To be shocked that 50k in savings is seen as ‘ not much in savings’ - maybe on mumsnet - but think about how people are struggling to put food on the table.

[Ginandbitterlemons]

I posted about our savings of £50 k for a specific reason , and was asking advice .

A number of mums netters appeared to mention that that was not a great deal of money.

Now- its not a question of me being offended by such responses- but it has hugely struck home to me just how much society is divided.

There are people who consider this hardly anything - yet I am aware that so many sections of society would be glad to have this , or any, savings at all .

Am not sad for me that I have this ‘ insignificant ‘ amount of savings- but I am aghast that some people do not seem aware that its something than actually may be out of reach for many ,and how such comments may sound to those folk .

I was aware that mumsnet can be elitist- but for goodness sake- there are people really struggling out there.

I am not expressing this very well , but how do people think it sounds to others who are living day to day hand to mouth?
Its been really thought provoking- and made me both aware of what I do have , what my values are , and to up my donations to the local food bank.

Hope I don’t get slated for this - its just really made me think about the wealth divide .

@teacupzs

its in a sipp, the only other money is state pension, this is not a lot compared to what say a teacher will get!

Mumsnet is terrible for thos sort of thing..I cried fat tears today because 4 bags of shopping cost me €96 yes I live in ireland..i have family over from the UK for my grandsons christening this weekend and I'm so worried because money is tight..if I had £50,000 in savings I'd think i was rich..you're very right in what you're saying though x

This.

Tbh I think the number of wealthier posters on mumsnet is tiny when compared to the number of posters that like to complain about mumsnet being full of wealthy people.

You are dead right, the economy is blown to bits, the financial crisis and Covid added so much to government debt that it is currently the highest since just after WWII. Then we had a baby boom which led to a large work force and low health and pension spending due to life expectancy/smoking etc. The interest payments on the current debt coupled with fewer workers per retiree having to fund the retiree's healthcare, state pensions and other benefits means that taxes are going to have to go up. The low fertility rate means there is no way out of this and tax rises/cuts to spending are going to need to go on ad inifinitum. "No one left" is a great read on the subject.

Maybe the reason they earn over 100k is that they are very efficient, so it may appear that they are overrepresented on MN because they can make 3 or 4 posts in the time it takes others to make 1.

Then that would apply to other websites but it doesn’t, I love mumsnet btw, I just don’t always think it adds up when I’m on a salary thread and half the comments claim to earn 100k+ and the other half aren’t too far behind.

Although I have noticed the SPAG on mumsnet is far superior to elsewhere, so it could have a disproportionately large percentage of high earning intelligent individuals. But seeing as mumsnet is a free to use site I wonder how that came to be I mean what attracts them to mumsnet as opposed to other sites.

Im not being sarky I genuinely find this quite interesting stuff

I know it's not a competition, but I have $72 😃😃😃 50k would be great

Like attracts like. Mumsnet has always had a reputation for being a site with a predominantly middle class, highly educated, London-centric user base (the founder is a highly educated middle class woman herself). As such, it attracted and continues to attract more of the same. As it’s grown it has diversified, but that base is still strong.

IIRC netmums was/is the working class (for want of a better descriptor) equivalent.

@Cloudeeei guess as a pp said it started with that demographic, I guess when people comes across it if they feel they can relate to the posts they will stay hence it growing the same sort of users. When I was pregnant I was briefly on an American forum such as this - in no way did I feel I could relate to anyone on the board - lots of army wives etc posting about deployments so I didn’t hang around. I was on netmums for a while too, again i just didn’t feel I related as well to it.

My husband and I are mature and financially comfortable. Our freezer stopped working and we were looking at youtube about fixes. We did end up fixing the problem and I told him it reminded me of us in the old days being young and poor and struggling with old malfunctioning appliances before the internet was even really a thing. You might have money, but nobody can hold back time.

Some of it might not be actual savings though, some of it will be inheritances but called savings because it was put in an isa or investments

Exactly.
It's age related.
Right up until we were about 50, my husband had i had no real savings - all money was accountable. After that age we were able to slowly build up, so that hy the time were were 60, we were mortgage free and able to save. Now a pensioner, I have savings in excess of 50k but lived month to month in younger years.

This is us. No one would know, and we never discuss it. A few very close people have an idea. We've already done well with being careful, prioritising investments and then more recently sadly had deaths in the family resulting in some inheritance on top. That wasn't expected, was all due to go into their care, and isn't a large portion of our existing assets.

We won't discuss it, nor can we, because no one in our circle or even family is anywhere close to this situation. We are low to average earners who've built wealth quietly and wouldn't want to alienate people we care about.There is no show off car, no big house, no Waitrose. We only prioritise travel.

I think this thread topic is important to discuss. If as a society we've got such division, and people who've been able to build assets are the enemy, none of us has anything to aspire to and the future is bleaker than our current mess of a present.

This attitude explains a great deal about why many people have no savings. Things are worse now than they have been for decades, and yet many overspent when times were relatively good. So how can they save now, when it's more obvious some savings should have been put aside?

So what happens then is spending to ease pain maybe, more food, more drink, more Klarna, lottery tickets, just to feel happy. It's sad but makes depressing sense.

I know many might not agree, but it's how I see things anyway.

We have zero savings. Living month to month here. No inheritance will happen for me or my partner so this is our future.

I agree with a lot of the comments. Enjoy what you have as you never know what happens in the future. Some save some spend, it is what it is.

£50K is a lot of money to anyone I'd say. Those that have lots of money might not think that but there's a lot you can do with that amount of cash. I Know friends that have ££££ in savings & some that have less than £100 savings & both would say £50K is a lot, Those saying it's not much must be fortunate enough to not have any money worries & can humbly brag.

I agree with this.
I know many many women that earn over £100k (I really do) - all would consider £50k as a lot of money. I am not sure whether they would say that is a lot in savings, I suspect that would vary on their outgoings and levels of risk.