How much in savings should you have?

[msrisotto]

I have no idea how much I should have stashed away for a rainy day?

I guess the more the merrier, but s a minimum?

*as

Six months salary , I wish ....

I think the "rule" is a year's salary. Realistically, I think you need enough to tide you over if you lost your job. I'm fairly confident that DH and I would get decent jobs within six months of being made redundant, so I've got savings to last six months.

We have huge outgoings though, so if need be, I could stretch the amount to last a year.

Ouch! That's a lot. Ok, thanks for the info! That's never happening.

I think you save as much as you'd feel comfortable with and as much as you can afford. I'd say three to six month's outgoings as a benchmark. Don't save too much if you have lots of debts however. Keep a small amount (enough to replace a washing machine) by for emergencies but pay down the debts first.

Msrisotto, I'm 47 and it's only now that I have that cushion. It comes with age, no childcare bills and a cheap mortgage rate!

We have enough that the cooker packing up wouldn't cripple us, but that's about it. All spare money has been churned into paying off debts. On the other hand, our employers have generous terms for sick pay, redundancy pay, and death-in-service, which is reassuring.

for most people - enough to pay an unexpected car or house repair
once you get to middle age = try to pay down debts and then start to save the cash isa amount each year