42.3% of Londoners have less than £100 in savings

However, the research also showed that some people on low incomes do save money.

Roughly a quarter of adults with household incomes below £13,500 have more than £1,000 in savings.
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£1,000 that's a pretty substantial amount of money for such a low income however there is not data that revealing peoples living circumstances. If your teenager or young adult and were living at home rent free £1,000 is more then doable however if you have rent, food and bills to pay that's pretty impressive.

I'm terrible with money management I horde all my cash and don't invest it properly (it's been worse since I found out my Mum's side of the family is Jewish) as rule of thumb I like to keep at least 3 months worth of mortgage payments in reserve in case I find myself out of work. I figure at worst I can get a low paid job to pay for food and some bills and before my savings dry up I should have found some new employment.
 
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adolf hamster said:
So either 42.3℅ of londoners have no financial sense or 42.3℅ of londoners arent getting paid enough to live in london.
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I don't think it's either of that as a nation we have a culture of of 'live for today' and the idea of saving money is alien to a lot of people. My grandmother who lived through the war was the complete opposite and would always have money away in savings that should have accrued through her life. The other issue is there's not much incentive to save lots as banks pay so little interest.

Edit: This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
 
Probably because we're a "nation of homeowners" :rolleyes: As a bitter renter I always wonder what the point of saving is when you can just pile your cash into this magical bricks-and-mortar cash-hound we call property. No doubt 40% of the population think the same if they're lucky enough to be on the "ladder".
 
Scam said:
Probably because we're a "nation of homeowners" :rolleyes: As a bitter renter I always wonder what the point of saving is when you can just pile your cash into this magical bricks-and-mortar cash-hound we call property. No doubt 40% of the population think the same if they're lucky enough to be on the "ladder".
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There is not much point in saving these days. I've always saved up before making significant purchases (house aside) but this year I thought "sod it" and got myself an interest free credit-card and promptly went £2k in debt to buy myself a decent new bed/mattress. Should be able to pay it back before the interest free period ends, if not, I'll probably be able to get a new CC and transfer the balance.
 
You need a *lot* more than £100 to invest in property, so where are those between £0 and £enough-for-property putting their cash? Is what the article is asking.

Cash is very much inefficient for saving. "Saving money" is in fact an oxymoron because interest rates are currently always below inflation, especially for small amounts.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
Cash is very much inefficient for saving. "Saving money" is in fact an oxymoron because interest rates are currently always below inflation, especially for small amounts.
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But surely what you're talking about is "investing". Saving implies saving cash, no?
 
Scam said:
But surely what you're talking about is "investing". Saving implies saving cash, no?
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I mean keeping cash for the sake of keeping cash. If you have money sat in a bank account (or worse, in your pocket/under the bed/etc) you are *losing* money because of inflation, even when using "savings accounts" from the big banks, you are earning less interest than you are losing to inflation. Especially in London.

Investing cash is different - putting it behind some stock, or literally investing in a business venture or something, or even lending it to someone via a P2P lending site will give you a much better chance at getting a return, but you will not have instant access to it.
 
I'm really not comfortable unless I have a buffer of a few grand, no idea how people cope when running on empty!
 
I'm wondering how they define "Savings".

If you asked me how much I have in savings I'd say zero because I don't have a savings account and don't have anything squirreled away, however I've always got more than £100 in my current account and get nervous if it drops much below £500 or so before payday.
 
Nevakonaza said:
No shock really,Its only going to get worse too with ever increasing rent prices & bills.

I've been saying since last year now,Our minimum wage in the UK should be at least £10 per hour,If not more.

This was posted 3 days ago.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37477245
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And when minimum wage increases so does the price of everything else to enable businesses to pay the extra wages.

It's not a magic bullet.
 
As others have said I can't stand not having at least 3 months wages available.

I feel sorry for people having to live like this, unless they squander it of course.
 
This doesn't surprise me.

The problem these days is that things aren't build to last but instead be disposable and there are many people out there with the mentality of I must have the shiniest thing available at all times. I know people who have hardly a penny to their name at the end of the month but still went out and got the new iPhone.
 
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