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.
…and you could get run over by a bus tomorrow
I'm going to be very careful crossing the road today in case the Fates are feeling wickedly ironic.
…and you could get run over by a bus tomorrow
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">From a financial point of view that would be an extremely good outcome for my wife. (insurance, death in service payment and pension)</span>
For the same reasons, if it was my wife under the bus I would never need to work again!
We need to spend more time hanging out by bus routes....
For years I had sod all spare cash and quite a lot of debt. I changed jobs and slowly worked my way up in salary which, thanks to a house purchase in a rising market, managed to square me away to a level playing field. Sadly, it took my gran dying to get me some spare (which went into the next house) and my dad dying to get me to the stage where I actually had decent savings. My dad's inheritance was set aside specifically for the kid(s) that we were planning.
The divorce pretty much zero'd me out again (apart from the house), but the only reason I have savings now is because I sold up and moved away, living in a rented apartment. I still have issues spending money though. The memories of wondering how the hell I was going to afford to get to work are still strong in my memory (hence the reason for the tight budget on the new car).
…and you could get run over by a bus tomorrow
And the worst could could happen and you survive. Who's going to pay the mortgage now?
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,
Depends how you define substantial too, to somebody who can;t rustle up £100 in a hurry then having a grand put away is substantial.
Personally, I have 6 months salary in the bank 'just in case', which sounds like I'm in a good position, but the reason I have that cash is because we live in a small house, have a single 10 year old car, cheap mobiles, a single TV, no Sky/Virgin subs, no gym membership etc., don't take big holidays, no loans (other than a serviceable mortgage), no credit card balances and watch what we spend.
We have a 5 month old little one to clothe and feed and stimulate now too so being even more careful and even more glad I have a rainy day fund. I sleep far better at night knowing we could survive a hiccup in circumstances that I would driving round in a new car or whatnot.
But... I do envy the people who spend all their money and live it up a bit, I don't actually envy their lifestyle or the material bits they have, but I do envy the attitude of not worrying about it, I wish I could be that carefree sometimes!
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.
Who says anything about living 40yrs eating cold beans in front of a one bar fire??
#suicide
#euthanasia
If I ever get to a point where your description of old age starts to become a reality, I’m right on outa here..
Already got a stash of something that will make my last sleep eternal.
Almost everyone I speak to through my job has nothing significant savings wise (it’s part of the process to assess financial situation)
Its a pretty broad cross section of the general public from people in rented one bed council flats to people with £1m+ mortgages.
There seems to be very few people from either end of the scale who could cope for more than a couple of months if they were unable to work or couldn’t find work after losing their job.
Its a scary thought, but from my experience, it is the majority of people that are in that situation. Either due to having no other option, or just presuming everything will be ok.
"Its a scary thought, but from my experience, it is the majority of people that are in that situation. Either due to having no other option, or just presuming everything will be ok."
Which is kind of reassuring to an extent - if a majority of a large cross section of the population are in a similarly precarious position then the govt of the day are less likely to consciously do anything to bring the house of cards down. Apart for Brexit obviously.
Interesting topic.
I've always hated debt, an attitude I have probably inherited from my parents. I've also been lucky in that I've not been out of work for a significant period since I left University, and I work in software which is well paid generally.
While I've never been one for flashy cars or holidays, the above means I haven't had to worry about money too much: stash a few quid in savings as and when I had it, and that would cover emergencies, DIY projects, etc.
Since having kids I'm the sole breadwinner in our household so I pay a lot more attention to our finances. We now put around 20% of income into various pensions, and a bunch more into a savings account for yearly expenses (e.g. Christmas, car servicing, etc). I also try to keep 3 month's worth of living expenses (mortgage, bills, etc) in an account I mostly don't touch. The idea of that is to cover us if I lost my job tomorrow. We have life insurance which would cover the mortgage if I were hit by the hypothetical bus.
Meeting an unexpected 5-figure bill would be a struggle.
Some stats....
The Aviva report refers to households' savings and investments and excludes the value of their home.
It says the savings gap between low and high income families has increased 25 per cent year-on-year, from £50,072 in 2015/16 to £62,790 in 2016/17.
Low income families now have typically £95 in savings; compared to £136 only last year. Yet, high income families have increased their savings from £50,208 to £62,885.
This broadening gap is likely to have been an impact of monthly family incomes falling to a two-year low of £2,006.
Paul Brencher, of Aviva, said, 'The gulf between low and high income families is showing signs of widening, in a worrying indication that those less fortunate are finding their finances increasingly stretched.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-4234518/Savings-inequality-rise-gap-grows-25.html
Tax rises, greater spending and low interest rates have contributed to a record low household savings ratio of just 1.6% in Q1 2017, down from 3.3% in Q4 2016, and a high of 11.5% in 2010. At the same time, our debts are up – 1.4% on Q4 2016.<sup>1</sup>
