What sort of savings do you have?

[MoneyMouse]

So DH and I share a joint current account and a joint savings account. Salaries are paid into our individual accounts and we then both transfer an amount to the joint current account for bills. Once bills are paid, we transfer a sum from the current account to the savings account.

The savings account pays for house renovations, holidays, big purchases etc. We have no other joint savings. We also have a savings account in my name but the money is for DC and we don't touch it. A lump sum was deposited and won't be added to as we're just letting the internet accrue.

I have individual savings and investments and DH does too as well as our own pensions. I just wonder if we should have more 'joint' savings/investments or does it not really matter?

No, probably best to have what you have for routine stuff then separate savings and investments. There's no benefit afaik to making them joint.

A mix of
Premium bonds
Isas
High interest easy access savings account
High interest limited access savings account
Account linked to our current account
Plus pensions

Joint savings accounts are useful to access in the event of one person dying.

It's a good point but if, God forbid, DH were to die, I think I would be ok with what is in the joint savings account and my own personal accounts until such time as any estate was settled.

Joint savings may also be beneficial if one of you is a higher rate taxpayer because the money is half each for tax purposes, even if one of you funds the account with more than the other.

If you are a basic rate tax payer, you can earn £1000 a year in interest before it is taxed, but if you are a higher rate tax payer your allowance is £500 and if you're a top rate tax payer, all interest is taxable. Note if you in Scotland, there are more tax bands so the rules here may be different.

Personally I'd focus on maxing your individual ISA allowances each year. Either cash if shortterm or a passive global equities tracker if longer term.

I have a purse with a dozen or so 50p pieces with pictures on…sorry I can’t compete with all your joint savings high interest premium bond ISA global index linked pension saving schemes!
I also have 2 x €2 coins left over from holiday and £3.71 on my boots advantage card.
but at least I’m happy!

We have a joint account that our salaries are paid into. We also have personal accounts that a set amount each month goes into, for personal/discretionary spends.

We each have personal a credit union account that we save into from our personal spends.

Our main savings deposit account is linked to the main/joint account and we both have access.

Shares/related investments are in my name but he has access- I never intended to do much investing so set up an account in my own name several years ago but it has grown so I must get him added.

We each have a pension scheme through work so salary payments into the joint account are after that has been deducted at source.

We keep a document in our safe deposit box that holds all info/passwords etc. so that if one of us died, the other would know what personal accounts are held and where.

We have:
Seperate pensions
Seperate investment vanguard ISAs (although the accounts are linked so we can see each others) and a small junior ISA for our son.
Seperate LISA's

Everything else is joint and goes into a joint bank account and savings even though we don't earn the same since I have gone part time whilst my child is still a preschooler.

We do seperate it into pots though so we have a "shit goes wrong" savings account (ie boiler repairs, car repairs etc), a holiday/days out savings account and a general savings account (that sometimes gets fed into investments). We also have equal "pocket money" each month (it was £80 but reduced to £30 because of cost of living) which is basically discretionary funds we can spend on whatever we like without eating into the household budget or asking the other if its okay to buy some pointless shite. 😅

We're 40 and started saving properly about 5 years ago and bought our house 10 years ago (I consider that part of our savings as it has equity) we've managed to pay off all other debts so that gives us a bit of wiggle room to save, although the fact cost of living has gone up £100s has eaten into out savings ability recently. Xx

We max out our ISAs each year and have separate savings accounts. But we really need financial advice about limiting tax.

Honestly I don't know a single person with savings or wealth who is truly happy. Some of the happiest people I know live in council houses and their biggest achievement is their family and their friendships not their savings accounts or private pensions.

Honestly I don't know a single person with savings or wealth who is truly happy. Some of the happiest people I know live in council houses and their biggest achievement is their family and their friendships not their savings accounts or private pensions

To be frank - this is rubbish and it's usually what poor people tell themselves to feel better about their financial situation. I know, I spent enough time thinking similar to myself during some very tough times when we were flat broke.

But it's clearly nonsense. I've no doubt there are many happy people out there with no wealth or savings. But there are just as many happy people with a decent income and good amount in savings and investments who also have happy families and friendships.

Telling yourself everyone with money is just miserable and lonely anyway is quite obviously not true!

Ours are separate, DH had to gift some shares to me recently because of the cut in how much dividend income you could get before tax as it has recently halved. We have cash ISAs and premium bonds. I can put quite a bit in normal savings accounts as my pension income is only about £13k so I can make use of the starting rate for savings for people that earn less than £17,570k

I've enough to cover ds' last three years school fees, plus my pension and my house.

I try to pay school fees out of income so each year that frees up part of my savings, but last year I needed a new roof, and the year before, the car died and had to be replaced. So we're breaking even.

@Gall10 I am genuinely happy. I have all we need. 😊 Retirement, is in sight.

Not @Gall10 , that was for @strongcupofTea

But @Gall10 I like your style 😊

Completely agree with @NoNewUserHere. I'm not wealthy, but I do have pensions and savings and this gives me a sense of security for mine and my DCs future. I'm 50 now and can retire in 5 years if I want to because I've always saved and put money in my pension. The money doesn't make me happy but having the security of not having to worry about money allows me to enjoy my life so much more.

Yes, 100% this. I don't know how you know the savings or wealth factor of most people you know or their true level of happiness either. Outside of very close friends and family, I've no idea how much savings people have or if they are genuinely happy. I'm sure there are plenty of people living in council houses with no money who are miserable and plenty of people who seem cheerful but aren't.

Anyway, have a joint instant access savings account (it's around 4.3%) for our emergency fund (we use YNAB to allocate this to various pots for home maintenance, car maintenance, replacing technology, etc.). We have junior ISAs for our two DC and we have some money in Premium Bonds (individual names) we are keeping there as we are most likely going to spend it soon. I also have a stocks and shares ISA and an investment portfolio, whereas DH is very risk averse so just keeps some of his own excess money in a savings account (but we count it as being part of the overall family 'pool').

All our savings are shared. We have a rainy day fund, Christmas, car and holiday. Most of our spare cash overpays the mortgage because our interest rate is low at the moment.

If you've got a low mortgage interest rate, you're almost certainly better investing that money into a fixed or even instant access savings account. We are fixed at 1.7% till 2026, so it makes no sense to overpay just now when even instant access accounts are giving 4%+. You can get up to 6% on some fixed rate savings or monthly savings accounts. Then you can use that money at the end of the deal to go into your mortgage.

If you put your figures in here and tick the compare to savings box, it'll tell you where your money is better off going, but as a general rule you put your money wherever the interest rate is highest.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/

What a load of bollocks. I know lots of happy people - both wealthy and not so wealthy.

We moved house last year and have spent a lot of money on the new house..new bathroom etc, so the savings are severely depleted.Aside from pensions we don't have very much left.
Most of our money is separate. We have a joint bills account and any surplus at the end of the month goes into an ISA, but there isn't much surplus!

It isn’t just about the numbers.

Even if a trickle in savings account to current interest rate offers more value - money overpaid is gone from sight and out of access. It cannot be dipped into if the going gets tough, and if you’re desperate for a holiday or whatever. If you have the self discipline of a saint (many don’t), then fine but people may well want it gone for discipline and keep overpaying if they know it’s too tempting to dip into that pot earmarked for the mortgage.