How much savings do you have and what age are you?

lainey_d_123

Bradley Wide Snotty wrote: »

Everyone’s situation is different that’s not up for debate but where should we draw the line on who can say they have savings. Live at home: invalid, cheap rent:invalid, inheritance: invalid, redundancy: invalid, well paid job: invalid and so on. Basically only people who meet a very strict criteria are entitled to give their savings number and any other persons numbers “don’t add up”.

Would make for a fairly pointless thread. People were asked to give their age and savings we will get a very varied response from people in different situations but they are all equally valid.

It's invalid if those people are pretending it's all down to their own hard work, which a lot of people do. Age, salary and whether you go to Starbucks or not is totally irrelevant if you've inherited the family farm or lived at home rent free for a decade on a 70k salary.

No problem with people explaining and being honest about how they saved so much.

timple23

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

sKeith

timple23 wrote: »

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

If you have a healthy bank balance, then I wouldn't think so.
Show money going into your account and a history of savings is whats needed.
Then show that your income can easily cover the mortgage after all your outgoings have been serviced.
Unfinished loans and any missed payments for loans will be looked at.
Payments to bookies websites will be scurtinized too.

Andrewf20

timple23 wrote: »

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

I don't think it's an issue. Regular savings and evidence of good money management are important.

antimatterx

timple23 wrote: »

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

Credit history isn't as important here as it is in the states. I ordered a credit card last year, just so I have some credit history when I go for a mortgage in a few years. I make sure to pay it off in full every month. I really don't think it will matter that much when the time comes.

Jim2007

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

It makes the comparison invalid. People are feeling really bad about themselves because they can't work out why other people have saved so much more. In the vast majority of those cases, it's probably those other people have had substantial financial help, usually from parents.

People are very slow to admit their good fortune, and very quick to make out that they've been good with money. If you have a full time job and live at home, it's not even a sacrifice to put 1000+ euro away every month. You can do that and still have money for going out, holidays, etc. Try putting away 1000 euros a month when you're paying Dublin rent, bills, food and transport costs.

The truth is that a lot of people, especially under 30, are doing well to save anything at all if they have an average salary and average living costs.

People or just you???

People's circumstances are different and it does impact one's ability to save, but it is also very easy to come up with excuses as to why you can't save and why others can as you have suggested.

I don't know a single person that received a substantial inheritance of serious financial support from their parents, but I do know sever people who have build up substantial savings by hard work and frugal living.

lainey_d_123

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

It's invalid if those people are pretending it's all down to their own hard work, which a lot of people do. Age, salary and whether you go to Starbucks or not is totally irrelevant if you've inherited the family farm or lived at home rent free for a decade on a 70k salary.

No problem with people explaining and being honest about how they saved so much.

I don’t see people pretending either way they are simply stating their age and current savings with some giving some stories etc.

There are people who find it harder to save than others but in many cases it’s by choice. You will see people say they couldn’t wait to get out the door at 18 and think they are great because they have “paid their own way”. Many could have stayed at home until their mid to late 20’s while working, paid little or no rent and saved while still enjoying life but instead they decided to move out and pay though the nose for rent etc. They then look down on those who live at home while at the same time begrudging their savings. Similar for people gifted or inheriting money for sites or assets etc.

There is no prizes or your savings aren’t worth more because you managed to save them up while renting vs living at home etc.

Obviously there are people who don’t have the choice but to move out, pay expensive rent and I’m not in anyway making light of this but there are plenty also fitting the above profile.

Regardsgreen

24 years old. Have €23,000 saved but still have to pay back some of the loan for my Engineering masters. Saving 1400 per month at the moment. Working from home and living with parents. I give them 400 a month and also do some shopping for them quite a bit.

Geuze

timple23 wrote: »

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

No, as long as you have a proven record of regular saving, and/or paying regular rent.

User9thousand

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

It makes the comparison invalid. People are feeling really bad about themselves because they can't work out why other people have saved so much more. In the vast majority of those cases, it's probably those other people have had substantial financial help, usually from parents.

People are very slow to admit their good fortune, and very quick to make out that they've been good with money. If you have a full time job and live at home, it's not even a sacrifice to put 1000+ euro away every month. You can do that and still have money for going out, holidays, etc. Try putting away 1000 euros a month when you're paying Dublin rent, bills, food and transport costs.

The truth is that a lot of people, especially under 30, are doing well to save anything at all if they have an average salary and average living costs.

Don’t have to live at home. You’d have even more saved if so. You could get paid 30k in Dublin for 4 years and share a house and still have 30k at 30.

Income would be 2k
Save 600 each month.

1400 left to spend a month.
600 in rent, 250 on food, 100 on transport, 20 on phone bill, 40 on other bills, 20 on Spotify and Netflix.

That leaves 370 in a month for hobbies.
Spend 140 on pints, 80 on a football match or something, 30 on a takeaway. Then if you are happy with that leave the balance of 170 for a holiday. If you did that for 4 months the 170 balance becomes 680 for a holiday! Cheap flights to Europe. You’d have a few holidays out of 680.

And you still have been saving 600 a month. And not going near it.

Now some will say the above example of only drinking alcohol worth 140 in a month is terrible. And one takeaway! The horror. Sure you’re not living at all. And what about the coffee from the patrol station everyday. Take that from your other 170 in the month if you want. Less money for the holiday though. But even if you spent 70 a month in coffee that still leaves 100 a month for the holiday fund. So you’re not being denied a break!

This is just a hypothetical example of a person who could rent in Dublin in a low salary. Still do stuff still go on holidays. And still have 30k at 30.

Think the people that get to 30 with no money may have car insurance or exams fees that their employer doesn’t cover. Maybe parents didn’t cover help out with university and they have loans to pay. But if they finished college debt free. Above example would be relevant to people finishing college debt free. But if they smoke. Or drink a lot. Rent a one bed apartment alone. Work minimum wage for 10 years and decided they wanted to see China, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, US road trip etc. with a low salary. Sure they could do that but don’t expect to have anything saved after.

But maybe the cheap holiday to Europe using the 170 saved per month for holidays is not fulfilling enough? Of course they could still do one or two of the big holiday above and spend 5k on them from their savings account. Still have 25k at 30k though assuming they were earning 30k between 26 and 30.

A lot of people just spend a lot monthly on coffees and protein bars and multiple takeaways and pints on a Thursday Friday and a Saturday. And then wonder why they can’t gave any savings. Sure the only people that have savings are those living at home or earning 60k a year! People earning less can have good savings too. Sure they can’t spend as much but doesn’t mean they just sit at home counting the money!

Say you have two 30 year olds. One has 50k at 30 And the other with 10k thinks that’s amazing. But sure the person with 50k will have that wiped soon enough buying a house or apartment. Won’t be hoarding it for the grave.they just thought more carefully in their 20’s about their near future. They still went on holidays though. Seen things and did things. Instead of thinking feck the begrudgers I’m gonna spend my money on all I want cause I might die next year.

Just applying this to the people who got a job after college with no debt and blow every cent of money on things they want and don’t think of saving. Sure why Would I do that!

PommieBast

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

Seems like a different world now to how it was when I graduated. I have only been able to save 500-1000 a month since I was 33, and then only because I flatshared, with all the lifestyle sacrifice and strain that comes with sharing with randomers in your thirties.

In more recent years I felt there were only two times I really saved a lot of money: The first was during a secondment to China when I was on expenses, and the second was due to a severance payout.

GoldenSlumbers

Deleted User wrote: »

At 26 I was doing well to have anything saved.

Below is my situation, based on real-life, written out twice. Both these describe me at the moment:

1) I'm 32 in two weeks. I have my house nearly paid off (less than 40k to go to clear the mortgage) have about 10k in savings and work a relatively well paid job.


2) I'm 32 in two weeks. I have nearly paid off my house, but it's in a siht-hole area, so I'm hoping to clear the mortgage as soon as possible so i can try and save aggressively to buy a derelict rural house that I can do up and move to. I bought my house off the council so got a discount on the market rate. I've about 10k saved, but I can't access it as it's held as security against the mortgage along with the house (credit union). I have no formal education and contract for a company who pay me well, but the job could disappear overnight.


In 1) i sound like I'm on top of the world. In 2) I sounds like I'm about 15 years behind where I 'could' be, and it acknowledges the luck I've had with getting a cheaper house, and how ultimately it's not a great area so i want to move away, making it an expensive, but not entirely beneficial, purchase.

It's easy to make your situation sound a lot better than it is. I imagine there's lots of that going on in this thread.

I so appreciate this post. It made me chuckle.

GoldenSlumbers

Regardsgreen wrote: »

24 years old. Have €23,000 saved but still have to pay back some of the loan for my Engineering masters. Saving 1400 per month at the moment. Working from home and living with parents. I give them 400 a month and also do some shopping for them quite a bit.

Fair play!! Good on you

GoldenSlumbers

SusieBlue wrote: »

Ideally I’d prefer to meet someone & buy a property together, even if he wasn’t a high earner it would be a lot lot more doable and less pressure on two incomes.
But I suppose I can’t wait for that to happen and I need to start putting a dent in it now just in case it doesn’t come to be.

I’m stuck in the middle really, while my wage is low enough to qualify for social housing, I’d be extremely low on the list of priority because I don’t have kids yet.
But then on the other hand, the 3.5 lending rule means it’s going to be very difficult for me to buy alone.
So my options are to stay at home, save, and pray I meet someone to jointly apply with or spend the rest of my life blowing the majority of my income on rent.

I wish there was a middle option for people like me. If long term renting for a reasonable price was available I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I so agree with you. I've been looking at ways in which I can ever own my own place to escape the rental market. Tired of sharing the house with so many housemates in exchange for semi-cheap rent (550). Have even been looking at mobile homes as an option, but there's no real mobile home sites to buy/rent at near Dublin. Pff.

GoldenSlumbers

Better Than Christ wrote: »

A modest amount - combination of inheritance and general savings. I recently made a major sacrifice with regard to my living arrangements, which means I'm now spending 20% of my income on rent and bills (it was more than 60% before). I don't drink or smoke, I live quite frugally and I do a lot of overtime, so I'm currently able to put away at least 60% of my income every month. Ideally, I'd like to be in a position to buy a home without requiring much of a mortgage in maybe four or five years, or whenever the next major crash happens.

Oh, and I'm 38¼

Are you single! Give me your number? :P haha

vikings2012

Unfortunately this is the reality for some.

vmb

vikings2012 wrote: »

Unfortunately this is the reality for some.

That's the very reason I chose to finish the mortgage before turning 40. No fancy cars, limited holidays etc

Now I've sold the house and will have to buy another, but once that is done all my income will be available for whatever I wish. I will save some (I have not started a pension fund yet at 35), but apart of that... freedom!

Josuke

[Deleted User] wrote: »

At 26 I was doing well to have anything saved.

Below is my situation, based on real-life, written out twice. Both these describe me at the moment:

1) I'm 32 in two weeks. I have my house nearly paid off (less than 40k to go to clear the mortgage) have about 10k in savings and work a relatively well paid job.


2) I'm 32 in two weeks. I have nearly paid off my house, but it's in a siht-hole area, so I'm hoping to clear the mortgage as soon as possible so i can try and save aggressively to buy a derelict rural house that I can do up and move to. I bought my house off the council so got a discount on the market rate. I've about 10k saved, but I can't access it as it's held as security against the mortgage along with the house (credit union). I have no formal education and contract for a company who pay me well, but the job could disappear overnight.


In 1) i sound like I'm on top of the world. In 2) I sounds like I'm about 15 years behind where I 'could' be, and it acknowledges the luck I've had with getting a cheaper house, and how ultimately it's not a great area so i want to move away, making it an expensive, but not entirely beneficial, purchase.

It's easy to make your situation sound a lot better than it is. I imagine there's lots of that going on in this thread.

Thanks very much for this, you raise a very good point. Making comparisons with people on here, friends and relatives often leaves me feeling down but I never really thought of it like that

steve_irl

37 / wife is 39

currently have 49k in demand deposit account

30k of that is for rainy day (year of mortgage payments & 1000 p/m cash if needed)

around 200k in pensions between us (we were late starters)

20k in shares

starting a investment savings account with zurich and going to stick children's allowance we have accumulated since kids came along (approx 6k) & top up (560 p/m) - aim will be to leave this running for next 10ish years

trying to save 2500 per month (aim is to pay around 30k per year off the mortgage balance (still owe just over 300k)

creche fees hit us for over 2k per month so were saving a good bit extra at the moment juggling work and 2 kids at home

we consider ourselves very lucky to be in the position we are in would probably be a bit further ahead if we didn't blow our first house deposit getting married

Kerry25x

31. Have about 18k in savings between me and my husband. We have a small mortgage (about 8% of our combined net income monthly) and no kids. To me that's a lot of money, more than we've had in the savings account since we were saving for our mortgage deposit.

We love to socialise, love eating out and going for nice cocktails. We're always out doing something (in the pre-covid days). We spend a lot on travelling too - probably 10-15k a year at least.

I don't stress about how much is in the bank once we're not spending more than we earn but we do normally save close to 2.5k a month, more like 4k a month at the moment. Mostly gets fittered away on holidays to far flung tropical destinations then though, you're only young once right?

c.p.w.g.w

Kerry25x wrote: »

31. Have about 18k in savings between me and my husband. We have a small mortgage (about 8% of our combined net income) and no kids. To me that's a lot of money, more than we've had in the savings account since we were saving for our mortgage deposit.

We love to socialise, love eating out and going for nice cocktails. We're always out doing something (in the pre-covid days). We spend a lot on travelling too - probably 10-15k a year at least.

I don't stress about how much is in the bank once we're not spending more than we earn but we do normally save close to 2.5k a month, more like 4k a month at the moment. Mostly gets fittered away on holidays to far flung tropical destinations then though, you're only young once right?

May I ask, when you were going up did you or your husband every witness money stresses from your parents? Obviously tell me to fcuk off if your not comfortable answering...

I only ask because I witnessed my parents struggle monumentally with bills & money. They tried to hind it, but I'm someone if I over hear something I remember it. But my parents provided everything without question, it got to the stage were I said I wasn't interested in X and Y because I knew they were expensive, I even paid for part my own pres from money I made on the side...my parents didn't know.

I think this has made be very aware of having a safety net financially, and why I will typically analysis any big purchase I intend to make

Kerry25x

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

May I ask, when you were going up did you or your husband every witness money stresses from your parents? Obviously tell me to fcuk off if your not comfortable answering...

My parents have always been very frugal, I wouldn't say I was ever aware of them really struggling or stressing but we were never well off and they are very careful with money, they buy almost everything secondhand and never eat out. They've both managed to retire early now, sold our family home and downsized.

I think we do have a safety net though, although we like to go out and travel a lot we do still save. We bought an small older city house when house prices were low and we're paying about €1000 a month less on housing than most of our friends (they have much nicer houses but that's not important to me) so I think that gives us a bit more leeway to spend on things we enjoy.

Frank12

I’m 24 with 22k in savings. I was lucky to inherit a house worth circa 220 k when I was 22, mortgage free and i am currently renting it out for 780 a month. Currently employed on a salary of 45 k. I have approx 6k paid into a pension. 2 years ago I bought a car for 43k and currently have 14k left to pay off , my only bill , I loved it at the time I was young but now I realised it’s a good way to burn money... Still live at home and emigrating to Oz for a year when the borders reopen.

Sheep_shear

I live in the UK, have gotten married and bought our first house in the past two years so it's been a financial rollercoster!

I'm 34. Right now we have enough cash in a ready access saver to cover a year of mortgage and bills. We have the equivalent of a month of both of our salaries in Premium bonds, I have a small standing order over the years which satisifies my gambling dreams! There's another account which we tip a bit inot each month to cover annual known expenses (car insurance etc.). Aside from that every penny we get goes into pensions, and stocks and shares ISA (a tax free scheme to encourage investments/savings). We're planning on having kids in the near future so a lot of this will be completely turned upside down!

Pman1000

31. Cash saving £150k. Pensions £100k. Shares and funds £50k. Only really saving the last 3 years though given graduate studies.

Patd6

35. Partner and 2 young kids. We have a home with mortgage (300k market value with 195k yet to pay). No savings. No pension. I have a shared inheritance with 2 family members of a country house and a large portion of land. Expected net value to me there would be 50k-100k

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Pman1000 wrote: »

31. Cash saving £150k. Pensions £100k. Shares and funds £50k. Only really saving the last 3 years though given graduate studies.

3 years savings and that much saved! Woah. How did you manage that!? Very impressive.

Pman1000

MattS1 wrote: »

3 years savings and that much saved! Woah. How did you manage that!? Very impressive.

Two good job moves and a good bonus. To be fair the pensions savings were a result of good Sponsor contributions on D.C. pension - that has had to stop this year as no longer tax efficient so get cash equivalent. Then the shares and Funds are deferred Compensation. Get a job with a bonus - only way to save!!!

c.p.w.g.w

timple23 wrote: »

A small bit off-topic, but as someone who always saved for something before buying it, will I be at a disadvantage when going for a mortgage as I would have no credit history?

A certain Bank told my misses that the it is essential to have evidence of a loan with a bank, NOT a Credit Union...

So she got her car loan with them(ended up costing her €900 more with the Bank)...

This was before we met

When we went for a joint mortgage we ask in numerous banks about the above, and all said it was a load of rubbish...and all took a guess at the Bank in question are got in 1...This was only 7 years ago, so maybe things have changed in that bank

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Pman1000 wrote: »

Two good job moves and a good bonus. To be fair the pensions savings were a result of good Sponsor contributions on D.C. pension - that has had to stop this year as no longer tax efficient so get cash equivalent. Then the shares and Funds are deferred Compensation. Get a job with a bonus - only way to save!!!

Fair play! Do you work in sales/finance?