Average Briton has £2,205 in savings

nomoreboomandbust

This average figure for savings can only keep going down in the future. Wages either stagnating or being reduced for most people, mortgage rates will eventually rocket ,essential living costs such as utility bills will increase too. I cannot see how most ordinary people will be able to save. Traditionally the people with any significant savings are over 50, but they are being squeezed too with their children living off the bank of mum and dad. It really is looking grim.

I really am a ray of sunshine on this gloomy morning here in SW london (it looks lovely in Scotland- just saw that Alex Salmond been interviewed on Sky news).

Oh i forgot to mention savage tax increases which will have to be imposed sooner rather than later

drc

If you have more than £8,000 in savings your 'entitlement' to benefits is drastically reduced. If you have more than £16,000 you are not entitled to any means tested benefits at all (even if you have paid into the system all your life) so it's not really a surprise that fewer and fewer people are bothering to save. Labour have discouraged thrift and prudency in favour of state reliance so they have/had more power.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

nomoreboomandbust wrote: »

Oh i forgot to mention savage tax increases which will have to be imposed sooner rather than later

Perhaps you need to look up the definition of savage......

The Tories actually plan to have lower taxation all the way through than the peak of Labours taxation in 2007.



Only Labour and the Liberals would have had tax rises of any significance, and even then only by 2% or 3%.....



But then I suppose "mildly annoying and largely inconsequential tax increases" doesn't have quite the same hyperbolic ring to it as "savage tax increases"......

Pobby

This is an interesting thread. I am a bit confused though. Is the calculation based on total savings less non mortgage debt, cc, loans and so on?

So you could have 10k of loans but ready cash in the bank?

phil_b_2

mbga9pgf wrote: »

We will then be nailing mortgage overpayments for 2 years and reducing our mortgage debt by 60K. Does that count as "Just breaking even"?

I had a similar dream before I bought my house, calculating what I'd have left over as a good chunk to blast the mortgage with. The reality is far away from the dream though when you factor in all the things you want to do with your new asset and all the lovely furniture you want to put in it .

phil_b_2

I don't suppose there is data on what happened to the value of assets held by the avereage britian?

vaporate

Here is the average debt:

£57,950

average household debt

£186m

personal interest paid in UK daily

every 11.4 minutes

a property is repossessed
every 3.69 minutes

someone will be declared insolvent or bankrupt


Source: http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debt-statistics.html

LeeSouthEast

That's the problem with averages. It's a total nonsense. There is no "average Brit", in this respect, I suspect.

I don't know anyone who has that in savings. They either have considerably more, live month to month (and manage to do so quite well by being careful), or are just hopelessly in debt.

PhylPho

Written in 2008, but perhaps still of some interest now:

http://www.creditloan.com/blog/2008/10/30/americans-debt-to-income-ratio-as-compared-with-other-countries/

It's necessary to click on each graphic to bring it up to a legible full-size.

The graphic of particular relevance is headed "Effective Net Worth Per Citizen". It's priced in USD. The text observes:

"The United Kingdom is an interesting economy in particular because its aggregate consumer debt alone ($2660 US Billion) is roughly equal to the nation’s total GDP. In this sense, the UK is just like your friend that spends exactly what they make, or even beyond their means to try and impress his/her friends. This is worse than living month to month – it’s like living a month to two months behind!

"And now, the UK is accumulating new debt at a faster rate than the economy. If the UK were a private citizen, it might be time for him/her to sell off what they can and move to Panama, or declare some type of bankruptcy."

The graphic's "Effective Net Worth Per Citizen" lists Japan and the USA at a positive net worth of $22,772 and $5,226 respectively.

In negative net worth are Spain (- $13,511), Italy (- $4,000), France (- $29,531), and Germany (- $14,232.)

Negative net worth per citizen, United Kingdom, is - $125,852.00.

As at 2007/2008.

LeeSouthEast

Ouch........