What savings should I have?

Yes yes KWM, I take your point on there being a noticable portion older folk who are decidedly less than practical/well organised on a number of fronts, I just get the impression that proportion has gotten larger over time with 'younger' people in the late 20s/early30s bracket.

kwmlondon wrote: »

I know a lot of people who would rather work harder and not cook - the amount of money they'd save by making their own food rather than buying ready-meals is much less than they'd make working for the same amount of time.

Tho having said that this is an area we're never going to agree on -> knocking up something simple and healthy takes 10-15mins, I know exactly what went into it, it's not full of salt and E numbers, it's 'fresh' and tasty. Plus reading the instructions on your cardboard pull out and microwaving/baking/leaving said ready meal to stand for x mins as instructed probably takes 5-10 mins anyway (before we get into 'overcooking' and freezing extra portions of the home cooked stuff too). Basically on the food front I can never see the time saving being significant and simply see it as burning cash and being unhealthy with little upside.

That said there are areas I can see it does make sense for well paid professionals to outsource some tasks -cleaning etc being amongst them.

kwmlondon wrote: »

I'm not telling you to do this, but me- personally - I'd rather pay someone to iron my shirts as I HATE ironing them so much I'd rather sacrifice something else in my life than iron them. I detest ironing. I'd rather scrub the toilet.

lol I actually has this very argument with my ex -seriously ironing a shirt takes an extra 5 mins in the morning which represents setting your alarm a few mins earlier each day. It's not time you'd be spending 'hard at work' earning that £50, it's simply burned money each month (or rather two extra meals out at a nice restaurant each year).

kwmlondon wrote: »

If I needed a car right now I could either buy a banger and risk it being unreliable (probably not acceptable if I needed to get to work on time) and save money each month at 3% interest or borrow money and buy a reliable car still under warranty that would retain its value well and only pay 4% interest.

It depends if I can get credit, how stable my job is, basically what my options are.

....and this brings us dangerously close to getting back on topic, good planning around savings and having the money to spend when you *need* something puts you in a position of being able to choose which way you go, and where in the 7% interest earned/paid swing you describe represents the optimal balance for your personal circumstances (doubtless you could borrow more over a longer period, pay a higher % in interest for a more expensive car -but you've been able to choose the 4% point as a good balance of car model/car age/car reliability/impression 'feelgood' factor the car creates for you etc etc)

Getting back somewhere even close to the original question...!

Sunshine22 wrote: »

It's a bit nosy, but for those willing to share, I wonder how much people save a month and overall savings / worth?

For me, time is the most important thing. In the near future, I (we!) may have a family and I would rather spend time with them when they are young than work every hour and miss them. For me, it boils down to what is important, and *this* is important - far more than a nice car or the latest phone. As a result, I am leading a fairly frugal life and am saving / paying down mortgage / investing a pretty high percentage, and am driven by graphs like this: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

One crucial point though is about deprivation. For my goal, I'd suffer some deprivation, but I can honestly say that my frugal (and to be fair, I'm not being extreme with it) lifestyle is not one that leaves me feeling deprived and resentful.

Some people (who enjoy spending all they have) assume that I must be really miserable, and they struggle to understand that I am actually perfectly content. Only last Sunday, I spent a few hours picking home grown vegetables in the garden (very satisfying!), spent some quality time with my girlfriend, and then curled up in the evening with a book I bought for peanuts in the local charity shop - was bliss! - and not a cable TV package, flashy car, designer outfit, or expensive restaurant in sight.

Though, I'll be the first to admit that others may value other things higher than time - and that is their choice.

Archi_Bald wrote: »

The interest rates some of us paid for our mortgages would make your eyes water. But we somehow managed to service the 13%+ loans, and we saved a lot of money by going without mobile phones, internet, laptops, hair extensions, tattoos, acrylic nails and clubbing.

I'm sick of hearing this argument, yes you may have paid 15% or whatever interest rate back in the day, but back then house prices where not as high relevant to wages. You paying 15% back then is about the same as a FTB paying 5% now for an equivalent property.

Also, for goodness sake time change; a lot of technology is cheap now, mobile phones and internet are cheap. My mobile phone costs me £7 a month, thats cheaper than a landline. I don't have hair extentions, acrylic nails, tattoos or go clubbing and neither do my friends and anyway the price of those things are a drop in the ocean compared to the price of houses, don't make such sweeping statements and being judgemental.