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 .

People who have money would see it as not much. Those people dont worry about things like the cost of living, precarious employment, etc. They see savings as a means to further something. So its more in terms of what it gets you. Not a lot. Can't get a house extension. Can just about get a nice ish new car. If youre moving house and looking to buy at £1m that 50k pays your stamp duty and solicitor fees and other costs and is gone.

What im trying to explain that you dont have to be THAT rich before feeling like 50k isn't a lot and feeling a bit stuck in terms of being able to improve life or move up the housing ladder in certain parts of the country where youre needing to save more like 200k+ to feel comfortable and not just staying stagnant.

It is a whole other world from people who are on say average salary or no salary, but it does make sense to me.

We have more than that because high earners, but I think £50k is a hell of a lot. I don’t think most people have that. My parents certainly did not have anywhere near the equivalent of that back in the heady 80s and I was in private school with a pony. 😂 Money was spent, often foolishly, and we did a lot of living on credit cards. I don’t think the average person has £50k in the bank in the UK.

Depends what stage in life you’re at surely? I think anyone can see that if you’re 25 and you have £50k in savings that’s a lot of money. But if you’re 65 and heading into retirement then it’s not much at all. You won’t have much chance to save more and it may have to last you 30 years, it won’t last many emergencies at all.

When you reach an age where you could access your private pension pot you start thinking differently about it and it becomes accessible savings in your mind.

A common pension habit is to think about taking about 4% of your private pension fund a year as income, which means that you need loads to get any.

Brag?
But - this is largely anonymous, so how can you brag if a poster asks a honest question
on a forum?
Plus, everyone is very different, as far as their "fortune" stands.

How do you think it sounds to others when you are talking about giving your kids 10k each when they have nothing to give their own ?

You could take the same attitude with about 50% of the threads on here.

How do you think it sounds to others when you are talking about buying an SUV ?

How do you think it sounds to others when you are talking about taking your kids to Lapland or Disneyland ?

How do you think it sounds to others when you are complaining about the floor not being right in your new house when others live in cardboard boxes ?

How do you think it sounds when you can't return a dress when other people can only afford second hand clothes ?

The endless list goes on.

Or people are just speaking on their own reality. There is no one ‘room’ on mumsnet, and those with more are as free to post about their own experiences and opinions as those with less are.

If a comment or thread isn’t relevant to you then you can choose not to engage with it. You aren’t entitled to demand that everyone else only post things you personally approve of.

Yeh this is a bit odd, it was actually you who said you felt your savings were 'limited' in your OP, and then said that you had to save up for things, both retired and were planning to give away almost half of your savings. Strange to then jump on and make another thread accusing everyone of bragging about their riches!

I’m 60 …looking to retire soon….50 k savings is not a lot at my age…..I wouldn’t be considering early retirement with 50k …..when I was 30 with 3 young children and a mortgage it would have been a massive savings pot …depends where you are in life….and what you want to do I guess

£50k is a good chunk of savings. Especially if it’s readily available.

And it depends what savings are for…I don’t have a lot in savings as I have a big mortgage and plough my money into my pension.

theres a lot of humble bragging going on. Or just bragging.

there was a recent poster who felt ‘insulted’ to be offered a pay rise of £20k which took her pay to 125k.

i totally get that in some industries and professions, 100k isn’t much, but ffs get some perspective.

It’s recommended we all have 3 months savings, so 50k should be good.

💯

@Ginandbitterlemons in future, I’d just google what the average UK x, y, z of whatever you’re interested in instead. I think MN will always offer up an extreme range so you’re better off putting the legwork into research yourself.

I agree OP. 50k in today’s world, where people are literally having to choose whether they heat or eat, is a huge sum of money.

The UK is made up of 70 odd million people. London population is what, 9 million? MN does not represent a true reflection of society, in my view, not in the slightest.

Oh and don’t believe everything you read on MN. Anyone can spout whatever numbers they want, when it comes to earnings and salaries.

You are being ridiculous.

Yes, it's a lot of money for some, so what? Does it stop people to have an opinion?

There's always someone worst off than you, people are sick, dying, people are being slaughtered in the Middle East.

"read the room"? So if someone is on minimum wage, no one earning a bit more can say anything?

You realise that people are dying in hospital, so read the room, and don't post about.. anything?

You just need to check on rightmove the price of properties that have just been SOLD. Not advertised, but actually sold. No need to go further than that to realise people have money in this country, and lots of it.

I'm a firm believer that sharing intimate financial information with people who might disclose it on social media platforms and forums does no good.

On Mumsnet, I notice people claiming to know all about the financial matters of others, because family and friends around them share such details. This only seems to show that sharing financial information doesn’t lead to anything good. Then comes the predictable backlash, as anyone on Mumsnet who appears to be above the breadline often becomes a target of negativity.

I have assets, and I do everything to protect them because I know there are people who don't want me to have them and others who want to take them. I'm not referring to trusted family members and close friends. I'm talking about the government and benefit scroungers.

Building your own wealth is possible if you're willing to do the research and learn, with the internet at your fingertips as a powerful ally. However, if you choose not to pursue wealth, then naturally, you won't.

I think it’s a lot! More than a lot of people could dream of as you say.

So much depends on what you need/ want it for too. Is it enough to live off the interest, of course not. Is it enough to retire on at 50, no again.

But its a great cushion for if your boiler goes or your car is a write off (assuming you’re not expecting to replace it with a brand new top make), would cover the household bills to give you some breathing room if you were ever out of work.

If you want money to just sit there forever and make you more money then you’re going to have a different view on savings than if you want it for the sake of what money can do for you. We had piles of saving, positively rolling in it a few months back but now we have next to nothing - but we do have our lovely house. We need to build our savings back up yes, but I still think we’re incredibly fortunate that we have our house, that we could cover the essentials on one salary should we need to (it would be tight but just doable) and we have no debts but access to credit if there did happen to be an emergency. That’s incredibly fortunate and honestly ‘wealthy’ beyond what I could have imagined for myself even 10 years ago.

Great user name! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

You see I get this but I also assume that someone with that amount of savings is also the type of person to have good critical illness cover, income protection insurance etc etc.
We are covered for as many eventualities as possible really. So my theory is that our savings would’nt be dipped into much if we got sick, redundancy would mean a payout to see us through until a new job hopefully (obviously easier said than done!) etc.

It's nuts. We are comfortable but I work in the NHS and see people whi regularly can't afford to eat, Normal people doing their best to hold it all together. It's so sad.
My BiL is rich (properly rich) and barely believes that level of society exists and if it does, it must be their own fault because they must just be pissing all their money away.

It's your money , if you feel it's a lot of money , then it is .
Likewise if someone is over the moon with £1000 , £5,000 or whatever amount then it is for them .
Some people are just not very nice .

Many many people don't have a pension pot! They are replying on whatever the state pension has in store for them!

I’ve worked with high net and ultra high net individuals- some have obscene amounts of investments- I’d say this is a high amount of cash savings.

But I highly suspect there’s quite a few people on Mumsnet writing about their fantasy life.

True, but it's crazy how money "value" changes so quickly. The same house would have gone up and down massively in the 90s, late noughties and so on. My food shop is nearly double in price compared to when I had my first kid. Petrol, etc. It used to be normal to expect to have a house and that one partner could stay home to parent young kids, or to eat out weekly. Also, for people talking about pensions etc, a lot of people worry about losing the state pension they've paid for, so that can affect their views on savings.

What im trying to explain that you dont have to be THAT rich before feeling like 50k isn't a lot and feeling a bit stuck in terms of being able to improve life or move up the housing ladder in certain parts of the country where youre needing to save more like 200k+ to feel comfortable and not just staying stagnant.

Ultimately you have to ‘stay stagnant’ to have high savings. Your outgoings have to be less than the money coming in. Having to keep ‘improving your life’ is why there are apparently skint people on mumsnet with high incomes.

OP there is a segment of mumsnet who just love to put others down. Ultimately being well off isn’t a level of income, an amount of wealth, a big house it’s feeling that you personally have enough. And that’s all that matters in the end.

It’s probably not,much if you earn six or seven figure salaries, for many of us it’s a good amount and for many others it’s beyond there wildest dreams