How much should we be saving?

penniesmakepounds_2

I was discussing with ma sister other day how much we should be saving each month (taking into account bills, debts,out goings etc). She said about 1/10th of our monthly salary I said 1/5 of the monthly salary. Also debated was how much we should have saved up to fall back on in case of an emergency she said 3 monthly salaries. I said about 2k-3k in the bank.

How much do others save/have to fall back on out of interest??

MPH80

Two very simple answers:

Emergency fund: 3 months - trying to raise to 6
Saving - as much as I can.

M.

ReportInvestor

Retirement saving is a parallel universe.

Politicians postpone pensions legislation because they daren't tell us how much we need to save (on top of politician induced student debts, rising mortgage debt, declining state pension expectations etc.)

So I'd go with MPH's "as much as possible".

Think of a figure, Treble it. Invest it in equities rather than cash to get serious compound growth. You might achieve your retirement goals - unlike your contemporaries.

Cypher

I have always saved for short term goals, christmas, car service, car tax etc but my actual savings at the end of the year would be zero as what I saved always got spent.

In recent times I decided it was time I saved an Emergency fund rather than relying on card cards for such times. Initially I just went for £1000 target. Once I'd achieved that I then set about clearing off my credit card debt. The emergency fund stopped me spending on the credit cards, as did cutting up the cards

Once my debts were cleared I then set about savings 3 months take home pay, we have a pretty good sick scheme at work, otherwise I would have gone for 6 months.

I've just achieved that target so I'm just carrying on to save as much as I can.

I try to save a minimum of 10% of my take home pay now. I also save what ever money is left in my current account at the end of each pay period.

Baileys_Babe

We have 3 months but are saving for 6 months also trying to get rid of mortgage asap

We also save for things we want car, holiday, and budget for birthdays, christmas etc. Pay for as much as possible with a cash back credit card which we pay off in full each month, which also gives us a few days extra interest :j

bobsa1

We have 6 months (well about five and a half) but we are hoping to double this in next few months (tax refund, bank charges reclaimed etc) we also have an emergency fund of approx £5k.

It might seem a lot but with 3 dd's I think we need to make sure we can weather a temporary storm!