Not interested in details of how much, more a general question. I'm about to be stung for emergency repairs to my flat which I expect will be 5 figures. I'm a single bloke, decent job, and don't live one pay cheque to the next, but finding this cash at short notice will put a big dent in my finances.
I'm not a big saver, so only have myself to blame however does the general population have a huge nest egg to pull on in such situations, or is the default position to remortgage?
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.
