Normal savings for 30-40yo?

[Daffodils234]

I was having a discussion with some friends about savings. A few people said that now we have all had our weddings / got young children / bought houses or in rentals / have careers etc, so, "technically" we should all have a fair amount of savings. The others were in agreement, that £20k+ was the normal cash value to have in savings.

My question is, what would you class as a "normal" amount of savings for a 30-40yo? I mean, I own a decent car outright, I have an OK house in an OK area (still have 30 years left on the mortgage) and DC to clothe and feed, but I would say I have quite paltry rainy day savings. We don't splurge but if something suddenly cropped up, I would be able to pay X amount from savings if I had to.

@FKATondelayo I was asking out of genuine interest following a conversation I had with friends and I wondered if, at my time of life (30-40yo), I was "behind" with my savings. It's been an interesting thread to read from the pp's who have kindly answered and put it into perspective for me.

I'm 44. I have £375 in savings.

Depends so much- you could have £40k one week and then £0 the week after because you’ve bought a house!!

I think the ideal would be to have one year’s salary set aside for a rainy day, but I expect a lot of people can’t afford that. I am mid-30s and had £20k until recently which is about 1/2 a year’s salary for me (after tax). I now have a lot more than that as I sold my flat which I didn’t need as DP and I bought a house, and I didn’t need the proceeds of sale for the house.

Late forties and have about 35k savings. Tiny pension pot though 🤦🏻‍♀️

You also can't account for people who have already had inheritances. I'm mid 30s and have 50somethingk in liquid savings but I had an inheritance several years ago so I wouldn't say that counts, it's not from money we've earnt.

It's so individual, OP, that you can't compare at all.

It's not just that different people have different amounts for all kinds of reasons. It's also that people will have different perceptions of money, wealth, security etc. Some people will feel like millionaires with £20K in the bank. Others would feel absolutely broke if they "only" had this much. So, you need to figure out how much you need, and how much you'd feel secure with and work from there.

My situation is: Me and DP share all finances. We're both 37. We are mortgage-free and have renovated the house (i.e. no house spending on the horizon for a while). We don't have a car. We don't have any debt. We have about £150K in savings split across different types of investments. We have about £4K in the current account. We have public sector pension pots but not sure how much is in them. I'd say we're definitely "above average" in terms of savings for our age.

Nice to see not everyone has £100k in savings, another million in investments and five or six small castles as back up assets.

We had about £20k pre Covid, DH lost his job, it took a hammering! Barely saved anything since. We’ve got about £5k but also got £2k on an interest free credit card. We’re 33 with 3 kids in nursery at the moment (only part time but still, ouch).

Almost 40, actually have around 20k in my personal savings. 5k accessible for emergencies or travel and the rest longer term. Dp has around same (not married).

Only been saving properly again for around 5 years as before that everything went into house deposit. Instead of joint savings now we overpay the mortgage so approx 150k in equity.

I don’t think there is a normal even among people with similar incomes. There will be so many variables including:

• childcare costs and age children were born
• inheritances
• family support
• location
• pension contributions from employer
• age bought first property
• If paying student loans whether had £1k of tuition fees, £3k or £9k.

Those who are older 30s probably had things better than those turning 30 now so even within the ten year band I don’t think the position will be comparable re broader economic factors, job market etc.

Me and dp (early 40s) have about £55k but most of that will be for a deposit (FTB) plus fees. So probably £5k as an emergency fund. Not great but we are on very average incomes.

At 32, I’d just sold a house and had money in the bank. At 35, I’d just bought a house and had jackshit, and a mortgage. At 40, I had an overdraft, a mortgage, and a ton of negative equity.

Partner and I are 30, we've got just over £32k in cash savings.

I had a good amount but did home improvements so now have naff all.

Im 36 and DP is 38. We have nothing in savings and quite a bit of debt.

We got our house last year which my mum leant us 15 k to buy, we are in the process of paying this off at 500 a month. We hoped to get another couple of years out of our car but it died last month so now have a car loan at 300 a month to repay.

We also have 2 preschool aged kids who go to full time nursery. At the end of the month we have nothing left despite having a good income

We also have our wedding booked for next year and have being trying to save the last few months but it feels like every month their is something that needs fixing.

Sorry rant over but in summary no to any savings

I am on my 50,Got married. Have no children, own 2 propertys, Small mortgage (100k) 32k saving exclude pension.

If by 'normal' you mean average, then the average 35-44 year old has between £5000 - £12000 in savings. The top 25% will have over £25000.

However, you also need to bare in mind that a third of 35-44 year olds are still renting from private landlords. So they may have savings but no assets.

Husband and I have no savings but I have inheritance. Husband was in a well paid job but we have never had savings as such . We both have a decent pension though . Not enough to save but enough to be comfortable on a monthly basis.

I'm 31 and currently have £12k in savings (not including pensions). Now trying to save around £400-500 a month. DH has similar.

We did have much more but similar to pp, used most of it as a house deposit and have slowly built our savings back up over the last 5 years.

I have no savings but no debt, car finance or mortgage. I have also raised two dc to late teenage hood. It's expensive without regular child support. I have saved a small amount for them but it's not a lot.

I do have a decent LA pension.

One dc is off to uni next year (which I can't afford to financially help with) and the other is starting an apprenticeship. When I'm no longer financially responsible for them (next year) I will then be able to start saving. It does worry me not having savings but we also have a nice lifestyle that I couldn't afford if I was saving a few hundred a month.

We're mid 30s and only currently have £300 saves (until pay day)! This is the lowest it's been in ages to be fair as we've done a few bits to the house, been on holiday and paid a deposit for next year's holiday recently. However, at most we usually only have 1 or 2 months wages in our savings - and that is a 'dip in dip out' savings account, for things we need or want (holidays, furniture, if boiler goes etc) It is not long term savings. We have zero debt, own our car outright and have paid off a significant chunk of our mortgage for our age, so we are doing ok by my accounts so not having any real savings doesn't bother me. We used to be more focused on savings, but since covid have both felt that living in the moment, right now for us is more important!! We are however setting up a savings account in the next couple of months which will be for our future retirement plan as we have both had issues with our work pensions.

I'm a big believer that finance is all about balance. Being irresponsible with money is not good, but neither is saving every penny to the point you aren't living your life!

Late 30s, two decent salaries, no nursery fees and bugger all savings. Decent pension at least, and low mortgage relatively speaking. Just spend pretty much everything every month bar a tiny pot of holiday spends.

How on earth does anyone manage to save hundreds of pounds per month for 10+ years to get savings in the £10's of thousands?
I am early 50's and only have £1,000, but apart from mortgage the only other debt is my second hand car.
Anytime I accrued anything some cost eg plumbing repair or car bill came along and wiped it out. I was a single parent from my early 20's to mid 40's though and we spent a fair bit on airfares due to family being spread out.

I would love to have savings, 2023 was the year I was going to focus on that but cost of living and only a 2% payrise wiped that out.

32, 2 preschool age DC. About 8k in savings, like to have around £10k but just used £2k to buy a desperately needed sofa. Will slowly increase back to £10k over the next year or so.

Own house (23 years left on the mortgage) and cars outright). Getting hammered with childcare of £1.2k a month, so little left to save.

Once both DC are at school or received rounded hours for nursery, we plan to put half the in savings and half for a more comfortable lifestyle now or overpayment on the mortgage.

Friends have far more than me, but no DC, no car as live in London, rent don't own etc. It is really so different for everyone you can't compare unless it's with people very directly in a similar position in all aspects of life.

34, lone parent with 1 Dd. No savings apart from putting aside DD’s child benefit for her when she’s 21.

Do own my (small 2 bed terrace) outright though, and all my money is going on doing it up, so hopefully will save as much as possible when it’s done!