But we are still “throwing away money” on rent, I reckon we have paid ~£64k in rent here over the last ~10 years!

that equates to around £530 a month on a mortgage. Depending on what you could have bought and where, 10 yrs ago, you may not have been in a positive equity situation now, so maybe not ‘thrown away’ ?

A sizeable stash of NOS 26inch tyres counts as ‘savings’ right?

Completely max out your mortgage ability with no intention of paying it off, but live in a nice house for a few years. Then, once equity in the house increases, and the kids have left, sell up, pay off mortgage, get small house…

This works as long as house prices keep rising.

We bought our first house in 2000. With hindsight, we should have bought two.

I often wonder about this on the motorway, the national average wage sometimes seems hard to square with the cars making up the traffic.

A sizable number of households don’t own a car. A sizable number own two.

The people going to foodbanks don’t tend to own cars.

How old are these people? It does not stipulate they are adults. There are 11 million under 18s in the uk. That could seriously effect the figures.

from the article:

In five areas of the country, more than half the adult population has savings below that level.

The research was carried out for MAS by the consumer data company CACI which has a database of 48m UK adults

I think that means (and also it would be a bloody stupid survey if it didn’t) that they were talking about adults

that equates to around £530 a month on a mortgage. Depending on what you could have bought and where, 10 yrs ago, you may not have been in a positive equity situation now, so maybe not ‘thrown away’ ?

The average rent doesn’t seem too bad, but we have had two increases of £50+pcm in the last ~4 years, now £635pcm. Landlord inherited flat from deceased father, completely paid off, but he has no interest in maintaining it to a decent standard. But while we have been year, most similar spec places by size have shot up to £700+pcm (above what we can afford while stashing into a HelpToBuy ISA). We are effectively trapped unless we downsize, which with all our clutter, I don’t see how that’s possible.

If we do manage to get on the property ladder anytime soon under “normal” circumstances (eg. a very generous will after family passing away, hopefully nothing like this will happen for another 10+ years), we can only afford a part-rent-part-buy property, as we are both only able to work part-time. All being well, we might just be able to own the property outright by the time I have hopefully retired in 26 years time.

I think if we get on the housing ladder, it will be our last move.

We have no debt other than our mortgage which, because of when we bought/sold houses is only about 15% of our current take home pay. But, we’ve had 13 years of my wife only working part-time (up to 0.7 now) and have spent the last 8 years gradually sorting out our house we have zero savings and using our overdrafts for 3/4 of each month.

We live on the cheap side of a cheap area, have one 12 year old car and don’t go on expensive holidays.

Meanwhile, people making less than us seem to drive nice cars, live in posh houses and go abroad. I think we’re the idiots.

We have a bit in a savings account (5k or so) thanks to some windfalls in the last year or so that were horrible at the time personally but have worked out OK financially. We save about 500 quid a month but that’s for holidays, Christmas, etc. so is all spent at some point.

Fair bit of equity (100k-ish) in the house so if push came to shove we could downsize and be OK.

Balancing that are a couple of personal loans for car, etc. that on the salary of two experienced teachers are currently easy to afford.

So overall, I think we’re lucky enough to be in a relatively comfortable place but up until maybe 5 years ago we weren’t due to my youthful stupidity with a bank employee’s rate credit card and the financial fallout of my wife’s previous relationship. At that point we’d have probably been some of those people in the article…

well i read that and just see lots of loans/car payments and saving every month which gets spent within a year on holidays/christmas which isn’t saving! thats living up to your means other than within.
dont take that personally as thats just a different attitude to debt/money/savings/financial buffer than me. compared to a lot of people you would be classed as financially sensible.

the national average wage sometimes seems hard to square with the cars making up the traffic.

That’s a clear indication of how statistics like national average wage are not understood. I think the ONS published that average hoisehold income for a family was £65k

I often wonder about this on the motorway, the national average wage sometimes seems hard to square with the cars making up the traffic.

But the majority will be leased. It’s quite easy to look like you have lots of spare cash and are doing very well, by the standards some people like to judge on.

I’d rather pump money into pension/savings/investments than spend it on a car every month.

I think the ONS published that average hoisehold income for a family was £65k

That is a good point, I suppose household income is the thing. Still, I do get the impression that most cars on the road are pretty new compared to a few years ago. That’s just my perception though, I’ve no idea whether it is actually the case or not.

Until my early 30’s, shit jobs and going out on the lash a lot meant no savings.
Until early 40’s, house ownership and losing money on the sale of the house meant no savings and credit card debt!
Now I’m 45 I have enough savings to last about a year without a job.

When I had no savings I was not worried at all, now I have savings I wonder if I have enough 😕

That’s a clear indication of how statistics like national average wage are not understood. I think the ONS published that average hoisehold income for a family was £65k

where do you get that from? That’s well over 2x the average wage

This ONS report suggests that 65K would put you somewhere in the top 10 – 15% of households (in 2013/14).

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/datasets/averageincomestaxesandbenefitsbydecilegroupsofallhouseholds

Then again it also suggests that the average household income is somewhere close to the average wage. I’m not sure how to square that – does that seem likely? Statisticians?

Households and families are different?

Cars. I am surpised at the number of new cars particularly given the headline prices. The “magic” of manufacturer finance I suppose, buyers look just at the monthly payments and the car manufacturer borrows the money to allow them to buy the car.

@doris I’ll have to look it up, explanation something like relateively better off couples start families and also tye average wage includes many working part time or in “temporary” jobs so its lower than it should be. Also a good example of average vs median statistics.

Cars are mental.

We bought our 55 reg Verso three years ago for just over £2k. If we scrapped it now it would have cost us £2 a day in ‘depreciation’; can’t believe some people pay hundreds a month.

Still, I do get the impression that most cars on the road are pretty new compared to a few years ago. That’s just my perception though, I’ve no idea whether it is actually the case or not.

I think that PCP finance means that newer cars are in reach of many more households. For example, if you look around you could probably get a Golf GTi for £250 a month but to buy the same car outright it would cost you around £420 a month over five years.

Got enough stashed for a 4 year break from work
mtg paid off and I live a frugal lifestyle , most importantly I am single and child free.
I am lucky , and I have inherited a few 4 figure amounts , but mostly its saved up by being tight. I have never earnt enough to pay 40% tax.
Reduces the dedication to the job somewhat though.

I’ve just remortgaged, **** it I’m going out spending and having a good time

£100 isn’t a fat lot to get anyone out of a sticky patch is it.

It’s pretty easy to get 6% + on savings, so it is definitely worthwhile.

I have 3 months salary and over pay my mortgage each month. I could not sleep with any debt hanging over my head. I earn less than the national average with two kids so it is possible to save if you live frugally

Worked and saved hard when we could, mortgage paid off and 3-4 months salary in savings just in case. We’ve been lucky to be able to do all that with two kids and one of us working part time for 13 years, but we don’t have expensive holidays, bling watches or Maseratis, so swings and roundabouts.

Please don’t read the BBC online news output.

Yeah got a fair bit in cash savings and more in share save schemes with work.
The cash savings are earning **** all in interest. I need to find better accounts.
Having said that though even if they are earning nothing at least i have a cushion

£100 isn’t a fat lot to get anyone out of a sticky patch is it.

No absolutely not. I do think people in 2016 live only for today with little thought of the future and/or a view someone else (eg state) will bail them out. When my parents where raising us credit cards didn’t exist for ordinary people.

It’s pretty easy to get 6% + on savings

It is? Where?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-regular-savings-accounts

There’s a lot of strings attached to that 6%! Limited deposit regular saver, that’s 6% on not a lot.

Can well believe the article. I volunteer as a money coach for a charity Christians against Poverty and we help people to budget, save so that they can spend. We encourage people to have three accounts, one for direct debits; one cash account, and then a savings account. Living on cash does seem counter cultural but those on the course have found that it’s really helped in terms of increasing saving levels. The more worrying statistic is the percentage of people who have felt suicidal due to debt.

Forgive me but my opinion is that those who have less than £100 in savings must be young’ish and brought up during Tony Blairs Credit Bonanza, and they’ve just gotten used to obtaining 0% interest Credit Cards and used to living in debt.

It’ll change drastically 18mths post Brexit, but then those folk will all be a little older, and far worse off, without safety nets to enable them to cope with the debt.

Terrible whirlwind debt.

I don’t have any savings beyond what I’m putting away in case the boiler dies.

Up until November 2014, I had almost £90k, but the house deposit and stamp duty took all of that and then some. I can start saving again in January.

If I’m honest, it does bother me…not sleepless nights or anything, but having had savings and no debt and now having no savings AND debt…it preys on my mind a little.

Currently like to keep at least 1 month’s wages in the savings pot, currently at 2. Which considering the amount of debt I was in 10 years ago is amazing!!

I was one of those people living beyond their means with easy credit thrown at me. By the time I was 25 it was just under £40k in unsecured loans and credit cards (no flash car). Realised it was all a bad idea when my wages didn’t hit my bank account one month and all my bills bounced – I set them all up to go out at the beginning of the month. It was down to a computer error and all the charges were refunded but I was more than penniless for nearly three days. Sat down that weekend to work out the figures and re-arranged everything over the next fortnight. Sold a load of computer stuff, the big TV and a few other bits, cut out all my subscriptions to the gym, magazines, DVD rental etc and massively scaled back my social life. Looked for a better paying job and was debt-free in May 2012, that’s £46k paid back including interest in 7 years. Would have been a year earlier but I treated myself to a new bike after I’d cleared everything down to £5k. Spent a year getting some savings together then my car failed it’s MOT badly so had to buy a new one. Thankfully I’d had a PPI payout from all my earlier credit binge so I had enough to buy a new car in cash. It’s a strange feeling knowing everything I own is paid for!

I try not to think about what type of house I could now be paying the mortgage on with all that wasted money as a deposit 😥 , still stuck renting. I worked it out as over the 10 years I’d borrowed £35k in cash into my account and with the interest I paid back nearly £50k 😯

It’s pretty easy to get 6% + on savings,

Really? Where?

6% return is pretty conservative for a stocks shares isa – point is it makes sense to save not borrow!

Mates keep adding 1000s to their 40 year mortgages for non essential upgrades seems crazy to me.

Milky1980 thats a very impressive turnaround.
There is someoneun particular i know who is always skint, never has any money, cant afford to do anything, unless someone is going on the piss and then all of a sudden he can find some. Whenever he does find some cash instead of paying down a credit card or something he immediately blows it on something stupid. Its as if he cant bear to have ajy cash lying around, or any unused credit card limit. He has a very well paid job as well, and just lives in a shitty rented one bed flat in fair grim area. Bizarre.
100 quid isnt much is it, wouldn’t even out a tyre on the bus.

6% return is pretty conservative for a stocks shares isa

That’s investing, not saving, and it is not without risks.
Saving is generally seen as sticking your pot away somewhere “safe”.

I had to grab pretty much all the overtime I could do, 60 hr weeks for two years made a massive dent in it! I now only work 4 days a week and am happier than I ever was with credit to burn all those years ago. Never going back to that situation again.

I should be proud of what I achieved but then I should never have been in that situation in the first place.

mudshark – Member
I find this surprising and scary:

what’s so scary about it?

I think if like me you’ve borrowed money in the past or got into debt, you learn just how difficult it is and how long it takes to pay back the money……and then decide to avoid that situation ever again!

For the past 20 years I’ve had a serious aversion to any non mortgage debt and if I can’t afford something, I don’t buy it.

I should be proud of what I achieved but then I should never have been in that situation in the first place.

Everyone ***** up from time to time, the loan companies make the deal sound like the most normal thing in the world and at a young and without the life experience to know the flip side of the deal it very easy to be dragged in. You should definitely be proud of dragging yourself back out.