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 .

The top 10% of households in the UK have £210,700 in savings. £50k puts you in the top 30% in the country

Why of why is there such an assumption that anyone who says they’re a high earner is lying?!

I’m a high earner (you can think I’m lying if you like - but why would I, to random strangers?!)…I know and am friends with many, many high earners. You know they actually do exist in real life, and there are plenty of them too? Why is that so hard to believe?

as someone said on another post yesterday - it seems you’re only allowed to talk freely about money on MN if you don’t have any.

People didn't say 50k is a tiny amount of savings.

They said, in the context of the thread, that giving away 20k when you have 50k is a lot of money. I.e. you are giving away a significant portion of your savings. It doesn't leave you in a secure position financially

A pension of 2.5k a year for 2 people doesn't leave much room for any more saving. Any time you need a new boiler or a new roof, a new bathroom, a new carpet, your stairs break, you need a new car it will likely need to come out of your savings. If you need care in the future. 50k is a large amount of money, but its not a massively secure financial position once you are retired, and it's foolish to remove 40% of it

You cannot judge as to whether it is a lot of money without any context. If you’re a doctor in the NHS you aren’t likely to be made redundant you have a great income and an excellent pension. £50k to fix the roof if it needs doing is all you need. Likewise if you have no mortgage. If you live in social housing, have no house repair costs and a low rent it’s loads.

If you work in finance where there are endless redundancy rounds and have a mortgage, £50k is no where near enough to rest easy.

It’s meaningless to comment on these things without wider context.

Exactly.

The average savings for a person in the UK is around £16,067, but this varies significantly by age and gender. For instance, the average for those aged 55 and over is much higher at nearly £28,000, while the 18-24 age group has an average of £4,759. Men have a considerably higher average savings (£20,810) compared to women (£11,432).

By age group
18-24: £4,759
25-34: £9,357
35-44: £7,434
45-54: £13,318
55+: £27,949

£50k of savings is more than treble the average

Agree, but the average pension pot in the uk is somewhere around 100k. So 50k is relatively small.
The average amount of savings is a lot lower than 50k, so 50k is relatively speaking a lot.

I would consider £50k an large amount to have in savings, and I’m coming at that from the perspective of someone who is relatively well-off. Because … why would you have that much money just sitting in a savings account? Surely you would invest it in some capacity (and then I wouldn’t necessarily class it as “savings” as likely not easily accessible). Unless, I guess, you are a young person who doesn’t yet own a home and those savings are marked for your house deposit.

Approximately 4.9 million people in the UK (around 9% of adults) have £100,000 or more in savings, according to 2023 data from Kantar Media. Data from Barclays shows that 8% of the population has between £50,000 and £100,000 in savings, and another 8% has between £100,000 and £250,000.

Total number:
An estimated 4.9 million adults have £100,000 or more in savings, which represented about 9% of the adult population in 2023.

Breakdown:
According to recent data, 8% of the population has savings in the £50,000 to £100,000 range, and another 8% has savings between £100,000 and £250,000.

Characteristics:
People with savings of £100,000 or more are often described as childfree senior couples aged 55 or older who are married or living as a couple and have never had children

Especially the ones who are "struggling" and feel hard done to on over £100k .

50k between 2. So not double, and less than the average for their age group.

Context is very important . If I said I wanted to spend 50k on an phone people would say it was a lot of money. If I wanted to buy a house people would say it wasn't very much

The context was that it wasn't much money to spend 20k of

OP all this stuff is relative. You could have 50k savings and a decent pension and no mortgage. Thus in a better position than someone who had 75k savings but a big mortgage and a smaller pension.

We’ve got 100k savings between us but our pensions are pretty average and still have over 100k on the mortgage. We’re also getting on now so will have less earning potential in the future. On the plus side there is a substantial amount coming to us in the future which will pay off the mortgage and give us enough to be pretty comfortable in later life so it really is swings and roundabouts.

It’s not about one thing when it comes to investments and savings. One of my friends has a large amount in savings, more in high interest savings accounts attached to stocks and shares on top of two large pensions, two high paying jobs, holidays to the Caribbean regularly and no doubt big inheritances into the bargain. We are absolute paupers by comparison- which we all know is the thief of joy.

When people talk about their "savings" they generally mean everything that isn't in a pension pot.

In some ways shutting the conversation down means people don’t share how they went from no savings / debt to a good financial position which could be helpful to others.

Most of us are three bad decisions or six months away from homelessness. I suppose the question is, how long could you pay your mortgage with that if you weren’t working?

I have about that in savings and have started drawing a pension of a lot less than half that per annum. I count myself blessed.
I have enough to live comfortably.

I commented on your post that the £10k you planned to give yours on in the grand scheme of things for a mortgage isn’t a lot. £50k is a lot of savings and if I had that I would be happy. But at the same time
£50k isn’t a lot in the scheme of things. It’s a reflection that everything is so expensive. I just came into some redundancy money approx £10k and I could spend that on a week on all
the things that need to be fixed in the house.

The problem is that stuff is very expensive. If you bought a new kitchen and a mid range car outright you’d have no savings left. Everyone needs cars and kitchens!

It’s a really excellent amount of savings, and brings a reassurance that you could live for a year at least on no other income of you needed to. Sadly though, you probably can’t set up the kids with deposits or live a life free of debt if you need to make a big (big big) purchase.

it’s a weird world!

Bananaandmangosmoothi
we don’t have a mortgage

Then you’re in a much better position that a lot of us.

It isn't a lot, though. Just because some people are very poor doesn't alter that fact.

I have £500 in savings, to be 50k is a huge amount. But then there are people on here that would consider it as not much at all, the same as there are people that don’t consider spending £3k on a holiday as being much.

Bananaandmangosmoothie
we are in our 60 s .

I've got £5k and I was quite proud of myself!

Jeez I’m in my 50s and lucky if I’m not in overdraft every month, let alone have any spare to save. I have never benefitted from inherited wealth, and never likely to, so I think that’s the difference with some people.