How much should we have in savings

[Diversion]

What is a reasonable amount of savings to have mid 50's. Mortgage paid off last year, no debts apart from a car loan. Husband has had a small private pension for a few years and a workplace pension. I have a recently started workplace pension. Panicking that we should have way more than we actually do in savings ie less than £20k. Joint income circa £46k

Watching with interest

Perhaps should add that we have 4 now grown up kids, one at home. I was a SAHM for years and did only part time work to fit around them , cleaning, evening/weekend work. We did build up some debt, but paid it off. We dont have an extravagent lifestyle, rarely eat out, camping holidays etc but I am panicking that we should have way more than we actually have.

Does the £20k savings include any pensions?
What minimum income do you need to cover bills etc?
How long are you intending to/will you be able to continue working for?

it Depends on how much your pension is worth really

Your car loan is debt obviously and it depends on how much you are paying off and the length of the term.
You are mortgage free, your dh has a pension but you fail to say how much it is worth, so very difficult to answer.
Find out what your state pension forcast is...that may give you some idea, as well as what your long term outgoings may be.

I think the general rule of thumb is to have three to six months in liquid cash in case you fall ill or have unexpected expenses.
Savings for retirement are another matter altogether. Maybe consult a financial advisor about the latter.

How long’s a piece of string? 🤷🏻‍♀️
If you have 4 kids, presumably you have a 3 bed or more house?
So if you want savings for an emergency or for retirement, I’d say less is needed if you have a downsizing option.

Whatever you were paying in mortgage, you can use to save / pay off car / put into a pension.

I personally think for unspecified emergencies, 6 months outgoings is the minimum. It allows breathing space to make decisions - time to get another job, or if things go worse, to put a house on the market.

However, that’s totally different to retirement savings.

£20K will go a long way in an emergency if you don’t have a mortgage to pay. It’s not much of a buffer for retiring on though.

There is no “should” - so save as much as you can afford. With not mortgage and £46K across two tax allowances, if you really wanted to you could double your savings in a year.

20k with no mortgage would last you a while. What you do need to think about is how much your pension is worth. Can you pay extra into it? Or save more for retirement. I think whilst it’s important to have savings it’s also important to enjoy your life and have holidays etc, see the world. As the saying goes, there’s no pockets in a shroud

I wouldn’t just put money into savings, interest rates are rubbish. Put some money into savings & then look at putting as much as possible into pension. The pension is giving better tax relief than the interest rate by far. Look at AVC and if your work place pension doesn’t anything other than this to purchase extra pension- APC is something local authorities, NHS, Fire Brigade will offer you can end up purchasing £100 of extra pension for £60 even as a basic tax payer