Average amount of savings???

Brilley

As per many of the above, "how long is a piece of string"?

We are now passed the accumulation stage and into the drawdown stage.

When we were both working our priority was to "get thee behind me mortgage", so we put all our efforts into that.

When that was done we found we could more or less live off one wage, so we did that and saved the other, (we both earned about the same). .
We had paid off our mortgage by about 40 and then spent about 18 years saving and retired early....but that'd just us, and yes in those days mortgages were lower in relation to earnings, but interest rates peaked at 15%.....we did get a few early ears of decent savings rates (5% 'ish) but the later years were pretty dire but then again inflation was lower.

Eco_Miser

JolllyG wrote: »

Hi all, so I’m looking to get an idea of how much in savings other folk out there have?

There are contributors to this forum who have millions saved (then invested); there are contributors to the Debt-Free Wannabe forum with horrendous negative savings (debt). You're somewhere in the middle.

JolllyG wrote: »

I have a work pension which I am lucky enough to say will pay off my mortgage when I retire.

But will it support you in the lifestyle you desire?

JolllyG wrote: »

I have about £30k equity in my house and have £30k saved.

That's a lot of money (compared to the debt-free wannabes, and the just breaking evens.
That's not a lot of money (compared to the millionaires and those striving for early retirement.

JolllyG wrote: »

I’m 43, have no credit card bills, store cards etc and my car is paid off. So what I’m asking is do I need to have more saved?

What do you want to do with your savings?

JolllyG wrote: »

How much a month roughly should you save?

All of it. Less what you need to spend.

JolllyG wrote: »

Any feedback would be good. Thanks

Hope this helps.

JolllyG

Thank you all for your information and thoughts. It’s greatly appreciated.

Barry_Bear

True wealth is not in possessions, but having few needs.

Focus on what you really need to achieve financial security. The figure may then be smaller and more obtainable.

Zero_Sum

bowlhead99 wrote: »

The compound interest on a low risk loan (mortgage secured on a house) is likely to be lower than the returns on an investment portfolio. That's the reason why I make relatively small mortgage overpayments using my taxed employment income and instead prefer to put the money into a pension offering huge tax relief. On top of the tax relief, there's an expectation of long term investment returns of inflation plus 3-5%; rather than overpaying the mortgage which is at 1.94% (CPIH inflation plus 0.5%). I would rather have 3-5% compounding gains than 0.5% compounding savings, even if tax-efficiency wasn't an issue, which it is.

Still, we're all different.

Tbh I'm mortgage neutral & have the final 20% LTV invested so I'm also playing the long game to a certain extent. And yes there's an argument to over paying pension instead of mortgage, more so if you're a 40% tax payer

However, reading between the lines on the OP's comments I suspect that's not the case. Instead they're actually relying on the pension to pay off mortgage rather than trying to be clever & beat the system. And not actually making overpayment into pension. That being the case its not "lucky" as most by retirement will have either paid off mortgage or have capital to pay it off over & above what they would've had anyway.

Malkytheheed

I always think it's a waste to save what you could invest or otherwise have working for you. Have some savings sure, rainy day pot, emergency fund. But beyond 3 months expenses I don't see the point having "savings" that are just getting less and less over time due to inflation.

Ceme3000

Malkytheheed wrote: »

I always think it's a waste to save what you could invest or otherwise have working for you. Have some savings sure, rainy day pot, emergency fund. But beyond 3 months expenses I don't see the point having "savings" that are just getting less and less over time due to inflation.

Surely it depends on what stage of your life you are at. I agree if you are working and in a reasonably secure job, but for me aged 53, living off savings I would be nuts to keep a rolling 3 months cash in the bank and the rest invested.

Flobberchops

JolllyG wrote: »

Average amount of savings???

The answers you get on a site like MSE are likely to be skewed upwards due to the kind of audience you get here, and additionally you have reporting bias whereby people are more likely to answer if they have decent savings. How much you SHOULD save is a real "piece of string" question as people will have different circumstances, sometimes radically different. It also runs the risk of turning into an exercise in willy-waving, if I can get that one past the MSE censors.


But the savings situation nationally? It's a fairly bleak picture.

• About 1 in 4 men have over £20,000 saved. This figure drops to 1 in 5 for women.
• A third of UK adults have less than £1500 in savings.
• Between 15% and 25% of adults have no savings at all. Among 22-29 year olds, this rises to over 50%.
• 1 in 10 of over-55s have no retirement savings.
• 1 in 10 people admit to regularly living beyond their means.
• Over half of people are not adding to savings on a monthly basis, with 40% blaming high cost of living and insufficient salaries

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-adults-savings-none-quarter-debt-cost-living-emergencies-survey-results-a8265111.html
https://www.legalandgeneral.com/investments/investment-content/how-much-do-brits-really-save/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45744552

Albermarle

Yes it is said up to a third of UK people/families, would only need to miss one or maybe two monthly paychecks , before having problems paying basic bills , like rent, food, debt repayments etc

Eco_Miser

Malkytheheed wrote: »

I always think it's a waste to save what you could invest or otherwise have working for you. Have some savings sure, rainy day pot, emergency fund. But beyond 3 months expenses I don't see the point having "savings" that are just getting less and less over time due to inflation.

I have quite a bit in cash because it's safer and pays more than the bonds which we are recommended to hold in addition to equities.

Also, like Ceme3000, I'm living off investments, so keep a two year float in case of poor market conditions.