How long would it take you to save this amount?

[Nobulling]

A friend of mine had done work done in her house (a new house purchase) I could really do with similar. So I asked how much it cost out of interest. The total price was 8k…she then said but it’s not too bad as we paid the first half when we ordered in August and by Oct when they were booking fitting we had saved the other half’s anyway. So that’s 3 months pay MAX depending on how dates fall. I was thinking ok…well I’m not getting this job done it would take me FOREVER to save 4k not 3months! Surely this is unrealistic! How long would it take you to get 4k together?

We would not be able to,

What changed?

Significant career progression and paying off the mortgage.

I actually have a young DS now but have higher earnings and lower costs than at any point in my adult life so far.

I’m not shocked they are earning more, I’m shocked they are claiming they aren’t high earners.

Been an adult for 13 years; have never managed to have 4k in savings, so... At least 13 years?

DH & I save £600 a month each in personal savings accounts and then we also save £800 between us in joint savings each month. So if we just used our joint savings about 6 months for £4k or if we used our personal savings too £8k in 4 months

On my salary alone, based on my essential current outgoings of mortgage, bills, etc. I could probably have £4k saved in two months. Definitely within 3.

We save £2k a month, so 2 months. 2 years ago we couldn’t save a penny and were jn significant debt, so the idea of saving £4k would have felt impossible.

Six to seven months if we didn’t do anything other than pay bills and buy food!

We could cover it in a month - we’re normally saving around £3k a month.

Very fortunate position.

Sorry, it was £4k?

2 months then.

£8k represents about 6 years savings for me ( assuming nothing else to fix comes up). It would get tougher once I reached the £6k mark due to UC.

We had an annual income of 80k a year about 5 years ago and were considered very well off!! We have absolutely no savings because we used any savings on giving our children a few hundred quid a month whilst at Uni !
Husband now retired,I am redundant..looking for work. Have a cushion inheritance that is dwindling

One month.

I'm currently saving 1k per month to get my bathroom done, so at that rate, 4 months. However, if I cut back on all other luxuries, I could manage it in 2 months.

She's not shocked because people earn more. She's shocked people on here poo poo 40k as a low income when it's not.

No one said it's low income though.
People on 40k are not low earners but nor are they high earners.
There is quite a lot between the two.

Yes it is!

My monthly breakdown is:

£1400 living costs
£300 fun money
£1800 savings/pension

So it depends how much I wanted the 4k for. Could save it in two months easily enough if I wanted it badly by living more frugally, but three months would be easy enough, and eight months would be the max if I didn't touch my pension or holiday saving amounts.

I already have much more than 4k saved, so it's probably a moot point.

I stopped lifestyle creep as my salary rose a long time ago, the extra has been saved for ages.

Some people need to remember its not just income its essential outgoings as well. Your wage goes a lot further if you have no children requiring childcare, have paid of your mortgage, you are in Council Tax B etc than if you have the same wage but need to pay out £1k childcare, your rent payment is £1.8k and your House is Band D.

I can save £500 a month but whenever we think we are doing well , something goes wrong with the car , house , dog and we are back to square one.

Two months to save 4k, so four months to save 8k.....

But we're mortgage-free, council tax is only Band D - have previously been in G! - and no longer have DC living at home.

Our downsize cottage was bought just over a year ago as a renovation project in a more expensive area than where we'd sold. We started out with some ££££ put aside for necessary work (it literally hadn't been touched for decades - 1960s kitchen and bathroom, early 1980s boiler), but although we're DIYing where possible, we've spent those now so we're back to saving for the rest!

We're fairly frugal bargain hunters (and haven't had a holiday for ten years as we've done several renovation projects), so don't have too many outgoings right now except the house stuff.

Pretty much the definition of middle earners

80k is a fairly high income.....

Right now, it would take us maybe 3-4 months. But we're paying for 2 kids at uni at the moment. Ask me in a couple of years when I'm not finding £16K for uni accommodation each year and the mortgage is paid off and the answer will be different.