To be shocked by how many people with expensive lifestyles have no savings?

[SnugBird]

Quite a few people I know have what looks like a very expensive lifestyle - nice cars, business class flights, 5* holidays, but at the same time have little to no savings. I think I’ve always assumed that higher spending like that would go hand in hand with having a financial cushion, so it’s been surprising to realise that’s not always the case.

AIBU?

This.

Also the concept of having ‘no savings’ varies. Was speaking to a friend who said she has no savings yet casually dropped the fact that she has £55k in an instant access account. She doesn’t class it as savings as it would only sustain her life for a couple of months and in her head savings is something she sees as being able to live off for a long period of time.

We made a good profit on our property and we save a minimum of 2k per month. We earn 50k and 70k approximately (before tax!)

It can turn around though. Years ago SIL’s parents weren’t good with money despite being good earners, balancing credit cards and loans and had a mortgage. SIL always was/is good with money and never got a credit card.

But they must’ve improved a lot as saved £100K which was gift to SIL when buying her second home (a house). DB doesn’t have a well paid job and not much in accessible savings. But inherited a lot when younger. Think invested in 6 month access savings account like me. But he put a good chunk into house too. Only fair.

Both don’t live extravagant lifestyles though SIL’s mum likes Waitrose and M&S exclusively and buys Jigsaw, Whistles, Anthropologie and John Lewis clothes amongst other brands including Browns and Matches fashion (think latter went bust). They like opera but don’t go as much as they used to. Journey and time. SIL’s mum also works at almost 80 but partly because she doesn’t want to retire as would be with DH who’s a stroke recoverer. They live in a big town/city in SW England. Property cheaper there.

How do you know how much savings a person has. I have lots of friends who outwardly have different income levels but I'd have no idea of their financial position. It's just not something I'd ever discuss with them

This is all a bit of a nonsense really, unless you had actual access to friends finances, and even then, they could have very good reasons why they choose to spend now.

High pensions to look forward to
Huge inheritance or gifts from family
Plus someone saying “I have hardly anything saved” is completely subjective. They could mean they have £20 or £200,000.

No way would I share my savings figures with anyone else.

I voted that YANBU because if someone has enough money to do/enjoy all those things, they really ought to be saving as well (or first, honestly). Obviously not all do, but it's irresponsible and illogical to spend all you have if you can possibly avoid it.

I wouldn't care how others spend except that when people are stupid with money, they usually expect someone else (the rest of us who denied ourselves things we would have liked to have had or done) when they run out. Either that or they expect sympathy when they moan about finances or act like the savers of the world are just lucky. It's not just luck. It's also a mindset of self-denial and taking responsibility for yourself.

I can’t imagine a casual conversation where I’d tell anyone how much I have saved.

An attitude I’ve come across lately, particularly with Gen Z age is, why not live for now, the future is hopeless. So much harder for that generation to get jobs, get affordable housing, climate change affecting the environment, no state pension likely when they get old so they’re living for today and spending any money they do earn now. I can’t blame them.

There has been several similar threads on this topic recently! I’ve had periods in my life where I could have been described as having an expensive lifestyle, as well as times when we’ve lived pretty much hand to mouth. Until I retired and received a modest lump sum, I had never ever had a period in my adult life where I wasn’t in a degree of debt, let alone have savings. Not everyone wants to save and many people feel that they would rather enjoy the money they have when they are able to. I’ve never had a second’s regret thst I didn’t save, and that I used my money to buy things I wanted, or on lovely holidays, etc when I had it or ran up credit card debts/loans when I didn’t. I’ve got no regrets about the years when I was in debt or other periods like when we moved house and spent 75% of our joint income on the monthly mortgage repayments.

edited to add that I never expected anyone to help out if my debts became unmanageable - if things had got thst bad, we would have moved and released some equity in the house.

There is no way you know what people's savings are. If you do, it will be a minimal amount of people and not indicative of a pattern.

I don’t see why it’s shocking - It’s simply different priorities.

What counts as “no savings” though? Literally only one bank account and it all comes in and goes out again?
I genuinely don’t think of pensions as savings because I cannot access it until I retire, so I would say I’d like to have more of a savings cushion (12 months rather than 6 months salary) but you might think I’ve got loads of savings because my pension pot is pretty sizeable.
I also do recognise the point above where I will say I can’t afford something but actually I’m choosing not to spend on that thing because the money is already allocated

I think people would be shocked by our savings vs our lifestyle. I’m very much a live in the moment person. I’ve had a lot of people in my family become severely ill in their 50s and 60s. I want to enjoy life while I can. Don’t get me wrong we’re not stupid, we have a mortgage, insurances and excellent pension, no other debt, but we’re not sat on a mound of savings despite the fact we are high income and could do if we prioritised it. I don’t really care what people think!

YABU to be shocked, since it is very normal these days to live hand to mouth. We've been conditioned to have stuff on tick, everything's a manageable monthly repayment. And that generally means people budget monthly at a time. Many people who are happy to sign up to a lease car for £400+ a month would never save up or take out a loan to buy same car outright.

It's very obvious, when you drive down a stret that 30 years ago the cars on the driveway would mostly be older, cheaper models, now the same street is full of luxury german motors. If you have the insight to get out of the hamster wheel that society tries to get everyone stuck in, it's surprising how much better life can be.

I fall into your category (i think) have a small amount of savings usually (<£2000) which gets a bit added to each month in case of emergency but also covers things like car repairs/ washing machine etc so often stays reasonably static because life seems to happen alot 😅. After bills we enjoy life with whats left so days out/ holidays/ clothes cars etc.

Bitter experience through my profession and personal life means DH and I prioritise enjoying life now. We are fortunate to have a small buffer but have seen to many people not make it to retirement age and don’t want to look back having scrimped and saved and missed out on the now.

We are also lucky to have very secure public sector jobs so chance of redundancy etc is relatively unlikely.

I think no-one has any idea what people have in their bank accounts. I'm of the skint variety at work like other people but they don't know my skint is after school fees - as well as skint from all the everyday prices going up!

I’m in the middle ! Decent salary, decent holidays and decent savings. Not a flash car but that’s because I’m not interested in them.

Exactly. Because it doesn't happen. And if it does it's once at most. OP is just being a bit of a stickybeak.

but the “State “ provided option is perhaps not what I would like to rely on - I like my options but it is a fine balance of spending vs saving for your future, my DF will probably end up leaving a lot but he saved thinking he and my Mum would have a lovely retirement of nice holidays and good food etc and basically being comfortable in old age but sadly she died at 64

A lot depends on age I think and circumstances. In my 20s I spent every penny and more.

I have dc now & save primarily for them.

I don't have massive amounts of savings (except pension) and worry about what would happen if one if us lost our jobs.

DH is a high earner (150k+) but I feel happier saving as much as we can as jobs that pay that much are so much harder to come by, he could be 6 months out of work so that is the minimum I would like. We won't have a holiday abroad for example as would rather save that cash this year, last year we spent 6k on a holiday for the 5 of us. We have three teens who are very expensive with driving lessons, Uni costs etc.

I'm looking forward to retiring early and then not having to worry about redundancy, we have saved well for that. I am envious of high earners with no savings who don't worry about what would happen in the event if redundancy tbh, it keeps me awake sometimes.

If unexpected shocks can lead to losing your home, then it is sensible to have a few months worth of net income available.
I have known people lose what they thought were safe jobs, through redundancy, or even the business going under.
So having a small amount of savings is a sensible choice, especially if they are fairly comfortable off to start with.
Much harder for those relying on a very small income.

Misread.

I think she works with me now.