Less Than £100 in savings?

talexuser

I would guess at the lower end an emergency gets taken care of with a payday loan, the result is an inability to save from then on, particularly if something else comes along which leads to a top up loan and a never ending cycle of replayment at very high rates.

Pincher

I was in hospital once, in a ward. This is before mobile phones, so I made sure I had plenty of change to make calls, just in case.

Somebody asked me for some change to call his sister.
Once, twice, three times, and I had to refuse him.

The patient in the bed next to mine was upset that this guy had no shame. I agreed. And then I tried to make a call: it was extortionate! Later on, these phone trolleys were exposed as money making machines provided by private companies, similar to Private Car Park companies. The guy barely got through on the money he borrowed from me.

The more vulnerable you are, the fewer options you have, the more vultures circle. Wonga, Brighthouse, Christmas Club that close before Christmas.

So, you can't help them, because the money just ends up in the rip off merchants' pocket. Bomb Wonga HQ? The poor just goes for the next local loan shark. All yo can do is offer the poor free euthanasia, and deprive the loan sharks a livelihood.

veryintrigued

Pincher wrote: »

All yo can do is offer the poor free euthanasia, and deprive the loan sharks a livelihood.

Keep it light eh?

Dird

My sister went from minimum wage to £24k, her savings didn't improve e.g. no savings
Tyson went bankrupt after making $300m.

No helping some people. Must have been damn cool to have a pet tiger though

Malthusian

I disagree with Bowlhead's argument that there is no point in having £100 or £1000 in an emergency fund. Even if you have an unexpected boiler repair bill costing £200 or a car problem costing £2,000, that's still half as much you need to borrow from Wonga or the credit card company to get it fixed. Most people, even the financially illiterate, can understand why halving the resulting credit card interest is a good idea.

Pincher's post reminds me of the Sam Vimes Theory of Boot Economics. A rich person can afford to spend £100 on a pair of really good boots that lasts for ten years. A poor person doesn't have £100 spare and so has to spend £20 on a pair of cheap boots that wears through within a year and has to be replaced. Consequently after ten years the poor person has spent twice as much on boots as the rich person and still has wet feet. Hence the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.

enthusiasticsaver

I have had this conversation several times with colleagues of mine who not only don't have savings (due to low interest rates please!!!)but also do not even save into a pension. They then look surprised when I tell them my OH is retiring next month at 58 and I am going in February 2018 when I am 58. This is obviously 8 years before our state pension kicks in but we have worked our finances so that the state pension is only 25% of our retirement income and the balance is made up from private/company pensions and savings which of course we have control over within scheme terms and conditions etc etc.

Savings gives you choice and independence and freedom. Freedom not to be told when you have to retire, freedom to go on holiday at a whim if you want to and security of knowing the roof over your head is secure. We don't smoke, we have budgeted all our working lives and along with gas/electric/council tax/food etc an amount has been set aside for the best part of 40 years to short term savings/medium term savings and long term savings. Yes interest rates have moved around during this period but the interest rates were never the motivation for saving. The main thing is we have the capital there to do what we want with and the index linked pensions will do the rest. State pension (providing we don't get taxed to death on it) will provide a bit extra when it kicks in.

For those who say the government provides maybe they need to look at council funded care homes which my mum in law went into and luckily for her died in quite shortly afterwards. It was ok and the staff were nice but no comparison to the private one my father in law has just spent 6 months in after lots of health problems and lengthy hospital stays and has been looked after so well and been stimulated to an extent he was well enough to come back home last month. No comparison.

jimjames

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Savings gives you choice and independence and freedom.

This is so true and really reflects how I think too. Some people might think there is no point saving but then are struggling to work out how to pay for the new tyres the car needed when it failed the MOT. Or the new car because they didn't save for a service and the fan belt then broke.
It's no freedom to be worrying constantly about where you'll get money from to cover bills.

LHW99

I remember a flatmate who used to smake around 20 cigarettes a day - if she wanted some new clothes, she'd give up smoking for a week and buy what she wanted. The next week she'd carry on smoking and was skint by the end of the week.
It always seemed like burning money to me.

Pincher

I knew somebody who was on disability allowance for many years.

He was in a housing Co-op, on housing benefit, and could just about make ends meet. I had a bag of tea bags (thousands) from Costco, which I bought at coupon price. It was probably five times cheaper per tea bag than he could get, buying in small quantities. I offered to take him along to shop in bulk. but he refused: no spare money to buy in bulk.

As cut backs progress, it doesn't mean someone with £1 to spare a week has zero to spare, it really mean they will get further and further into debt. Ironically, the Co-Op conscientiously upgraded his gas boiler, which he may not be able to afford to run.