To be shocked when adults have absolutely no savings at all?

[ThisJollyReader]

I’m going to be honest, I find it quite hard to understand when adults have no savings at all. Not even £100 put away. I’m not talking about people going through a temporary rough patch but just having nothing set aside whatsoever. Personally, I try to keep around £10k as a buffer (I know everyone’s situation is different), but even putting that aside, I would still feel uncomfortable having nothing at all.

AIBU to feel like having at least something put away is important or am I being too harsh?

Ffs
we went into our overdraft pretty much every month when the kids were little.
all good now, we have savings and money to spend but it was really tight for a decade.

When I was first married at 25 my new husband and I planned on saving up as much money as possible and then retiring young. That was what we did for the first few year. Then he “suddenly” acquired a gambling addiction that ate through our savings, his salary and most of mine. He also ran up £000’s on credit cards, took loans out and forged my signature to remortgage our house. Oh and he hid it for 3 years, taking out more and more loans/credit cards/borrowing from family
/occasional big wins etc, until he could hide it no longer. You may ask why I didn’t notice, but I was busy with two young children a full time job and he was a very good liar. I noticed when the bailiffs turned up on the doorstep. I lost everything and, even worse, my credit rating was so horrendous that I couldn’t even get a loan for a deposit on a rental, let alone a mortgage for many many years. I was then a single parent and also paying back my ex husbands loans etc that he’d taken out in my name. I’m now 51 and just have enough of a pension to make sure I can live in old age (I can’t afford to retire until I’m 70) and I can sell the house to pay for care. I haven’t been able to help the girls out at all with uni fees and definitely not house deposits.

When I left my EXDP, the day I completed on my new house, I’d paid £131k to Santander, and I had just about £1,000 left in the bank, £800 of which I had to use on the removal men.

I then had legal fees of over £30k going through court with my ex, all while paying a mortgage of £30k, and childcare of £50k. By the end of this year I’ll have paid all those debts off and will only then, 4 years after leaving my long-term relationship, will I be in a position to start saving again.

There are many many reasons why people may not have any savings.

Go and do some deep reading about poverty. Do you get off on feeling better than poor people?

When I had DC at home I used to put aside £100 a month into a savings account, which was a struggle and all that was left after the mortgage, bills and food/fuel was paid.

Most months it got transferred back into the current account at some point because children needed shoes. Or a school trip had to be paid for. Or the exhaust fell off the car. Or the washing machine packed up.

This is how many people live, day to day.

Very crass to judge people for not saving, plenty of previous posters have said there are lots of reasons why somebody might not have saved.
Personally I earn very little as I work part time so only have about a grand saved. However I thank my lucky stars that my tiny house is paid for and I have a halfway decent work pension to come. Plenty of people much worse off then me!

I actually consider myself lucky to have savings at this time, most expensive time in my life, teenagers, mortgage, COL issues, it’s so easy to find yourself with no extra money. I have a friend, and this isn’t uncommon, where her husband fucked her over, left,
doesn’t pay a penny and gets away with it as he’s paid under the table, he now has a new family and pays sod all for his first child. So she has to pay for the mortgage, bills and food/ child costs alone.
one of the main things though is investing in your home, if you can do this and pay off the mortgage then release capital when you downsize that at least ties money, if you’re able to buy a house of course

Now that you mention it, I actually DO feel uncomfortable having no savings! Could you send me some of yours?

There’s nothing magical about savings. We’ve never really had any until the last couple of years because, despite two solid jobs (100k household income) we were paying for three sets of school fees and three sets of university rents for kids. We were never that worried as we have good DB pensions for the future and great credit ratings and secure jobs. So if we’d had some kind of new boiler type emergency we could have financed it easily. Given COL at the moment it’s pretty difficult for lots of people to save. I have a friend who’s never had a credit card or loans and hence has terrible credit rating. Not really sure what your point is.

We’re renovating a house, im on my second maternity leave in 3 years and husband started his own business 18 months ago. We have no savings

Depends entirely on circumstances. There’s a difference between people who earn a decent salary and choose to spend it all without saving, and people on low wages who barely have enough to cover bills.

Goady

I don’t judge others for not having savings because I know everyone’s circumstances are different, but I don’t feel comfortable with any less than 6 months’ living expenses in cash savings.

I generally have an anxious personality and low risk appetite.

Smug much OP. I had a late life divorce so started again at the age of 54. Several years later, my service charge has doubled as has my water bill and energy costs. Food has gone up considerably and when you live alone you end up paying more for buying in small quantities. Fuel is expensive and my council tax has gone up by at least 50%. My wages certainly haven’t increased by the same rate. I’m keeping my head above water just but there’s not much wiggle room for savings.

I'm so pleased for you OP that you don't understand how people manage without savings. You've clearly had a gilded life without being made redundant, suffered bereavement due to your partner dying income halving overnight or had illness that renders you unfit to work or any other bad luck that befalls some of us less fortunate. 😉

I lived on an overdraft for years when my kids were at school. The only reason I have savings now is because of an inheritance from my late mother

Some people have different circumstances to you OP.

shocker!

We do have savings now. But for a decade we had no saving at all. Main reason was we were spending an absolute fortune on rent that ate up the vast majority of our earnings. I also had a child with a disability and couldn’t work in the way I planned to & childcare costs were much, much higher than average as we had to pay for a SEN nanny on normal wages.

Really?

Divorce. Being left to be the default parent which included all holiday clubs and anything they needed, maintenance doesn’t go far. Then paying for driving lessons and ensuring they are as independent as possible, supporting them through uni.
I have worked full time for years, but life has always got in the way. I am however totally debt free including housing costs so although I’ve not much in the bank I’m very secure in terms of housing and can now look at savings

Consider yourself very fortunate that you can't seem to understand.

I get paid in 5 days and I'm counting down the days because there is nothing left. Never mind savings.

£10 regular monthly savings, in a high interest account, gave me an astonishingly good credit score which made it much easier to get a mortgage when I was in my 30s.

Lack of empathy, I think.

I have very little cash savings - but I have no debt, I overpay the mortgage and what I do save usually has a purpose (holiday, daughter’s uni accommodation).

If DH or I lost our jobs simultaneously we’d be up the creek I guess, but the likelihood of that happening is low. If I was made redundant my redundancy entitlement would actually clear what’s left on our mortgage. We’re both in v employable jobs, I have good sick pay and DH has income protection.

not something I worry about - but I did use to lie awake thinking about my credit card balance.

I hate to tell you this but saving doesn’t build a credit score - borrowing and paying it back does.