How much money do you keep as rainy day fund?

Bonia77

Joeskeppi wrote: »

I've got about a years worth of mortgage saved up, but it will be dented when I get married in 2 weeks :S

If I only had a year's worth worth savings it would be a pittance, and would be seriously worried :cool:

My mortgage is peanuts now

wageslave

Not very much.

I have a savings account where I bung anything left over at the end of the month. Depending on what sales have been on this can be anything from a couple of hundred quid to fourpence:o

I could live for about a month out of the savings account, three if I was careful and stopped buying shoes.

However, I am not quite as profiligate as I appear, honestly.

I do have long term savings, a decent pension fund and own a wee bit of land.

Wageslave <---aware she has to do better though

PasturesNew

Well, usually there's nothing left over to save. I've never reached the bit in life where you actually have money to set aside as such...

However, in a perfect world, I'd like 4 years' basic salary in the bank after I've bought a little house .... but at current prices it looks like I'd probably have £1000 max left after buying/paying the buying costs. So I'd be back to square one with £1000 (which is a lot more than I've had for most of my life to date).

I think £20k is a nice sounding sum. £20k gets you anything fixed that could possibly go wrong.

RenovationMan

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think £20k is a nice sounding sum. £20k gets you anything fixed that could possibly go wrong.

With all the usual insurance policies in place, £10k would get anything fixed that could go wrong, but I agree that £20k sounds safer. £30k even more so.

wolvoman

RenovationMan wrote: »

They also take into consideration the value of any other property you may have, so if you have a BTL property or holiday home that has £30k equity, then this £30k is added to the savings amount.

You are allowed upto £16k of savings, but the amount of benefit is tapered from £6k onwards. This is only for certain means tested benefits though.

it's an interesting discussion. As a society we should save more, but the taxation laws and welfare state discourage us as individuals to save.

Can one 'hide' money should a redundancy or illness happen?

No point buying cars - I presume their value is used and they depreciate too.

What about foreign property?
Gold?
Shares?
Wine? Can I have a wine cellar worth tens of thousands of pounds and still claim housing benefit if I lose my job?

Still then have the earning spouse though. Hmmmm

There's a lot to be said for being a spendaholic.

RenovationMan

wolvoman wrote: »

it's an interesting discussion. As a society we should save more, but the taxation laws and welfare state discourage us as individuals to save.

Can one 'hide' money should a redundancy or illness happen?

No point buying cars - I presume their value is used and they depreciate too.

What about foreign property?
Gold?
Shares?
Wine? Can I have a wine cellar worth tens of thousands of pounds and still claim housing benefit if I lose my job?

Still then have the earning spouse though. Hmmmm

There's a lot to be said for being a spendaholic.

Equity held in your own home seems to be a huge loophole in means-testing. You could have a mortgage free £3.5M mansion and £6k savings and be entitled to the same benefits as someone living in a bedsit. OK, it's highly unlikely that a £3.5M mansion holder would have so little in savings, but you get my drift.

Raggs_2

But the thing is, equity in a 3.5million mansion is unuseable equity. No one will remortgage you on benefits, equity release schemes are there to screw you.

I have to say, as much as I tend to laugh at all the "buy gold/silver" folks, this is one situation where I suspect they may have a case. I suspect you'd have to lie about not owning any substantial assets, but gold is small enough that it wouldn't be hard to hide.

cmazza

We have 3 months income, but are hoping to increase it to 6 months.

maveli

6K. anything over that you will be punished by uk benifit system

Swipe

At the moment I have around 3 years net salary which I could easily live on for about 8 years (no mortgage). If I lost my job and got myself a 3 day / week part time one stacking shelves I could make it to retirement.