[Closed] Do most folks have a fairly substantial amount of savings?

Most people are pretty much living week to week, even those on significant incomes. Scary but true. Don't understand the mindset myself. Of course many on low incomes have little choice, but plenty others do.

If loads of bikes = savings yes

**** no.

Yes. I currently have approx £100 for emergencies

i am pretty crap at saving too. dont save much myself. but we manage to save a bit as a couple.

i have known a few blokes who have saved and lumped a load in pensions, then snuffed it to leave it to other people.

that wont be me.

Not a chance, yet again my parents are bailing me out helping me buy a flat right now. I live month to month and don't see that changing for the next few years at least what with this purchase!

I'm in the extremely fortunate position of having a reasonably significant lump of savings. I was pondering the same question as you when the freeholder owner sent me a £9k bill for repairs to my flat (they renovated the externals of the whole street). No idea how the rest of the leaseholders on my street will pay this.

Depends on age in part...ask me when i was in my 20s and most of my 30s and I'd say minimal savings... certainly not enough for 5-figure repairs. However, now in my 40s, decent safety blanket for rainy days

What is this word of which you speak?

I was turned down for a mortgage by HSBC last year - we’ve (the wife & I) been with them for over 20 years apiece, never had an issue, got excellent credit rating, got fairly secure jobs with reasonable incomes and already had our mortgage with them.

The reason they gave was that they’d like to see at least 3 times our joint monthly salary in savings... who the **** has this??

What is this word of which you speak?

Savings - it's what you get when your next carbon frame is £50 of RRP

The captain gets straight in there with the brag.  Well done.

Nope, it’s not the norm at all.

Some people are good savers of course, but especially these days young people are living payday to payday at best.

People in the ‘child raising’ period of their life are usually broke too, especially those with pre-school age kids.

Takes a long time to get ‘established’ these days.

Will insurance not cover that sort of expense?

Anyway - I have reasonable savings. Partly upbringing I think. My mother used to tell me tales of debt collectors arriving at her house when she was a girl and then having to lie to them that her mother (my gran) was out. That had a major influence on how she lived her life and I think she passed some of it on to me.

My wife and I work for the same, medium sized (but successful!) company and have done for nearly 20 years now. One of the upsides of this is that we get to see each other during the working day, albeit that we're not always at the same location...

...but one of the downsides is that, should the worst happen (and it has, to far bigger companies that ours!) we would lose both incomes at the same time, which is a bit of a scary thought when you have young kids.

By mutual agreement, we make sure that we have enough money in relatively easily recoverable liquid assets (cash, short term investments that sort of thing) so we could survive for at least a year (with belts suitably tightened) without any income. What this means in practice is that we have a few times our monthly, joint income (after tax) in savings or short term investments - a lot of money, unquestionably, but this is how we sleep at night. Yes, occasionally we spend some of it on stuff (the drive needs doing this year, for one!), but we'll make sure that we build it up again as soon as we can.

You can't do this overnight - this probably represents 10+ years of squirrelling away - but I think that savings, small or large, are a really good way to keep your worry levels down.

Have savings, but they aren't readily accessed (B2L flat) but i have access to enough credit to cover any emergency eventuality.

+1 on why won't the insurance cover a 5 (or 6 between many) figure issue?

Not just me then! Any savings I had were planned for losing my job or the like, not to spend on stopping my ceiling falling on my head as I sleep.

Look out for some expensive carbon bikes going on the classifieds in the very near future.. 🙁

When the boiler went last year it cost me 6k. It was not a fun time and I had the money.

if you don’t have it you get a loan. If you can’t get one from a bank say hello to wonga....

i remember being told that you should have a few months salary just in case. Last year I read a government report where they recommend everyone had at least 1years salary saved... yeah good luck with that..

mind you I was told at school (90s) that if you wanted to own a house or live well in the UK we would have to work abroad for 10-15 years to get the seed money. For many people it’s always been hard to get by in the UK

I'm massively risk averse when it comes to money and really worry about losing my job and being unable to pay the bills.

So, we have 4 figure savings that have been slowly dwindling since our daughter arrived. Now my Wife is working again, we are starting to save a modest amount to try and start building it up again.

We'll use it for decorating work that really needs doing, so it won't be long before it's dwindling again....!

Any savings I had were planned for losing my job or the like

Not losing the roof over your head seems like a sensible thing to invest savings in...

i did have some, just spent them all and more on a complete house renovation.

Got nowt really. Tiny savings, no chance of ever buying a house as far as I can see.

Getting married fairly late, only having one child, and being old means that the desire to spend on holidays, expensive cars and n+1 bikes has long passed, so we have fairly substantial savings. Mostly in ISAs, PEPs and long term savings. My wife looks after this side, I just bring in the cash.

Alwayss been shocking with money, or so I thought.  It’s only now in my late 30’s I have started saving.  That said my wife and I have spent plenty of it on the house recently and made a significant dent in our rainy day account, but we will quickly recoup this and it’s nice not having any loans other than our mortgage

depends on your view. I have an interest only mortgage, and a number of endowment policies that are intended to pay it off. But they aren't linked; by a quirk of the 90's 'give money to anyone' attitude of the banks they loaned me the mortgage on the basis that I had already started some endowments (so looked 'sensible') and at least they still would have the house, but they didn't actually require me to assign the policies to the mortgage. So I am interest only, give us the money back in 2034, how you get it is up to you.

So in theory I could cash them all in tomorrow and get my hands on close to £80K of 'cash' - but then I still owe £125K for the mortgage and would need to make that back from somewhere else.

I have also paid back some mortgage capital as well along the way, but where it's interest only I could dip into that too, but in essence all my savings are a form of remortgaging / flexing the mortgage again. It's just that saving on the interest is a better deal currently than putting the extra into an ISA.

however does the general population have a huge nestf egg to pull on in such situations,

Define “general population”

There are plenty of people with huge savings accounts, large investment portfolio and cash readily available.

There are plenty of people with no savings accounts, no investment portfolio and live on payday loans or bump from one salary payment to another.

2 sides of the coin innit.

What is this word of which you speak?

What he said.

I have an amount in premium bonds which I try not to touch (although I touched it so heavily a few months back I'm expecting to end up on some sort of register soon).

Substantial savings are for the frugal, cohabiting or wealthy. I am none of them.

We've three teenage kids. Saving is hard work.

That said, we are slightly overpaying the mortgage and have a month of salary we try to keep.

But, each month is hard work. Pennies are watched.

Nope, in the era of cheap money many folks are mortgaged to the hilt with interest-only loans, cars on PCP and maxed-out on credit cards.

Got a fairly hefty redundancy payment earlier this year, but dwindling fast setting up my own business - current climate is crap, people just hanging on to their money.

IIRC I saw some stats that showed most people have very little.  I personally have none but do have a couple of grand surplus in my current account that is earmarked for more work on the flats ( more new windows).  I put all my spare money into the two flats we own - thats really my savings I guess.  I believe the money will do more for me invested in the flats than in "savings"
Mrs TJ has a savings account.  I have no idea how much is in it.

Why would you save money when money is cheap to borrow at the minute.

Op, if the repairs are needed for you to continue living in the property then you would do right to consider increasing the mortgage to cover it.

Absolutely none. Haven't had since I moved out from the parents and usually a iittle overdrawn. No chance of finding five figures at short notice, maybe four if the first digit was a one but that would be borrowed, either overdraft or credit card.

Not sure I want to have either to be honest. Mortgage rate is higher than savings rate so any spare cash goes into that, can't see the point in having savings and debt, would rather have neither than both. And I think very short term, enjoy it while I can, anything might happen, no point being the richest bloke in the cemetary.

Some retired people have savings.

The 1% are doing well

everyone else is in debt to the hilt, even the 40% tax bracket double income crew.

Don’t sweat it, and don’t compare yourself unfavourably to people who give the impression that their loaded.

We have a decent amount of disposable each month (about £1000 after mortgage, food, bills etc). I'm embarrassed to say I don't save anything!

No idea where it all goes (probably a new bike every 12 months doesn't help).  Sorting ourselves out starting next month though, paying things off and sticking to a weekly budget.

I'm too eager to just buy whatever I see and never appreciate what I already have.  I was looking at the other thread about losing your shit and noticed a few people mentioned The Chimp Paradox.  I reckon I need to read this.

My parents are well off and quite old, does that count?

46 yrs old, council tenant, less than £500 savings, so that'd be a resounding no to your question.

I read a study not long ago, something along the lines of average savings in the UK was less than £1000 per person, but over 60% of people couldn’t raise £250 for an unexpected emergency. So averages are moot.

I’ve been a regular little saver ever since I was made redundant 10 years ago from a company I’d been with for nearly 15 years, followed by another one 15 months later. What followed was a very tough 9 months on a minimum wage job. It’s tough taking a 50% pay cut. I was very fortunate to find a very well paid job, for me at least, which I’ve been at for 9 years.

We we are now in the very, very fortunate position to have my annual take home salary in savings. It means I can sleep at night and not have to worry too much.

I’m not bragging, I’ve made the decision to save rather than spend, it’s not been easy but it means my family is protected just that little bit more than if we hadn’t.

Why would you save money when money is cheap to borrow at the minute.

The more money I save the sooner I can stop working

I was single until my mid 30s - managed to buy a flat, go in holidays etc, but didn't really have much in the way of savings - maybe a month's take-home for emergencies?

Moved to Australia with the new girlfriend (now Mrs Batfink) and have been able to save up a decent amount - a combination of co-habiting, higher wages and lower tax.  The rate of saving has slowed significantly now Batfink Jnr is with us (plus a little brother for her in a few weeks).  Part of the reason we have stayed out here to have kids is that the maternity package my wife gets is particularly good vs what she would get in the UK.

Whats interesting is that, now I have some savings, I am more frugal than when I didn't - maybe there is some old-fashioned message in there about me learning the value of money.  Or maybe I was able to save so little each month in the UK that it wasn't sufficiently motivating vs buying shiny new bike bits?

We're looking to move back to blighty in the next year or 2, interesting to see how that goes financially.  Hoping the GBP is in the toilet by then, so our dollarydoos are worth 10 quid each

Being self employed I have always tried to have around 2-3 months income equivalent put away as a war chest but that has taken a bit of a dent this year, 4 months into a messy non rent paying tenant eviction with our rental flat & an expected refurb bill when they are finally out.

Not a lot.

On the other hand, we've a nice house in a nice area,  have paid off the mortgage and have no debt at all.

Never earned more than average wage, in fact just over minimum for many years. But we're not flash or particularly consumerist.

Three foreign holidays in 15 years, both drive 10 year old cars and don't really do brands.

Happy with that.

Very fortunate that my wife has a very old fashioned Chinese attitude to savings that has now rubbed off on me and I do make efforts to keep some money tucked away for emergencies. I also do make a point of overpaying my UK mortgage where possible but only when my savings reach my theoretical safety margin.

I try to aim to be able to survive being out of work, live comfortably and able to pay my HK rent etc, for at least 18-24 months.

Prior to marriage, single life and being back in the UK I would effectively live month to month with maybe 500-1000 in cash ready if needed. I can only really save due to the different tax rates outside of the UK.

I have savings, but these are all put away into something or other, I don't really keep anything in a bank account for easy access. If I needed to get hold of a reasonable amount then I'd take out a credit card or an instant bank loan that would be in my current account within 10mins.

At the end of the month whatever I have left in my current account gets put away into pension, stock and shares, lent out to others etc.

No, but we are paying additional into the Wife’s (NHS) pension & my (quite decent) work pension.

We’ve opted to buy a (much) bigger house quite late in life, at a point when most would be looking to retire!!. Basically taking me up to retirement. I quite like my job. Probably sounds daft, & yes, we are shackled to a big mortgage, but it’s money that I know for sure we wouldnt have saved. We would have just spent it on cars & crap. We have two (almost) teen boys, when it’s paid off we can retire, downsize & release a fairly sizeable deposit each for them to buy their own homes. We’ll have reasonable pensions & we aren’t globe trotters. When we pop our clogs they can have the rest. 🙂

i can die a pauper as long as I’ve given them two the head start that we didn’t get.

Pots of cash. A well paying job and no mortgage or children sees to that.

Will use it to retire early.

£103 in my savings account. Don’t live a fancy life and have a modest two bed house. Having two kids and only me working wiped out any savings we had. It keeps me awake at night.

OP, do you not have building and contents insurance?

Can't imagine that an essential 5 figure repair bill to a roof would not be covered.

My divorce and ancillary faff has run my reserves down to the point that it's in the back of my mind continually that if something bad happened I'd be in trouble almost immediately. I figure on being able to relax again in the tail end of 2019. 🙂

Considering the profile of people on here, I'm surprised at the lack of people talking about having 'substantial' savings.  I'm going to suggest that plenty of people on her do have considerable savings, but it's somewhat difficult to discuss without looking smug or conceited, when other middle aged professionals on here are admitting they have essentially nothing in the bank.

Interesting reading people's views on why they might have savings or not (related to upbringing, etc.)

My situation as above looks privileged and to many it is, but I still have a low risk attitude to savings and stuff, which i put down to my upbringing - my Dad went into the merchant navy at 15 (college first, then as an engineer) and met my mum who's from the other end of the country when his ship was in dry dock in Newcastle. They married, he left the Navy and drove taxis to start with, and when my grandparents announced they were visiting, they were so cash strapped he sold his uniform to be able to buy a decent meal for them. They were definitely from a generation of 'if you can't pay cash for it, save up until you can'

But he's also dead clever, as am I (!) and we both also realise that credit applied properly is not necessarily bad, so over the years he has borrowed at good times, invested at the right time, and never needed to downsize the family home to be able to live. He went on to a good career at an engineering firm, becoming MD and then started his own which he sold when time was right. As a result he has pension aplenty and he and my mum both live in a house that is now worth £500K (they bought it in the mid sixties for £6K, although they borrowed on its increased value a few times) - which my sister and I will inherit half shares of eventually.

And now it's the only thing we argue about, having never argued about all our lives. I've got £80K in 'savings' which are there to pay off the mortgage (sounds flash, no more really than being 2/3 of the way through paying off a repayment mortgage except my money is technically liquid) and he has a £250K nest egg to give me but for obvious reasons can't. He wants me to use the savings and live but at heart I'm still the offspring of the people who sold a uniform to buy a joint of meat. Hopefully they're around for a long while yet which means in turn I'll then be too old to 'enjoy' having money and instead it'll pass to the next generation with more added, 'cos my house is now worth £200K than the mortgage as well.

I don't need financial advice, I think it's a psychologist to unpick these deep rooted feelings of having security of a massive bank balance on paper, yet I'm building a bike out of parts from the classifieds still!!

(don't even know the purpose of the post, hope it's not a brag...... not meant to be, would actually value some others opinions)

Savings ..none

Investment Property ..a fair amount of equity if sold .

Do I feel comfortable going into the last phase of my life ?

No.

I'm one of the people Angeldust is hinting at. I agree that it's hard to come on this thread and admit it without the smugness.

Decent income for many years, did OK from company share schemes. Low outgoings, no kids, only replace household stuff when it breaks. Most stuff doesn't break.

I’m going to suggest that plenty of people on her do have considerable savings, but it’s somewhat difficult to discuss without looking smug or conceited, when other middle aged professionals on here are admitting they have essentially nothing in the bank

indeed.

But the OP didn’t want to know specific details, more it a general question.

Thing is every month or so a thread like this pops up and a few folks post about their income or savings, this attracts a lot of criticism and therefore those folks don’t post again on the subject.

Just because some folks are financially solvent shouldn’t make them feel smug, far from it IMO. It’s a fact of life and lifestyle that’s lead them to the position they are in... likewise those that have little shouldn’t feel despondent since there are probably equal number who are in that situation too.

I have good savings but a poor income.

But my fixed living expenses are low.

Juggle all three I guess.

We put money aside in all kinds of different ways.. savings account, life insurance accounts for the children and us. We are both self employed in the same business so we need to be careful if it goes belly up. We have used the savings account money periodically to get us out of difficulty in the past or when we have needed to buy something big for example a new car or central heating system. On the other hand like ton said earlier I had relatives who worked their whole lives lived fairly frugally with no children and ended up with literally millions in the bank which mostly ended up in the hands of the government when they passed away.

No. Apparently I'm asset rich and cash poor.

In my twenties I racked up what felt like a huge amount of debt - about 2-3 months salary. That kept me up at night and caused a huge amount of stress.

I've spent the last few years working really, really hard to turn it around and now have a modeat amount in savings / investments.

One startling thing I have noticed is that if your putting a couple of hundred away each month, your savings balance increases exponentially faster than the old debt balance reduced...

It was always good advice to have 6 months salary in the bank in case something bad happens.

It took me many years to get to this level and now I'm thinking it's not enough due to changing job markets, AI, Brexit etc.

I think that having a non-materialistic approach and some common sense will get me through a bad patch. It's a small worry but a real one too.

Considering the profile of people on here, I’m surprised at the lack of people talking about having ‘substantial’ savings. I’m going to suggest that plenty of people on her do have considerable savings, but it’s somewhat difficult to discuss without looking smug or conceited, when other middle aged professionals on here are admitting they have essentially nothing in the bank.

I earn a very good wage and own a big proportion of my expensive house.  All of my spare money goes on over paying the mortgage as I want to clear it before I am 60.  Have had mortgages since I was 25 (now 50) but was only ever interest only until a few years ago.

I have pretty much no savings, no risk of looking smug or conceited here.  In emergencies I use my credit card and then change from over paying the mortgage to paying back the credit card.  No point in having money sat in savings doing nothing.

"one startling thing I have noticed is that if your putting a couple of hundred away each month, your savings balance increases exponentially faster than the old debt balance reduced…"

Thats the eighth wonder of the world at work right there.

I've just jumped ship from the whole work abroad to *establish* your self thing. Tough going but its bought us a  3 bed ex council semi and allowed us to build up a nest egg - As many of my family before me did all be it in different industries.

when i say tough going i mean tough going sticking to the plan while my peers in the office were off buying new RS4s and Range Rovers consigning them selves to a life of working abroad in the most part.

I used to be a contractor, not knowing if you're going to be out of work long term led me to be a bit of a hoarder when it came to savings.

However, we recently spent most of our savings on renovating our house so feeling a little uneasy at the moment with just 1 months salary saved.

If we had a 5 figure bill turn up, we'd be a bit screwed.

No point in having money sat in savings doing nothing.

I think that is very debatable, depending on your circumstances.  It's only doing nothing until you really need it immediately!

I can admit to having a good level of savings put away. Both parents are accountants and have done well for themselves by saving and makign their money work for them. It rubbed off on to me in my childhood about looking after money and nopt buying stuff you don't need.

I was single until my late thirties and having been made redundant from my first 2 jobs after uni within 3 years of leaving, scared me about being redundant again. As a result I saved hard and had paid off my mortgage by 37. Met my partner and now have  a bigger mortgage than I would like, but there's 2 of us and we are paid above average. I don't save anywhere near as much as I used to, which troubles me when it comes to knowing I will need to replace my 12 year old car at some point etc, but I still have a lot of savings which I am trying to leave until retirement along with pensions and company shares etc.

We're not alone, earlier this year a US bank published a report saying that only about 40% of Americans would be able to pay an emergency $1000 bill.

Now that is very worrying considering their large population.

Considering the profile of people on here, I’m surprised at the lack of people talking about having ‘substantial’ savings.

I think you may or may not be surprised how people manage to spend their money. Nice house, new bike/car or school fees turn a big pot to a small one. Mind you substantial is different to everyone. If you go out of work you may need 6-9 months salary to cover this. If you are a single renter or main provider for house and family of 4 this number is very different.

There is an trend I can see though. Many people who have cash saved did it through moving away from the UK. Hell I was able to save more cash as a backpacker on min wage in Aus than I was in my proper job in the UK.... lived better too...

I have basically no savings. Most of my life I have had crap poorly paid jobs, smattered with periods of unemployment. I have had a decent well paid job for the past 5 years, but being nearly 50 I feel like the opportunity to buy a house has already past me by, I should start putting something away though.

On the other hand I have had some health issues over the past couple of years (seemingly cured now) and I also think I need to enjoy life while I can. I am not sure what the balance is.

I think that is very debatable, depending on your circumstances. It’s only doing nothing until you really need it immediately!

Yes, but I am clearly talking about my circumstances.  If I need cash immediately then the credit card provides that.

You need to weigh up the risks and likelihoods based on personal circumstances.  i.e. if you go made redundant would you get a big payout and so on.

All my savings are tied up in pension AVCs. I figured compulsory saving with tax relief and no prospect of access was a good thing.

Have enough to cover the mortgage and bills for about a year and some of that is just in case we need a new boiler or something expensive. Have long term emergency savings as well as day to day holiday and new stuff savings and try not to mix then both. Still one bog event could probably wipe them all out.

That being said, my wife hasn't really been in stable employment for the last 4 years, and is currently out of work having been let go in her probation from a job where she had no warning that this was likely to happen. So the overall savings pot hasn't grown for a while.

I'm fortunate that I've been in stable jobs for a while and earn enough to cover us both on a monthly basis with a little space to save too.

I'm worried though that we are both in our 40's and instability isn't leading to pension pots growing fast enough.

For reference, none of our parents who remain are going to be leaving us big lump sums, so it's not like there is much to come later in life.

We have some saving ties up in ISA's, LISA's and other bits and bobs, not much of it accessible. Our mortgage is low though, about 1 year of combined salary so we could borrow against that if needed. My parents are also trying to give us money via equity release but undecided about that.

This is an interesting thread though as between my wife and I we earn good money, yet a lot of the time we don't feel cash rich. We have three kids who do loads of activities, we have nice cars (because we want them) and we have lots of holidays. I'm not sure I would want to change that. If we had a big unexpected outgoing we would do it on credit and pay back interest free very quickly. I'm not saying our approach is right or wrong, but it is interesting to see how other view importance of savings.

Now that is very worrying considering their large population.

Doubly so considering healthcare is both expensive and paid for as and when required...

In my younger days and in a relationship which didn't work out, we had a massive mortgage and plenty of debt. I swore never to get into that situation ever again. Debts were paid and the clock was reset.

In a second relationship which has survived very nicely, we've both worked hard, had an acceptable but not lavish level of enjoyment and purchased the things that we really have wanted or needed knowing that we could cover the cost.

We paid off our mortgage early, as early as we could reasonably manage and have put money aside. Being self employed (both of us) in recent years we have contributed massively to pensions as this has been a good way to avoid personal and corporation tax at this point in life.

Where we are now means that we will retire in our late fifties and without debt and have savings which should tie us over until occupational and state pensions kick in at normal retirement age. We can't go off and buy a yacht or a Ferrari but we should be able to get by within sensible means.

Yes, we are lucky, in some ways. However, beyond a certain point, you make your own luck to a large extent. It's amazing how most of us adapt given the right incentives, drive and determination. As an example, I never thought I would have the aptitude to run a small business but I have, and its been pretty successful ... but it's taken a lot of hard work, learning from mistakes and determination.

Many people can't save because they can barely make ends meet. Others can't save because they cannot control their disposable income. I come from a generation where, in the main, if you couldn't afford it you didn't have it. I look at our son and while he has the right sort of general attitude to saving, as a student he is clocking up a massive loan and doesn't seem to care the slightest about it. Yes, a student loan is really just a long term tax system, but it concerns me that many youngsters will see borrowing in general in the same way and this is not the way financial institutions operate. A day of reckoning will almost always come at some point.

saving is so dull though

ive got zero savings. anything bad happens and im screwed

Don't have savings per say but we have a revolving credit mortgage so effectively a massive overdraft in which we've put our savings. Means we were able to buy a new (to us) car recently when ours crapped itself at as cheap as possible interest rates.

As long as the -$25k or whatever figure is generally trending down after each month's pay cheque then we're heading in the right direction. Does mean we're flexible with the other half taking a year off work at the moment to look after our first bubba but we're not putting as a big a dent it as we were. We should have paid off the mortgage in a couple of years at 35 tho and we'll look at investing/saving more seriously then. No doubt we'll actually need/want a bigger house then it'll start over again...

We have an investment property which is waaay nicer than the house we live in but that's more of a pension pot/retirement plan and the rent covers the interest on the mortgage.

These threads usually bring out a few postings along the lines of "What's the point of saving, spend the money now as you might get hit by a bus tomorrow". And indeed you might. However the reality is that statistically you are far more likely to make it into old age.

If you want flashy cars, the latest phones, huge TVs and expensive holidays then fair enough, but don't complain when you're spending the last 40 years of your life eating tins of cold beans and huddling up to your one bar electric fire for warmth.

Saving/investing money might be dull but it's well worth it for a comfy life later on.

And yes, as folk have said above, I suspect the vast majority of folk on here do have substantial savings (in various forms eg property, investments, pensions etc) but aren't likely to say so, for various reasons.

saving is so dull though

...and you could get run over by a bus tomorrow

If you want flashy cars, the latest phones, huge TVs and expensive holidays then fair enough, but don’t complain when you’re spending the last 40 years of your life eating tins of cold beans and huddling up to your one bar electric fire for warmth.

We have a property that will be fully paid for and will be too big and therefore ripe for downsizing. We both have very good pensions. If you regard these as savings then fine. We don't need traditional savings to be comfortable in old age

We both have very good pensions. If you regard these as savings then fine.

I would say that very good pensions are probably the best savings you could ever have.