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

MiserlyMartin

What I find from work colleages in every job I have had is that rarely do any of them know much about money or have any savings. On the rare occaison that I mentioned that had savings I was slaughtered for it. It seems to be socially unacceptable to have savings. But it is socially acceptable to spend spend spend on cars, clothes and a house you can't afford and have credit cards and loans. I never mention I have savings these days. The idea of actually having a few thousand in the bank is alien to some people; they cannot comprehend having money there and not spending it.!

MiserlyMartin

Accountant_Kerry wrote: »

And if you go bankrupt you'll be out of the profession anyway.

Don't assume that all accountants are good with their own money, I know many fully qualified accountants that are not good with managing their money.

Yep. One of my exes. Accountant...but could not manage her own money. Shocking. And I too know of similar tales. I can't understand how you can work with money all day but be so useless with your own balance sheet. I suppose its because its not your money at work.

MrOrchard

vaporate wrote: »

As for living in Londistan, anything to escape fighting over the train/tube against drones in ties every flippin morning lol

I use a motorbike, it's far more fun.

robin_banks

Accountant_Kerry wrote: »

And if you go bankrupt you'll be out of the profession anyway.

Don't assume that all accountants are good with their own money, I know many fully qualified accountants that are not good with managing their money.

I think you're right, it's more about how good they are with cash, as opposed to a number on a balance sheet or a p&l.

serious_saver

cashbackproblems wrote: »

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!

You sound a lot like me!. Admittedly, I was able to save quite a bit extra from living with my parents for a while but I've never been on huge money and for a long time I was on VERY low pay. Most of my friends however are earning a lot more than I am and have still managed to rack up totally avoidable debts. My only debt is my student loan!

money_honey

I'm almost 30 and I have under 1k in savings, as I have a lot of credit card debts I am trying to clear first. Once they're cleared I will be saving for emergencies etc, but I will still be spending a lot of my money on holidays, a nice tv etc. These things are important to me and I want to enjoy my life. I didn't used to think like that but 2 years ago one of my closest friends died of a brain tumour at only 32. When she found out it was terminal, she spent the last few months trying to make the most of every day. I think that if you don't make the time to enjoy your life now, you may not be there in the future to spend the money that you have been saving. Enjoy life while you can.

Having said that, I do think around 3 months wages is sensible to have put aside for emergencies. Also for me, I have been saving into a pension since I was 25 so am preparing for the future - and I think if you can afford to put some aside, no matter how little, a pension is probably a bit of a safer bet than an ISA if you don't want the temptation to spend it before retirement.

cashbackproblems

money_honey wrote: »

I'm almost 30 and I have under 1k in savings, as I have a lot of credit card debts I am trying to clear first. Once they're cleared I will be saving for emergencies etc, but I will still be spending a lot of my money on holidays, a nice tv etc. These things are important to me and I want to enjoy my life. I didn't used to think like that but 2 years ago one of my closest friends died of a brain tumour at only 32. When she found out it was terminal, she spent the last few months trying to make the most of every day. I think that if you don't make the time to enjoy your life now, you may not be there in the future to spend the money that you have been saving. Enjoy life while you can.

Having said that, I do think around 3 months wages is sensible to have put aside for emergencies. Also for me, I have been saving into a pension since I was 25 so am preparing for the future - and I think if you can afford to put some aside, no matter how little, a pension is probably a bit of a safer bet than an ISA if you don't want the temptation to spend it before retirement.

who do you have your pension with and how much do u pay pm?

money_honey

Cashback my pension is with legal & general, just a standard stakeholder pension. At the moment I only pay £100 a month into it which isn't a lot I know, but it's all I can afford while the debts are being paid off. I'll increase the amount in the future as the debts decrease!

dealer_wins

money_honey wrote: »

I didn't used to think like that but 2 years ago one of my closest friends died of a brain tumour at only 32. When she found out it was terminal, she spent the last few months trying to make the most of every day. I think that if you don't make the time to enjoy your life now, you may not be there in the future to spend the money that you have been saving. Enjoy life while you can.

So sorry to hear about your friend.

My advise would be to try not to base your important financial decisions based on a statistical anomaly though. I would base it on your average life expectancy which hopefully you will reach or breach!!

You dont want to get to 80 years old and be re-using a tea-bag 3 times in a cups of cold water if you know what I mean.

rictus123

Money honey you will also regret it later on in life when you are still slaving away just to get by when you could make a few changes now to make it alot better for yourself and allow you to put your feet up