A fifth of Londoners aged 55 or over have no savings.

Spiv_2

Older Londoners are in a worse financial state than people in the rest of the country, according to exclusive Evening Standard figures.
Research from Aviva reveals that a fifth of Londoners aged 55 or over have no savings. Even those that do save have a nest-egg less than half the size of those outside the capital. The average savings pot for over 55s across the country is £11,153. In London, it's just £4999.

For London's homeowners, however, the figures are more cheering. The average amount of equity held in homes by the over 55s in London is £364,117 against the national average of £223,112.
But older Londoners are worse off than those outside the capital when it comes to owning their own home. While four-fifths of over-55s across the country are homeowners, that slumps to two-thirds in the capital.

What's the solution? It's simple for those that have jobs: work for longer, or take on extra jobs if they can. For those without jobs, who are facing more severe financial hardships through the cutbacks, there currently look to be no positive prospects.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/money/article-24018310-a-poor-time-in-london.do

chucknorris

I would have said that this is quite surprising but a couple of years ago when the banks were looking quite dodgy, I was asking friends where they were moving their savings to. But I was very surprised at how many said they didn't have any savings (this was people in their late 30's/early 40's), these are people who have expensive cars and/or tend to fly business class rather than economy (I'm not talking about people on the breadline).

vivatifosi

Am I alone in not seeing this as bad news? If one fifth don't have savings, that means 80% do have savings, which if fantastic given that we've been chugging along the bottom for several years. If they don't have enough money to retire on and own a house, they can sell up and move somewhere cheaper as most London houses are worth significantly more than those in other parts of the country.

paulmapp8306

In most parts of the country, the ammount without savings is much higher than 1/5.

Id wager that 9 out of 10 people accross the country have less than £10k savings, with probably 5 in 10 having none at all.

worldtraveller

When they say "savings", are they referring simply to cash and/or funds that they can get relatively quick access to? What about investments and/or pensions? What exactly is a "saving's pot"? I don't really see what the issue is unless you look at savings, investments and other assets in totality. Personally I have always tried to have around 3 months worth of easy access "cash" funds available as a buffer in case of urgent need, but most is tied up in investments and a SIPP.

worldtraveller

I just checked another source for this story, The Guardian, and they state "Aviva found that the typical person over 55 now has £11,153 in savings and investments, 27% lower than December 2010, when the average was £15,262."

Big difference between the two of course! I wish these journos would be more clear, but I imagine it would only reduce the impact of their story. :whistle:

CLAPTON

so if savings were used to pay off the mortgage then one could say that savings have declined

drc

If you have a lot of savings then you are not entitled to pension credit which, as far as I am aware, is more than the basic pension. Plus I am sure there are other benefits for those who spent their money as soon as they got it rather than being prudent and saving. Those reliant on welfare will be getting a nice 5% increase next year whereas those with savings have seen the interest rate plummet to less than 1%.