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Original poster

To think most people have savings...

82 replies

mobyduck · 13/01/2019 12:18

We are not wealthy, we live in a 2-bed semi and run 2 old cars. However, we both keep about £15k to £20k in our (separate) current accounts to take advantage of the 1.5% interest paid (they are 123 accounts).
The money has been saved over many decades (we are both retired now).
I mentioned this to someone in work, recommended it really, but she said no-one she knows has the money to make it worthwhile?
Who is right?

OP posts:
C0untDucku1a · 13/01/2019 12:20

It depends who you know. No i dont think most people have savings. Most people will be earning a salary that is worth less than than it was 10 years ago. Most people are getting by.

WontShareMyAuPair · 13/01/2019 12:24

You are both right. Some people have savings they build up over time, others have savings from inheritance/parental gifts whilst others struggle to pay their bills each month and there is literally no spare money to save (or they manage to build it up a bit but then their car breaks down/they have to move house because their landlord sells the property and it all gets swallowed up in agency fees/they have a large unexpected bill). Lots of people live on small wages in expensive areas and cannot manage to save. It's not that they are blowing all their spare money on the latest phones, gadgets and overpriced advocados...

BonBonVoyage · 13/01/2019 12:25

We don't have savings. Can't afford it. In fact our oil has run out and we can't afford to even buy the minimum until I get paid in ten days time. It's not a case of it not being worthwhile to save. It's not having the money full stop

user1493413286 · 13/01/2019 12:26

Most people I know don’t have savings like that but then all my friends are currently getting married, buying houses and having babies so any savings have gone there

user1493413286 · 13/01/2019 12:26

Also with childcare and living costs we have no money to save each month; despite having good jobs we just about have enough to get through the month

Apileofballyhoo · 13/01/2019 12:27

I'd say most people don't have savings.

NoArmaniNoPunani · 13/01/2019 12:27

I would have thought most people don't have savings. I do, but only because DH died and a life insurance policy paid out

userxx · 13/01/2019 12:30

I thought most people had savings but maybe not. I've always been a saver, squirrelled away birthday and Xmas money from about 10 years old.

YetAnotherUser · 13/01/2019 12:35

Any savings I ever have are usually earmarked for something well in advance.

I once had £15k in the bank, that went on a deposit for a house.

Then I saved up a few grand which went on replacing my 18 year old car.

Currently have a few k, but that's being used for home improvements...

StopMockingPeople · 13/01/2019 14:14

It's much more common for pensioners to have savings. They've had many years to save after their children have grown up and moved away. They've also had the opportunity to downsize.
In fact, I'd say it's quite reckless to retire with no savings whatsoever.

PerspicaciaTick · 13/01/2019 14:17

According to the attached report, 1 in 4 British adults have no savings. Which means that 75% do have savings.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-adults-savings-none-quarter-debt-cost-living-emergencies-survey-results-a8265111.html

Bluntness100 · 13/01/2019 14:19

I think it's more common for pensioners to have savings, but clearly very many don't, hence why we have things like heating payments.

I think back over your life you probably didn't have always this money and if you did then you were unusual and I'm surprised you don't know this.

Dunno if you're trying to be goady or boast but I think you'd have to be a very odd person and live in a bubble to think most people have forty grand tucked away.

Ullupullu · 13/01/2019 14:24

I assume you are over 50 OP. We don't have savings. We have young kids and one income.

SandysMam · 13/01/2019 14:28

Mumsnet has scared the shit out of me so that I have managed to build up an emergency fund for when illness/redundancy/adultary strikes. The problem with this is I am so terrified of poverty and not having savings should the crap hit the fan that I barely treat myself and feel miserable, miserly and worried a lot of the time. Not sure it’s worth it.

Frequency · 13/01/2019 14:29

I sometime have £30 or so in my savings account. Does that count?

Babdoc · 13/01/2019 14:34

OP, if your savings are only earning 1.5%, then you are actually losing money, not saving it. Inflation is currently at 2.3%, so your savings are dropping in value by the difference.

erja · 13/01/2019 14:39

@Frequency I thought the same! Grin it depends from person to person. I know people with £20k+ worth of savings in their early 20's. I - on the other hand - am not sure I will ever have anywhere near that amount of savings!

CuriousaboutSamphire · 13/01/2019 15:02

There are people who will look at a few pounds and see the beginning of a savings account.

There are also people who look at a few pounds and decide that the price if a cup of coffee is too small to save.

Being one of the former I saved loose change in a jingle jar. A year later I counted it up and opened a saving account with it.

As the years went by, jobs got better, things changed, I added regular payments, £10 / month grew as and when we could afford it.

Now in our mid 50s, with 15ish years to go until retirement, we are saving the equivalent of rent/mortgage every month, building a pension pot.

30 years ago friends laughed at me, now I suspect some remember having done so with a little bit of shame.

It's never too late and never too small an amount to start saving.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 13/01/2019 15:04

Apologies, I promise I put line breaks in there!

Imsosorryalan1 · 13/01/2019 15:06

I can't afford to save

CuriousaboutSamphire · 13/01/2019 15:29

Not even loose change?

We did that for years. Initially we saved all coppers. Then added 5ps and on. Sometimes we spent it on food or petrol. Often it would be cashed in for a bill. But sometimes it made it into a savings account.

The success of those first saving attempts helped us think if other ways of ad hoc saving.

We still do it now. The money is our Christmas Splurge money. Well, what I don't use for parking is...

Alarae · 13/01/2019 15:34

As I'm currently paying off a holiday, technically a couple of hundred pounds or so. Will knuckle down when that is paid off and hopefully save around £900 per month.

I did save about 7k in six months before but that got swallowed up by the house when we upsized in May last year.

HauntedPencil · 13/01/2019 15:36

I'd say it was far more usual in retired people rather than say people young children & mortgages.

Mortgages and child care are much higher cost than 10/20 years ago.

Littlechocola · 13/01/2019 15:37

I have 70 pence in my savings account.

3out · 13/01/2019 15:40

We have no savings. If there was money leftover at the end of the month, we’d save it, but times are tight.

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