“…decent amount of savings!”

[Sally20099]

how much would you classify as a “decent amount of savings” - not in terms of months salary etc but actual £ for all savings and investments combined but excluding pensions and house equity. I always fret we don't have enough and would love to understand the views of others.

6 months worth of living expenses.

Bit impossible to answer, that! Depends what you need them for.

Depends so much on circumstances it's really hard to say. I'm older so no longer expect to pay for family holidays as such, and no prospect of grandchildren so no plans to save for them just yet. I do spend a lot on our house which turned out to need a fair bit of work. I also worry about care costs at some point in the next 30 years. So I guess a really good amount of savings would be enough to pay for a care home for 2 years - say £200 grand? I don't have that.

I found in the past that having an unexpected bills fund was the most important thing. Used to be £400 but these days I'd be thinking £1000.

Totally! Depends on your age and circumstances too! Mortgage free? in retirement, close to retirement? saving for a specific purpose? Kids, no kids? Married, single?

We have ??k approx and definitely not enough. We don't feel secure with that, our circumstances mean we'll burn through it very fast if we both lost our jobs.

I have £100k in a stocks and shares isa and now building the same into a cash isa. I have kids to get through uni though

Depends how old you are and if you already own a house. House owner and 30s with young children then £20k-£30k would be a decent amount, if no house yet then £50k to include house deposit. If close to retirement and I’d want £100k plus.

I found in the past that having an unexpected bills fund was the most important thing. Used to be £400 but these days I'd be thinking £1000.

Not even be enough to replace the boiler. Definitely save a higher emergency pot that than.
Wouldn't cover the mortgage for us either!

We’re mid 30s, homeowners and have 2Dc in expensive childcare years. Not counting equity in our house and pensions we have around £50k in savings and investments. We’ll ramp up saving once our if the nursery years.

This seems like a good idea.

We have enough saved that we could pay off the mortgage if we wanted to.

As already said, the recommendation is to have equivalent of 6m of essential expenses saved so that is your minimum target! I know you asked actual value but that’s a pointless as people’s savings will obviously be based on their available disposable income so will vary wildly. If you’re fretting you don’t have enough then try to ensure you live by the 50/30/20 rule so 50% net income spent on essential expenses, 30% on wants and 20% towards savings. If you’re anxious about this aspect I recommend you set up a spreadsheet and track your finances then at least you’re not second guessing anything and will know exactly where every penny is landing.

I personally would have 1 year of living expenses, so that would include your rent, mortgage or nothing if you are mortgage free, bills (gas/electric/water/council/internet/tv/phone/childcare) and food.

so for me that would be £66k between my husband and I atleast… I’d round that up to £70k.
that makes me feel I can sleep at night.

£100k+

I would like 100k in savings & investments

How much have you got?

A typical MN thread where people are expected to come in with their own (wildly differing) figures while the OP gives nothing away.

You go first OP.🙂

MN loves comparing meaningless numbers with no context or account of circumstances/stage of life.

The people who 'fret they don't have enough' usually have more than 95% of others anyway.

I have £1000 as a buffer. Today I got an unexpected bill for £952. Absolute pain but at least I had it. Now I'll have to really try to get the £1000 saved back up.
It's meant to be 6 months of your expenses but there is no way in the world I could save that up unfortunately.

OP, how much have you got then?

It depends. If your monthly bills are £25k and you have savings of £50k, that’s panic stations. If your monthly outgoings are £2k then £50k is fine.

i have around 7k, I’m happy with that, would prefer 20k but 7 if more than enough for me at the minute.

Thinking of it in £ terms is the wrong way. You should aim for savings of 6 months' expenses in cash as a fund for eg losing your job. Above that you can save for specific things - holidays, retirement, childrens' education etc and then what you need depends on what you want to spend on those things.