Savings buffer - makes sense but how to incentivise?

[Deleted User]

you can have incentives such as isa's but you really can't force people to save even though it makes sense,after all some people just can't afford to save they can hardly afford to live !

michaels

woodbine wrote: »

you can have incentives such as isa's but you really can't force people to save even though it makes sense,after all some people just can't afford to save they can hardly afford to live !

Not after they have paid for the sky tv, ciggies and iphone anyway. Sure there are [STRIKE]some [/STRIKE]many who can't afford to save but in my experience there are also many who see money in their account = money they need to spend.

Generali

The problem boils down to the fact that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Some people will just spend all their money. I've known plenty of people in the front office on six figure sums who probably have a career life expectancy of 3-5 years just blow the lot on booze and fast cars. It's very common.

zagubov

Perhaps help should come with a price.

After WWII, the British denazification programme in our sector of Germany meant you couldn't collect your bread if your ration book wasn't stamped leaving the cinema showing what the army's history department had filmed entering the concentration camps.

That sort of a thing (i.e. you need to jump through hoops that show you learned something). Don't tell me it's beyond the wit of man to do that.

Mistermeaner

Comes at a cost though

Southend1

Mistermeaner wrote: »

I'm not a fan of helping people who can't help themselves

Then you have no place in civilised society.

Take a long hard look at what you wrote and try to put yourself in the shoes of a child, an elderly person, a person with learning difficulties, someone who suffered a massive stroke or brain tumour, or had an accident at work, etc etc etc.

Mistermeaner

Poor working perhaps but I think the context is clear

wotsthat

Anyone who has managed to build an emergency buffer (especially if they're less well off) has clearly determined this is a priority and therefore is far less likely to dip into it anyway.

If you can't budget then a £1000 emergency buffer is soon going to be spent to cover a 5 week month and other such 'surprises'.

Can't force people to budget which is the main issue. What are we meant to do - allocate an all knowing middle-class person to every poor person to tell them how much of their circumstances are self-inflicted.

missyrichards

I think it's a good idea to encourage saving but some people just don't seem interested in saving, only spending, and I'm not sure how that could be changed.

We used to live "paycheck to paycheck" even though we were on decent money and I know a lot of people who live the same way. It's very important that people have a buffer in place for emergencies but it often takes a mindset change.

MacMickster

I don't think that this is a problem that can be solved.

Some people will always live in the now without much thought for the future. Whether talking about a savings buffer, insurances, pensions etc these are all things that they view as stopping them living life to the full NOW.

In the other corner you get the ultra cautious who are prepared to forego any pleasure at all now for the promise of a more secure future (some on the Mortgage Free Wanabe board come to mind).

The majority (I hope) come somewhere between the 2 extremes, but for those who are "out there" I doubt that much can be done to significantly change their world view. You can't save everyone from themselves.

I must admit that I have real sympathy for those on low incomes who have struggled to build a savings buffer, but then experience the car breakdown, boiler repair, washing machine giving up the ghost and a leaking roof within a short space of time.