How much of your savings do you invest?

Another_Saver

I plan a working cash amount based on managing stoozing, reg savers, LISA, known cash spend, cash buffer etc. Everything else goes in my S&S ISA.

Doshwaster

Excluding pensions, my savings are about 80% invested, 20% cash. The cash would be enough for 6-9 months of reasonable living costs.  I have two fixed standing orders to add to cash savings then top up with whatever spare money I have at the end of the month. Investments are a monthly payment into a S&S ISA with a top-up every few months.

Ocelot

Realised 2% of money is invested, 98% in cash. 

george4064

Excluding pension, 86% invested in S&S ISA and 14% in cash. However about 2/3rds (10%) of that cash is held to pay off a 0% balance transfer, so on a net basis (i.e. credit card balance paid off from savings) I would be 95% invested and remaining 5% in cash (emergency fund).

Aceace

I agree that there really is no 'one size fits all' answer to be found here. Most of us require a safety net that we're happy with for emergencies. Then we need some readily available cash for short/medium-term needs (can be anything from a few weeks to several years depending on what allows you to sleep comfortably). Anything else can be invested according to one's risk appetite. Or, in my case, according to which investments I enjoy most. 

I personally have my safety net in premium bonds (no room for joy here, except for the very small chance of winning big). My readily available cash is spread over a few current accounts; mostly interest bearing (still no room for joy). Altogether this amounts to about 10% of my total non-pension funds. I could easily make this last 5 years if I needed to, so quite a sizeable conform blanket. 

The rest is split roughly 50/50 between P2P and S&S, which are largely tax-free wrapped.

I retired early 5 years ago and have another 7.5 years to go until my main pension schemes kick in. I mainly live of my P2P earnings, which are now spread over 31 platforms. These cover the full range of risk levels from the safest (Loanpad) to the most adventurous (AxiaFunder). I have rolling weekly withdraws for several £k set up on Loanpad that are usually cancelled the day before they trigger, and have at least 5 maturing loans of at least £500 each per month from other platforms for at least a year ahead (usually more). Most of these get reinvested as I usually have sufficient returns from platforms that I'm drawing down from. Managing this takes a lot of time, but I enjoy it. 

My S&S investments are mostly invested in passive global funds / index trackers; 100% equities. I've long since concluded that neither I nor the vast majority of professional fund managers can consistently beat the markets. I'm not expecting to ever need these funds, so they're insurance for care costs that will hopefully be distributed to the beneficiaries of my will. I find them boring. The P2P stuff is where the fun is for me. 

tunde10

I have 48% invested, 12% Help to Buy ISA and remaining in cash (Premium bond & Reg Savers).
In my early 30's, single with no kids. Got a social housing (Housing Association) flat with very cheap rent and permanent tenancy. Unsure when & if i  will be allowed to purchase it after the waiting period. But i keep a significant amount back in cash incase.

barnstar2077

I am still working towards retirement at the moment, so I keep almost no cash available and invest in pensions and an S&S ISA.  I am 100% equities and figure if I really need to it would be better to take a potential hit on taking money back out of my ISA in an emergency than it would be to leave thousands sitting around not doing much.  It is a bit of a gamble, but then so is playing it too safe and missing out on potential returns. 

Stubod

..about 50%...which is probably not enough now interest rates on savings are so poor...

ElephantBoy57

barnstar2077 said:

I am still working towards retirement at the moment, so I keep almost no cash available and invest in pensions and an S&S ISA.  I am 100% equities and figure if I really need to it would be better to take a potential hit on taking money back out of my ISA in an emergency than it would be to leave thousands sitting around not doing much.  It is a bit of a gamble, but then so is playing it too safe and missing out on potential returns. 

That is exactly what I do. My take home pay is around £1,200 per month and I could save a few hundred from that. So I decide my roof needs replacing, I save up for a few months and overdraw a few months. I could cash in one of my better performing shares at any time and make a small profit. But I have never needed to do that, as I am generally building up my reserves.

MEM62

fryderykchopin said:

After having changed my mind, I have always kept £10k in a savings account ready for emergencies and invested the rest (£70k) in funds. Recently I have started to wonder whether that’s too much to invest given that it represents most of my savings (88%).

Unless you have considerable monthly outgoings why would you want more than £10k in cash? 
Everything I have is invested with the exception of circa six months living costs that I keep in cash.  What is not in cash in invested in 100% equity funds.