Third of Britons can't last a week on savings!

vaporate

"One in three Britons doesn't have enough savings to survive just five days out of work, new survey suggests."
Empty pockets: Most Britons don't even have a week's salary in savings

Read more here: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/savings-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=516480&in_page_id=7#ixzz12Rb99HT7

Don't shoot the messenger lol

First I hear the average Brit has in savings is £2025 now this.

A good read anyway with comments to match.

Discuss away.

I hope I posted this correctly avoiding copyright/plagiarism.

LeeSouthEast

I can believe it. None of my friends have any savings whatsoever.. bar one. And he doesn't count because the £14k of debt he has eclipses any money he has saved.

I have worked out the moment I move I will be able to sustain myself for 4 months including all bills. Come January that will have comfortably increased to between 7-10 months, depending on what I choose to cut if needed. I like safety nets.

Financial advisers typically suggest people have a month's salary set aside as a safety net.

Bad advice, really. 1 month's salary would be better than nothing, but it's still next to useless in terms of safety. Minimum of 3 months worth of expenses would be a far better target.

theGrinch

I read some research nonsense from the skipton today. on average people put £9k aside for beer. surely this is total gubbins.

missile

One in three Britons doesn't have enough savings to survive just five days out of work, new survey suggests."

I am very surprised. I would guess it would be more like two in three ......

ffacoffipawb

theGrinch wrote: »

I read some research nonsense from the skipton today. on average people put £9k aside for beer. surely this is total gubbins.

Drink!

malik999

theGrinch wrote: »

I read some research nonsense from the skipton today. on average people put £9k aside for beer. surely this is total gubbins.

I agree its nonsense £9k is no where near enough :coffee:

dealer_wins

It never ceases to amaze me how people can work for years and years and not have even £100 for emergencies.

I was like that when I was 16 and living with mum and dad but soon realised the need to save for emergencies.

I would say it is advisable to have a minimum of at least 6 months salary saved up in case of a severe emergency, and believe me emergencies and big life changes do happen as I am only too aware.

LeeSouthEast

dealer_wins wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how people can work for years and years and not have even £100 for emergencies.

I was like that when I was 16 and living with mum and dad but soon realised the need to save for emergencies.

I would say it is advisable to have a minimum of at least 6 months salary saved up in case of a severe emergency, and believe me emergencies and big life changes do happen as I am only too aware.

Well said.

cashbackproblems

Same i am amazed when you get 30+ yr olds who have to suddenly pay 1/2k and say they dont have any spare cash, even a supermarket worker should have saved that amount at least!! And ppl saying to save 3 months of ur salary are deluded, it takes months/yrs now to get another job so 3 months wages wouldnt get you far, i think you need more like 1yrs wage!

Im only 24yrs old been working for 2/3yrs, rent/pay my own way and still have managed to save almost 20k (in cash but mostly invested in shares) just by not wasting too much money on clothes, alcohol etc, though i still do go out once a week and travel few times a year. I have one friend who earns much more than me but lives one pay day to the next as he spends all his money on posh restaurents and taking his gf on holidays (currently in NY having taken out a small loan!), she is just a waitress.

Most worrying thing will be those who arent saving towards a pension as they will hit 60-65 unable to work and realise the state pension is barely enough to feed yourself and the age of entitlement will probably hit 80 by then!

Red_Doe

dealer_wins wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how people can work for years and years and not have even £100 for emergencies.

I was like that when I was 16 and living with mum and dad but soon realised the need to save for emergencies.

I would say it is advisable to have a minimum of at least 6 months salary saved up in case of a severe emergency, and believe me emergencies and big life changes do happen as I am only too aware.

This can happen for so many bad reasons...in my case I did have savings but a couple of backstabbing business acquaintances, a split from an ex that cost me money and a prolonged bout of serious illness meant, as self employed, I had to live on those savings for quite some time as I was unable to work and didn`t qualify for (or try to claim until things got desperate) benefits.
Similarly, I have a friend who had to use those savings to take care of the funeral arrangements of a poor parent.
So you see, it shouldn`t really surprise people. Sh*t happens even to the best of us and you can quickly get down to your last brass penny trying to make ends meet.
And even though I`m now back working, it takes a lot longer to play catchup, thanks to the bills that never go away (and tend to increase) and repayment of necessary debts run up during the darkest days of illness, etc, than it did to go through the savings in the first place.
For all you lucky people who have the savings, just think "there but for the grace of the gods..." and think yourselves lucky.

tristan727

What's the point in saving anything if the govt. is just going to bail you out anyways, through either the welfare state or the low interest policy?