Savings - how much do you have?

[twinkletoesbluesky]

Just that really, trying to get a good lump saved in case of emergencies.

How much do you currently have saved and do you feel comfortable with it?

I know some people have hundreds whilst others have thousands so just interested really....

With regards to discussing finances at work, my experience at the UK wide company where I work is that we all talk and share extensively.

The vast majority of my office (male & female) regularly discuss salary, overtime, pensions, savings, tax-codes, mortgages etc.
Perhaps it is because (apart from some of the newer employees who joined on different T&C's) we are all on the same salary and the only differences are in our net pay (due to OT worked, which shareplans we opt into, additional pension payments etc).

As the old advert says, "it's good to talk". Some people are not so finance savy and may not be aware of some of the advantages of certain schemes.

Thanks everyone, good to know I'm doing ok but still plenty of room for improvement. Appreciate your time

@WalkingOnSonshine

450k currently in our investment pot. We’re in our 30s so this is to cover any future eventualities, including possible schooling, university, care for relatives, pensions etc.

DH has about 30k in his current account & I’ve got about 25k. We save between 2.5-4k per month so we shouldn’t have to touch our investment pot ideally.

Why have so much in your current account? You can’t be getting a meaningful return on it?

0
But plenty of equity in the house, good pension pots, secure jobs.

About three months salary in an instant access account, which as I normally save close to half each month would keep me going to 5-6 months if needed.

About two years net salary in longer term savings.

Small mortgage.

Defined benefit pension scheme with is likely to hit issues with lifetime and annual allowances unless career or policy changes happen.

Seriously?! Everyone has £££ in savings.
We have 0. We earn ok but it all goes month to month. Mostly on kids (tutor for year 11, clothes etc). Food bills etc.

I can't be the only one without thousands saved. It's just not realistic for most people.

@bowlingalleyblues that was a really helpful post.
It is so much easier going forward if you have a prescription prepayment/ pet insurance/ dental insurance etc and as a result aren't messed up by unbudgetted expenses.
And being able to take advantage of sale/ deal prices etc
I think starting off with an emergency fund is so liberating and even if you get no further than enough to cover a broken down washing machine, it relieves so much stress.

Wow some serious money on here!! We currently have about £6k, but 2 of that is for the roof. We had nothing in June when we moved and our mortgage is crippling, so it's hard to save,

About 2.5 years worth of salary’s worth. We’re super careful and save heavily and zero debt. We live in a very average house though.
I’m always shocked when people I know of a similar age (pushing 50) mention basically no savings and large credit card bills, and then going on big holidays or buying luxury cars. Scares me to be honest, not having cash in the bank.

Thanks I had no idea. I work full time but on low income (despite degree) going to sign up to this now

75k between us. Also pay extra into my DB work pension. We save around 2k a month at the moment.

I see pension as savings, I have chosen to save much more via the pension then in cash. We are about to buy a new house, after that we will have 30k cash but pension pot is significant and I can free up another 100k, quite quickly if required.

Interesting and necessary discussion and no it isn’t vulgar. I have about 6 months salary saved in an easy access account, however also own rental properties as well as my own home, pension, insurances etc. I’m astounded that some posters are keeping so much money saved in normal saving accounts when interest rates are so poor and have been for a while. If you can afford it, invest! The returns are much better.

@MrsBlondie

Seriously?! Everyone has £££ in savings. We have 0. We earn ok but it all goes month to month. Mostly on kids (tutor for year 11, clothes etc). Food bills etc.

I can't be the only one without thousands saved. It's just not realistic for most people.

Taking the wider population as a whole the majority of people have little or nothing in savings, as in they live month to month, or would face financial difficulties with a month or two if they lost their income or faced a couple of large expenses like a car repair and a washing machine replacement within a short period.

As ever, a Mumsnet thread provides a perfect illustration of how to generate misleading information from a sample that is not representative.

@MrsBlondie all threads are self-selecting. Those of us with savings to speak of have been drawn to this one, so it makes it look like its the norm.
A fifth of UK adults have less than £100 in savings.

@Dougieowner my company is the same. We all talk about our salaries, pensions and bonuses, and what we've been offered by competitors. But that's because they have transparent salary banding and announce bonus banding via a firm-wide webcast.
In my personal life I'd rather die than reveal what I earn and my family and friends don't even know I get bonuses.

@mrsblondie you're very much not alone, as a pp has said 1/5 of UK adults wouldn't be able to cover a £100 expense, and almost 1/2 wouldn't be able to cover a £500 expense. I've only had the means to save in the last 2 years, before that was living month to month accumulating and paying off debt. Sometimes there isn't the money to have an emergency fund/savings of any sort, that's the reality for lots of people.

Loads but about to obliterate them on an extension so will be building them up from scratch again.

We have £10,000, which is about 5 months of bills. I would like more of a cushion, but the pot is depleted because of recent house renovations. I'd like to be back at around £20,000 by the end of next year.

It’s only vulgar talking about money if you’re on the train of thought that it defines you. That you’re ‘worth’ what you earn.

Earning high and low is, or could be, temporary. Relax.

I used to piddle my wages away every week, it is only in the last 2 years I started to look at my finances. I'm not a high earner. It was actually someone I watched on Instagram who prompted me!! I sat down looked at all my bills that were needed including birthdays plus a small buffer saving and divided it by 52. Every week that amount gets taken from my wages and goes straight to savings. I'm left with a small amount every week and surprisingly I'm loathed to touch that as much and put it in savings too

I looked at my bills, food shopping and utilities and cut down in some areas. You would actually be surprised when looking where you can save even if it is £10!

To those living week to week even if you saved £5 off a food shop or not getting a coffee every week that would be £250 per year. £250 that is yours and you don't need to get a loan for or £250 that you can pay a bill up front so you don't need to pay by direct debit every month which in turns free up more monthly money.

If anyone is interested I can give the Instagram handle of the lady I used to watch. It is more for people with no savings. For once, social media was useful!

It is important to talk about money and should be taught in schools.

Good post @ShoppingBasket and appropriate name!
For anyone interested in doing some hard-core saving from scratch, it can help to draw out your spending money in cash each week.
When I saved our house deposit, our rent and bills were paid by direct debit and our weekly food shop went on our joint card. But then I drew out £15 a week in cash to spend on anything I wanted. That had to cover drinks, snacks, makeup, toiletries - everything. I walked to work and took pasta pesto for lunch EVERY DAY for one year. It really helps you to understand how you fritter away money!

Currently £15k but will all be going into a new house when we plan to move. We both have jobs that are extremely unlikely to be hit by redundancy.

We have about 20k but house repairs have taken about 5 of that, I know we are lucky to have this but I do feel we should be making effort to save more.