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Original poster

To ask what % of your income you save?

90 replies

MorallyBankrupt · 29/10/2011 14:09

I keep reading thread on saving and people say they have £50k saved and they save £2k a month, or people saying they can only save £50 a month and really worrying.

However, if the people saving 2k a month have a household income of 5k then as a % they are saving much less than people who say have 2k income but save £1200 a month.

So really, to understand how people priortise saving don't you need to work out the percentage you save compared to others?

At the moment we save 33% of DH's salary as we are trying to save for a deposit... He thinks this is too high as it means we are going without everything other than basic food and bills. He would prefer 20% and 'to live a little'.

OP posts:
duvetdayplease · 29/10/2011 14:12

Turns out we save 0.66% per month. I'm thinking this might not be enough?

For the last year we have been one bad car issue away from disaster.

I am now going to hide this thread and repeat many times 'all will be well'!

PattySimcox · 29/10/2011 14:13

0% sadly - everything has just gone up in price so much lately

soverylucky · 29/10/2011 14:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

lubeybooby · 29/10/2011 14:13

0% ! Just not possible at the moment

FabbyChic · 29/10/2011 14:14

nothing. id say 33% is too much

valiumredhead · 29/10/2011 14:14

Nothing - we have a Virgin account so everything gets put into one account.

practicallyimperfect · 29/10/2011 14:15

0%

Georgimama · 29/10/2011 14:16

Barely 5%. Whoops. But some goes into my pension out of my gross salary as well.

33% seems extreme but if you can afford it just about then obviously you will reach your goal more quickly, and then you can ease up to saving a still very commendable 10% or so and you'll feel like you're rolling in it.

nickelbabe · 29/10/2011 14:16

0% - but then my income is also about that, so....

cantspel · 29/10/2011 14:16

We dont save a set amount but i do try to put some money away each month. Some months it will be alot more than others and on harder months it will just be lose change in the savings jar.

Hardgoing · 29/10/2011 14:16

Nothing as well, just pay off the debt pile steadily.

chrisrobin · 29/10/2011 14:17

0%, there is just nothing left after the bills are paid.

Original poster
MorallyBankrupt · 29/10/2011 14:17

33% is agony. Actual agony. We never go out, we never buy anything we don't have nice food any more. Nothing. DH is close to cracking, i can tell!

But I don't know what else to do Sad I feel we are being left behind while everyone else owns their own home and we are still renting.

OP posts:
zukiecat · 29/10/2011 14:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PandorasSocks · 29/10/2011 14:18

Zero. Nada. Zilch.

I'm very envious of people who can save.

We are happy if we can just get by each month.

FabbyChic · 29/10/2011 14:20

Why do you have to own a home? Things might be better in 5 years time.

When you work you need outlets, saving everything and leaving yourself with stuff as if you were poor is ridiculous.

Reduce it to 20% and live some you are only young once.

LineRunnerWitchyMother · 29/10/2011 14:21

O% also.

Am also going to need to cash in my premium bonds to deal with rising damp.

Bugger.

(No grants for low earners like me any more.) [hsad]

Fo0ffyShmooffer · 29/10/2011 14:22

0% of anything.

Master Card gets a lot of it.

twinklytroll · 29/10/2011 14:22

We have been saving to buy and have a baby. We aim to save 10%, sometimes we save more .

twinklytroll · 29/10/2011 14:22

It is pointless saving if you have debt.

Georgimama · 29/10/2011 14:22

We rent MB. It's not the worst thing in the world, is it?

twinklytroll · 29/10/2011 14:25

I would not lose my quality of life to buy my own home. In fact now that we have our deposit saved I am not really interested in owning my own home at all as I love where we live. If dp were not so sensible I would give up work and travel the world for a year or be a sahp for a few years. In fact I would rather give it to a charity where it could make a huge difference rather than re join the rat race.

duvetdayplease · 29/10/2011 14:26

I didn't hide the thread and am relieved we are not the only ones. We only save the 0.66% as we haven't got round to stopping the DD!

33% sounds rather excessive. It is good to save but not worth ruining your lives now. Couldn't you cut back to 25%?

You are not way behind, you're just where you are. You could equally view it as you are in the good position of not being trapped by negative equity or with a house that won't sell. Our mortagge is utterly, utterly crippling and we both regret buying but hey ho.

Original poster
MorallyBankrupt · 29/10/2011 14:27

We don't have debt.

I fear the insecurity of renting Georimama, that's the problem. The house comes with DH's job so if he loses it or wants to change jobs we'd have to move. I just crave the security of having somewhere we at least partially own!

I just don't think we can really keep up this level of saving. I do feel we don't actually live anymore, just penny pinch!

OP posts:
BigBadBear · 29/10/2011 14:27

Depends how you define "save". Is that pure savings, or does it include regular savings plans (like CTFs), investments and pensions?

In pure savings terms, DH and I probably save 10 per cent. If the latter, then a quarter to a third seems about right.

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