Millions have saving of less than £100

[anonymous-user]

RYH64E said:

I know plenty of wealthy people who are very unostentatious, perfectly happy to drive around in a ten year old car and live in the same house they bought decades ago.

Which pretty much describes my parents, and to a lesser extent myself and my partner.

I see friends absolutely stretching themselves to the limit to buy cars, houses, holidays and other stuff that they really, really don't need, but want, or think will impress everyone.

I'm all for people enjoying themselves, but it just seems that much of it is irresponsible in the grand scheme of things.

[AmitG]

Willy Nilly said:

My girlfriend is in such an office. One of her colleagues has a combined income of 6 figures with his other half and they live pay cheque to pay check.

They were talking about homelessness (mainly among men...) on 5Live earlier in the week. A man texted in who said he was on £97,000/yr 12 months ago, lost his job, had to sell everything and had £20 to his name. There but for the grace of god and all that lot.

It's one thing not having any saving due to not earning much, but I can never understand people that spend everything when they are earning enough to save, but it's people like them, that allow people like me who do save, to have businesses to invest in via various means.

I work in an office with a lot of high earners, and I see the same.

The bloke I used to share an office with was earning very good money - low 6 figures. But he had 2 kids in private school, a massive mortgage, he was overhauling the house with an extension and stuff, and his wife loved to spend money (and didn't work). Skiing and a big summer holiday every year. Got through every penny of his salary every month, zero savings. His car broke down and he had to get a 2k bank loan to buy a shed.

The sad thing is that he didn't even enjoy the lifestyle, he said that a lot of it was about keeping up appearances amongst the social circles in which they moved.

Another guy I used to work for - managing director level, probably earning 200 - 300k GBP/year (this was a while ago). Again, huge mortgage, kids in private school and his wife was really into horses. So that means paying for horses, horse food, vets, stables, clothing, horse box, and that's before you even start riding. The sums were eye watering. He claimed to have no savings.

TBH I felt a bit sorry for some of these people. You start off by envying them, but then you look closer and you realise that they are utterly trapped. Historically, salaries and bonuses in the financial industry have been quite high. With the industry now in severe decline, and jobs disappearing by the day, a lot of people realise that their days are numbered. They know they cannot earn this money elsewhere, but they have gotten used to the lifestyle, and they have to keep it up even if they don't want to, because it's expected of them. In some cases they know that if they don't keep it up, divorce is likely to follow. Their worst nightmare is losing their job or getting a pay cut. So they spend every waking hour worrying about their future, they try to keep hold of their job by any means possible, and they will degrade themselves in doing so.

[jshell]

Most of my colleagues have large mortgages on their house, high car finance, mortgages on a boat and loans on a holiday cabin. They have next to no savings at all.

[BoRED S2upid]

AmitG said:

I work in an office with a lot of high earners, and I see the same.

The bloke I used to share an office with was earning very good money - low 6 figures. But he had 2 kids in private school, a massive mortgage, he was overhauling the house with an extension and stuff, and his wife loved to spend money (and didn't work). Skiing and a big summer holiday every year. Got through every penny of his salary every month, zero savings. His car broke down and he had to get a 2k bank loan to buy a shed.

The sad thing is that he didn't even enjoy the lifestyle, he said that a lot of it was about keeping up appearances amongst the social circles in which they moved.

Another guy I used to work for - managing director level, probably earning 200 - 300k GBP/year (this was a while ago). Again, huge mortgage, kids in private school and his wife was really into horses. So that means paying for horses, horse food, vets, stables, clothing, horse box, and that's before you even start riding. The sums were eye watering. He claimed to have no savings.

TBH I felt a bit sorry for some of these people. You start off by envying them, but then you look closer and you realise that they are utterly trapped. Historically, salaries and bonuses in the financial industry have been quite high. With the industry now in severe decline, and jobs disappearing by the day, a lot of people realise that their days are numbered. They know they cannot earn this money elsewhere, but they have gotten used to the lifestyle, and they have to keep it up even if they don't want to, because it's expected of them. In some cases they know that if they don't keep it up, divorce is likely to follow. Their worst nightmare is losing their job or getting a pay cut. So they spend every waking hour worrying about their future, they try to keep hold of their job by any means possible, and they will degrade themselves in doing so.

Hit the nail on the head right there. It's all about keeping up with your peers. Everyone has a new car, bigger house, BTL, flash holidays, big TV, iPhone 7s+ etc... living within your means and saving to buy things is old fashioned as is having savings or so it seems.

[lotusmad2001]

life is for living. We are so lucky we have been born in such an amazing time, whereby a performance car can be bought for peanuts, a new game changing gadget comes out yearly and is affordable to most, you can travel most places tomorrow if you liked. Why would you have savings?

I'm 27, I save by putting money into a Lotus HP agreement which barely loses a penny, I now have half of it as equity which, when I sell it, will be going towards a house.

I do have a pet hate for people that don't spend a penny on anything. sat in a house that is in disrepair, knackered old car and screaming poverty when they have £££££'s in the bank with no mortgage. Do not get that mentality at all

Jonny

[Maxf]

BoRED S2upid said:

Hit the nail on the head right there. It's all about keeping up with your peers. Everyone has a new car, bigger house, BTL, flash holidays, big TV, iPhone 7s+ etc... living within your means and saving to buy things is old fashioned as is having savings or so it seems.

Surely having a BTL is investing your savings and hopefully providing you with a better return than the bank? I dont have loads of cash savings, but have investments which I could liquidate fairly easily.

[C0ffin D0dger]

I used to have savings but at the moment with my wife not working (stay at home mum) the income covers the outgoings and we spent what we had improving the house. The mortgage is about the same as what I've got in pension / shares so the overall balance is around £0. I could cut back in a few places (e.g. sell my car for a cheaper one and get rid of the remaining loan I have) but we don't have much breathing space at the moment. I'm not exactly on a low income either so it make you wonder how other people cope...

So back to the original post, yes no surprise there really. Remember talking to my Dad and he was pretty much the same, never able to put aside much until he was quite a bit older. In fact he recounted a story of when credit cards first appeared and they went a bit silly with one of those, lesson was learnt quite quickly and luckily he was able to do the odd call out / overtime which was quite lucrative where he worked so was able to clear the bill. Others were probably not so fortunate.

[anonymous-user]

Maxf said:

Surely having a BTL is investing your savings and hopefully providing you with a better return than the bank?

+1

I can't speak for all areas of the country as property prices and rents vary greatly, but where I live, if you went out and bought a tidy 2-3 bed BTL and put around £10-15k deposit down, the rent would be around £150-200 per month higher than the mortgage and the other obvious benefit is that someone else is paying off the property for you.

Far better than money in the bank in my opinion.

[jshell]

NinjaPower said:

Maxf said:

Surely having a BTL is investing your savings and hopefully providing you with a better return than the bank?

+1

I can't speak for all areas of the country as property prices and rents vary greatly, but where I live, if you went out and bought a tidy 2-3 bed BTL and put around £10-15k deposit down, the rent would be around £150-200 per month higher than the mortgage and the other obvious benefit is that someone else is paying off the property for you.

Far better than money in the bank in my opinion.

..with current interest rates....

[PorkInsider]

lotusmad2001 said:

I do have a pet hate for people that don't spend a penny on anything. sat in a house that is in disrepair, knackered old car and screaming poverty when they have £££££'s in the bank with no mortgage. Do not get that mentality at all

The middle ground is where it's at.

[anonymous-user]

jshell said:

NinjaPower said:

Maxf said:

Surely having a BTL is investing your savings and hopefully providing you with a better return than the bank?

+1

I can't speak for all areas of the country as property prices and rents vary greatly, but where I live, if you went out and bought a tidy 2-3 bed BTL and put around £10-15k deposit down, the rent would be around £150-200 per month higher than the mortgage and the other obvious benefit is that someone else is paying off the property for you.

Far better than money in the bank in my opinion.

..with current interest rates....

Very true, but with a mortgage of only around £450 a month and a rent of around £650 a month, it would take a bit of a jump in rates to wipe out that £200 a month, plus, even if it did, someone else is still giving you £650 a month.

But yes, your point is important.

[NerveAgent]

PorkInsider said:

The middle ground is where it's at.

Unfortunately, most people with the spend every penny mentality pretend the middle ground doesn't exist.

If you are not spending everything you are not living :-/

[WestyCarl]

BoRED S2upid said:

Hit the nail on the head right there. It's all about keeping up with your peers. Everyone has a new car, bigger house, BTL, flash holidays, big TV, iPhone 7s+ etc... living within your means and saving to buy things is old fashioned as is having savings or so it seems.

But the other side of the argument is, "I work hard so why shouldn't I spend all my money on nice things."

[BoRED S2upid]

WestyCarl said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Hit the nail on the head right there. It's all about keeping up with your peers. Everyone has a new car, bigger house, BTL, flash holidays, big TV, iPhone 7s+ etc... living within your means and saving to buy things is old fashioned as is having savings or so it seems.

But the other side of the argument is, "I work hard so why shouldn't I spend all my money on nice things."

Indeed. And compared to other countries there is a very generous safety net if it all goes wrong. Your not going to be living at the side of the road stewing up leaves as food.

[Gecko1978]

sparks_E39 said:

Some months I have to go into my overdraft, I have a little in savings, boosted by my nans recent passing but if I was out of work I'd last 2-3 months before I was in trouble. It would take me around 2 years to save 6 months salary- it isn't feasible.

Edited by sparks_E39 on Thursday 29th September 20:23

Well it is feasible as oyu have just said it wpould take you 2 year...so by that definition in a year you could live off 9 months salary and save 3... I dont know what you earn but regardless I bet 3 months salary would look pretty good in your bank account..

Saving is a funny thing as returns are low to zero but having a bit of cash put by means when the washing machine breaks you just get a new one, when the dog needs the vets you just pay it and when you want a family holiday you have a bit of cash to spend. You dont need huge amounts but a little put aside over the long term adds up. If you can save 6 months income in two year I suggest you do, although it may be the case you already so have other investments etc I don't know just saying if you can save then it is possible

[PorkInsider]

NerveAgent said:

PorkInsider said:

The middle ground is where it's at.

Unfortunately, most people with the spend every penny mentality pretend the middle ground doesn't exist.

If you are not spending everything you are not living :-/

Yep. Completely agree.

I'm at the other end of that scale in that I have to force myself to buy things I really like and can afford. I suppose I get more comfort from having money saved than I feel I would from spending it. Don't get me wrong, I have a comfortable lifestyle and nice 'things' though.

I'd just much rather be sat cursing myself for not buying things I probably should, than laying awake at night worrying about money.

I really am staggered to read that 'millions' don't have even £100 saved, though. I genuinely didn't realise that was so common. When places like coffee shops are rammed to the gunnels with punters desperate to part with £3+ for a drink each day, I suppose it gives the impression that money isn't so tight in the UK in general.

Although, I'm even more staggered at some of the stories in this thread though, where relatively wealthy people have, in reality, not got a pot to piss in. Scary stuff.

[marcusgrant]

As other said, no surprise

It doesn't matter what you earn, if you spend all your money you can't save it. Get a pay rise = new car. Get a bonus = fancy holiday.

Also regarding mortgage, I found it crazy how high mine and the misses monthly would be if we got the maximum mortgage available to us. There'd be hardly anything left for living (pub, days out etc).

[kiethton]

klmhcp said:

Sounds as if you're banking on the refurb generating a lot of cash. Good luck.

Thanks - home straight now, it needs to and market evidence looks like we've added Atleast £60k post costs so should would out well

[Sheepshanks]

AmitG said:

TBH I felt a bit sorry for some of these people. You start off by envying them, but then you look closer and you realise that they are utterly trapped.

Most people are trapped. They're just trapped at different levels.

AmitG said:

Historically, salaries and bonuses in the financial industry have been quite high. With the industry now in severe decline, and jobs disappearing by the day, a lot of people realise that their days are numbered. They know they cannot earn this money elsewhere, but they have gotten used to the lifestyle, and they have to keep it up even if they don't want to, because it's expected of them. In some cases they know that if they don't keep it up, divorce is likely to follow. Their worst nightmare is losing their job or getting a pay cut. So they spend every waking hour worrying about their future, they try to keep hold of their job by any means possible, and they will degrade themselves in doing so.

Again, this happens at other levels too. Skilled manual workers in traditional well paying industries like coal mining, steel making or petrochemicals can't hope to replicate their salaries if their jobs go away.

[Sheepshanks]

NinjaPower said:

jshell said:

NinjaPower said:

Maxf said:

Surely having a BTL is investing your savings and hopefully providing you with a better return than the bank?

+1

I can't speak for all areas of the country as property prices and rents vary greatly, but where I live, if you went out and bought a tidy 2-3 bed BTL and put around £10-15k deposit down, the rent would be around £150-200 per month higher than the mortgage and the other obvious benefit is that someone else is paying off the property for you.

Far better than money in the bank in my opinion.

..with current interest rates....

Very true, but with a mortgage of only around £450 a month and a rent of around £650 a month, it would take a bit of a jump in rates to wipe out that £200 a month, plus, even if it did, someone else is still giving you £650 a month.

But yes, your point is important.

I wish BTL wasn't promoted here as if it's risk free - a dodgy tenant or an unexpected big bill and you're stuffed for a few years.