Do you save money every month?

[LiE]

inb4 OcUK rich bois come out and flex / humble brag.

Currently only putting a small amount into savings. Used to be a healthy amount until we recently took the plunge to open a salon which short term has nuked disposable income.

 

[MikeTheNative]

We currently have a good chunk of emergency savings (we own our home). So now trying to focus on putting more into either paying the mortgage off earlier or into things like a LISA and/or pension for retirement instead of a big pot of money that get's eroded by inflation.

 

[ObSene]

I'm married with 2 kids and a mortgage. I have 6 months’ worth of salary invested in stocks and shares ISA and 2 months’ salary in premium bonds. Wife and I both have workplace pensions, and we pay in to trust funds for the kids monthly. Now we have this buffer, we don't intentionally save anymore and spend our money enjoying our self's while us and the kids are still young.

But it's hard work getting that buffer, but it helps me sleep at night

 

[grudas]

inb4 OcUK rich bois come out and flex / humble brag.

Currently only putting a small amount into savings. Used to be a healthy amount until we recently took the plunge to open a salon which short term has nuked disposable income.

there will always be someone richer than you imo. If you're happy where you are personally and if you're getting richer, earning more, progressing through your career and in general just bettering yourself slowly then that's all that matters. I know some 19yos who drive lambos and have no concept of house deposits or savings.

 

[squerble]

I'm married with 2 kids and a mortgage. I have 6 months’ worth of salary invested in stocks and shares ISA and 2 months’ salary in premium bonds. Wife and I both have workplace pensions, and we pay in to trust funds for the kids monthly. Now we have this buffer, we don't intentionally save anymore and spend our money enjoying our self's while us and the kids are still young.

But it's hard work getting that buffer, but it helps me sleep at night

How do you mentally deal with the risk of having your emergency fund in a S&S ISA where (presumably) there's a good chance that money gets eroded as markets fall? I know long term it balances out to generally be up, but shorter term it's harder to deal with volitility. I'm considering having my emergency fund (of a few months' salary once I get there) in NS&I Premium Bonds with a local "buffer" pot of £1k just sat in my bank account to cover the few days it'd take to get money out of NS&I - I also have a credit card that I could use should the emergency be bigger than that.

As for savings, I've budgeted quite heavily for when me and partner finally (if ever) get into our new house, but living with her parents for the past few months mean I'm debt-free for basically the first time in my life. I have a good few thousand in various pots in my bank account, including a 2-month emergency fund which is growing, a smaller general savings pot, as well as segregated areas (or Spaces in Starling parlance) which I use for monthly direct debits to come out of, as well as an "Annual" space which I contribute monthly to enabling me to pay for yearly things (annual rail ticket, car insurance etc) without getting penalised for direct debits etc.

Once we're in the house, I've got a self-imposed "red line" that 25% (so this'll be about £550/month right now) of income will go into savings of some variety. The emergency fund will contributed to heavily at first, and then look at getting investing in a S&S ISA, likely just the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80/100 to get started.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

there will always be someone richer than you imo. If you're happy where you are personally and if you're getting richer, earning more, progressing through your career and in general just bettering yourself slowly then that's all that matters. I know some 19yos who drive lambos and have no concept of house deposits or savings.

I think they'll all be in for a shock when the status quo of supercars depreciating returns

 

[Haggisman]

I put a chunk in my private pension every month, and a chunk in my S&S ISA which is my general savings/slush fund.

Being a middle-aged professional couple living out of London and having no kids (and working from home, so no commuting) is bloody great for the finances. Can definitely recommend the no kids bit.

Sounds about right, we were saving until a couple of years ago, unfortunately now childcare is basically eating up all of the money we were previously putting away - however this time next year our youngest will be eligible for 30hrs/week free childcare which will free up a nice chunk again!

 

[Feek]

buffer

That’s reminded me. In addition to my post above I have a pot that’s called Buffer and the associated picture is a railway buffer!

When I get paid, I sort my bill payments into a bills pot and the rest goes into a ‘reserve’ pot which I transfer out of throughout the month for spending money. At the end of the month, anything left in the reserve pot gets moved to the buffer pot. Some months it can be a few hundred quid, sometimes nothing. The idea is that it becomes a buffer that I can build up and never touch it except in a real emergency (such as being made redundant). I’ve only been doing that for a few months so there’s not much in it.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I save a bit each month on the day I get paid. An unexpected issue with the car drained the emergency savings last year, so trying to build that back up slowly.

We also have money going into the joint savings account and the kids savings accounts each month. Not a lot, but enough to keep those accounts building up.

 

[AndyCr15]

I do now but it’s not a lot.

...snip...

I like the idea of it, but as someone that tracks every single transaction on my accounts, all of those would drive me nuts! I did have £25 a week to my ISA and £100 on payday, which will give a similar result, but easier to set up and work around in MS Money!

Yes. Ever since my 19th Birthday and I realised I had nothing to show for the past year of working. My long term goal is to buy myself a few more years of retirement, I can't be working until 68 (or 70 by the time I get there!)

I wish I'd thought more about it when I was young. If I had, I could maybe even have retired this year when redundancy was an option. Mind you, I now get torn between the idea of retiring as soon as possible and just enjoying my life now, while I really can. I wonder how mobile I might be by the time I get to 65+

Someone mentioned overpaying the mortgage. Having a play with this calculator, I don't really get it. I threw in some numbers - £200k left over 15 years, paying £1,100 a month. One off overpayment of £40k and it says "Overpaying would save you £-695 in interest alone"? For one, that's a double negative and saying I would pay more? Secondly, only £695?!?! Investing £40k would get me a lot more than that over 15 years... lastly, it says I would pay off about 3 years early, well that's simply £40k's worth of repayments? Is the calculator just bad?

 

[dan958]

I put money into my savings each month. I don't earn a lot, but I also live quite a simple life in regards to spending.

I have a few months of wages in an emergency fund. I also pay into a bills fund for any maintenance charges for my flat, and into a fun fund (which recently took a dip due to new PC components)

 

[robj20]

20% goes into my pensions.
Then £100 each into 2 children's ISAs.
£500 into my savings.

Then after bills I do what I like with the left overs.

 

[Worthy]

inb4 OcUK rich bois come out and flex / humble brag.

Currently only putting a small amount into savings. Used to be a healthy amount until we recently took the plunge to open a salon which short term has nuked disposable income.

You're hardly on the breadline mate and the salon looks ace!

 

[fobose]

I have been saving all my working life (21 years this year). From £83.33 a month to £750 a month and back down again. It all adds up.

You never know what is around the corner, that amount you've saved might be just what you need in the future if a job change/promotion happens and changes your financial situation.

 

[LiE]

You're hardly on the breadline mate and the salon looks ace!

Thanks

Oh yea don't get me wrong, we aren't in a bad place, but my wage is carrying us at the moment. Wife has taken a huge pay cut as her wage is covering a lot of the running costs of the salon.

 

[413x]

I save every month.
I've started a 200ppm instant access cash savings account just for holiday fund.
Then save a fair few hundred (500+?) ish a month to invest in various schemes. (not doing so well at the moment)

For example having to remortgage and pay the penalty fee is what I'm using a current chunk for.

It would make me anxious to not have a safety net where I could last 6 months if needed

Student loan got paid off too this month so that's 180 that will be absorbed basically into cost of living.

Partner saves a bit too. But much less.


We can only save


No kids so apart from buying one)(hopefully) more house it's saving for savings sake for later years I guess state pension will be poop

 

[Raikiri]

Since starting a new job I've been trying to put away £200 a month for emergencies, just started doing another £25 a month into NS&I bonds and I also pay about 4% into a private pension, which I suppose counts. I also have about £1k in stocks but not adding to that with the market being all over the place.

The cost of living is high here though, it would be a real struggle to save much more than that.

 

[Feek]

Plus roundups go into a savings pot

I’ve just looked and in three years, I’ve accumulated around £700 in roundups. It’s little things like that which really add up and you genuinely don’t notice them at all. Every time I buy something using my debit card, the difference between what I spend and the next pound is moved into a pot. So if I pay £3.20 for something, 80p goes into the pot.

 

[ObSene]

How do you mentally deal with the risk of having your emergency fund in a S&S ISA where (presumably) there's a good chance that money gets eroded as markets fall? I know long term it balances out to generally be up, but shorter term it's harder to deal with volitility. I'm considering having my emergency fund (of a few months' salary once I get there) in NS&I Premium Bonds with a local "buffer" pot of £1k just sat in my bank account to cover the few days it'd take to get money out of NS&I - I also have a credit card that I could use should the emergency be bigger than that.

As for savings, I've budgeted quite heavily for when me and partner finally (if ever) get into our new house, but living with her parents for the past few months mean I'm debt-free for basically the first time in my life. I have a good few thousand in various pots in my bank account, including a 2-month emergency fund which is growing, a smaller general savings pot, as well as segregated areas (or Spaces in Starling parlance) which I use for monthly direct debits to come out of, as well as an "Annual" space which I contribute monthly to enabling me to pay for yearly things (annual rail ticket, car insurance etc) without getting penalised for direct debits etc.

Once we're in the house, I've got a self-imposed "red line" that 25% (so this'll be about £550/month right now) of income will go into savings of some variety. The emergency fund will contributed to heavily at first, and then look at getting investing in a S&S ISA, likely just the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80/100 to get started.

It all depends on your appetite for risk, my ISA is not doing too good at the moment, but I know I probably won’t need that cash in the near to medium term as we're not over leveraged. If one of us was to lose our job, we could run the house for a couple of months without going into savings. If we need to access savings, the money in premium bonds would get hit first.


With the money in the ISA, I try and use it to make more money by reinvesting the profits into more shares.

I think the key is not to over leverage yourself on mortgage, cars and other debts.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I’ve just looked and in three years, I’ve accumulated around £700 in roundups. It’s little things like that which really add up and you genuinely don’t notice them at all. Every time I buy something using my debit card, the difference between what I spend and the next pound is moved into a pot. So if I pay £3.20 for something, 80p goes into the pot.

You should grab a Chase account if you haven't already. They have 1% cashback on purchases for 12 months - okay, not that great - but they also have 5% interest on roundups.

They also have an unlimited savings account at 1.5%.