save, they shouldn't be penalised.

I get the argument that savers are leeches on society, because they hoard their money rather than spend it and thus pay VAT and generally stimulate the economy, but then again a lot of people think those who choose to live off the state are leeches too. But the worker is the least-bad leech, because they are having the blood sucked out of them at both ends.

Yes I used to do budgeting advice I'm my early career as a job and you would be surprised the amount of people who have never sat down and done them and then ended up in a financial mess with creditors and many unfortunately hoping it would just disappear.

Teaching children to have a understanding of money, how to budget etc does help them in the long run and can be done with pasta shapes!
DS1 knows if he wants to buy something then he has to save up for it by working towards it even at age 6. He recently did a little stand where he sold decorated pebbles which was the cost of sharpies (he collected the stones).

This is all stuff that should be taught at home but in many cases isn't. Tackling poverty is multi-layered and complex but it is always how to break the cycles and that starts young.

Mental health and neurodiversity really plays out in people’s financial lives. If you’re mentally unwell or have poorly controlled ADHD you may struggle with finances, and it’s really not your fault.

The universal credit savings limits have never been raised, apparently it's based on a figure from almost twenty years ago. They'd rather constantly pay staff to administer and check people's bank accounts.

If what you meant was why is it that people who CAN save don't do it (which I hope you were asking but worded it wrong)

I think upbringing is a big thing. I grew up poor so have always saved well, my partner grew up richer and just spends up to what he earns most months. I think it's because to me £20 seems like a lot of money so I REALLY think about whether I want/need to spend any amount of money, whereas my partner only really thinks about spending if it's like £100. And I earn more than him. This is how I managed to save a 100k deposit despite never earning over 28k and living in London.

However, my first ever full time job paid me 1.2k after tax and my rent and bills were 900 so sometimes you literally can't save. Now I earn more, I treat myself sometimes but haven't gone 'great now I earn more I can go crazy'.

I think financial habits get learnt at home, teaching this stuff in school is important but things like my parents giving me small amounts of pocked money and telling me to save for things I wanted rather than buying me things really cemented the saving habit.

I’d love to be able to save and get massively stressed about living ‘paycheque to paycheque’ without anything for a rainy day.

However, in order to save, I would have to cut back more than I already have, and believe me, I have pared back my spending to essentials.

So, let’s see how even more cutting back would work…

I could cancel my WIFI (but then I couldn’t continue in my WFH role which would present a host of new problems).

I could stop buying items like shampoo, conditioner, shower gel.

I could cut back EVEN FURTHER on a food shop.

I live alone and no longer have children to worry about, thankfully. Honestly, my heart aches for families trying to make their money stretch as far as possible.

@CraftyNavyDeer yes, some people can save but many, many more cannot. The cost of everything has gone up and continues to go up. Be grateful if you can save, but please don’t assume those that don’t are frivolous money wasters.

Lots of us are struggling to keep our heads above water simply due to the rising cost of everything.

Of course, if someone is truly struggling to cover basic needs, saving isn’t realistic in that moment

The problem is that it isn't just a 'moment' for a lot of us OP, it's a permanent state of affairs! A huge chunk of the population lives like this, it's the norm for millions in this country and your privilege is glaringly obvious.