How much can you save?

tara747

Hi all!
Just totted up my end of year totals. 
I managed to save £2,256 in December. That makes an incredible £35,728 saved in 2020.
Many factors contributed to this. Lockdown and working from home saved us a fortune on travel, socialising and other expenditure; I got a promotion with a 20% pay rise; and I received a small cash inheritance.
My new overall savings total is £197,685. I can't believe I've almost smashed the £200k barrier! It doesn't seem real. 
I'm very thankful to have a secure job, a decent income and a comfortable home, but most of all to have a truly wonderful partner and good health. Those last two things are priceless.
Happy 2021 everyone. Well done on your savings progress, you should be very proud

tara747

DireEmblem said:

Well done @tara747, awesome figure.  I worked out this year I've saved roughly a third of my income.  Can hopefully save more next year.  A long shot away from the several years of saving 70% to retire, but will get there

Thank you. And well done! 1/3 of your income is a very impressive figure to save. You are doing amazingly well

tara747

thegentleway said:

tara747 said:

My November 2020 update:
I managed to save £4,514 (almost half of which was interest on NS&I 3-year bonds, which have now matured - will we ever see 2.2% interest again??).
So far in 2020 I’ve saved £33,472.
My new grand savings total is £195,429  I'd absolutely love to hit £200k this year - there is no chance of that with just one pay cheque to go, but I'm delighted with my progress. Lockdown has been very kind to us savings-wise, we've been lucky.

£195k in savings?! That’s a lot of cash looks like you’ve been saving for nearly a decade. How come you didn’t invest (some of) it?!

Yup. I might have been encouraged to invest some, but (1) I was intending to use it in the near future for a house purchase, which isn't a great timeframe for investments, and (2) the stock market crash/financial crisis, Brexit etc put me right off. I guess I could have made more money on the stock market, but equally I could have lost a lot :rotfl: 

tara747

Black_Cat2 said:

Excellent job Tara wd!  Struggling to save here but will make a big effort next year 😸

Thank you Wishing you lots of luck for this year.

tara747

First update of 2021!
I managed to save £2,078 in January, so that's my total for the year to date.
This brings my total savings to £199,763. So close to the £200k mark! I'll get there this month. Need to mark the occasion properly. All the usual celebratory options are off the table (eating out, travelling etc) but I will think of something.
Happy 2021 everyone 

tara747

Belated February update!
I managed to save £1,213 in February. That makes £3,291 so far in 2021, and £200, 976 overall.
I've finally hit the £200k mark!  I'm so chuffed. Need to do something to celebrate - which is hard with everything closed, but I'll think of something.

moneysavinghero

Just saw the first page of this thread:

Top tips at the moment, wanno, are the regular saver accounts and 7%+ gross (5.6% net) beats all of the Cash ISAs out there.
12% at A&L
10% at Barclays
8% at HSBC
8% at LLoyds (especialy good as this is a 2 year account)
You need current accounts at the above to open their regular savers.
8.25% at Ipswich BS (with some windfall possibilities thrown in).
7% at Halifax
6.5% at Yorkshire BS (and no 12 month rule here, either - a good option).
6.5% at Principality BS.

I'm depressed now 

Alexland

tara747 said:

I've finally hit the £200k mark!  I'm so chuffed.

Well done Tara - are you any nearer starting work on building that house?

moneysaver1978

Inspiring thread! When you say you have "saved X", do you have this "locked" in a specific account(s)?

According to my spreadsheet, I have 53K in savings/ISAs accounts and £68K in pensions, stocks, RSUs, index funds, and in a current account (around 30K).

So do I have a saving of £120K ("variable") or £53K ("fixed")?

eskbanker

moneysaver1978 said:

Inspiring thread! When you say you have "saved X", do you have this "locked" in a specific account(s)?

According to my spreadsheet, I have 53K in savings/ISAs accounts and £68K in pensions, stocks, RSUs, index funds, and in a current account (around 30K).

So do I have a saving of £120K ("variable") or £53K ("fixed")?

There's no right or wrong answer to that and if you were hoping to hear from the regular contributor above then they haven't been on the forum for over six months so their own version of what constitutes 'saving' may not be forthcoming.

In general it's best to calibrate it with whatever you're putting money aside for, so obviously pension money is inaccessible until 55+ whereas money in a current account is immediately available in liquid form.  Fixed-term savings will usually also be locked, and investments in stocks, funds, etc, may not be locked as such but should always be seen as long term money due to shortfall risk, so many would say that they have £x immediately available, £y for the medium/long term (but potentially available if necessary) and £z for retirement, rather than trying to condense everything down to a single figure....