Are you a spender or a natural Scrooge? Are you saving enough or are you going to struggle in later years?
It can be hard to know how your financial situation compares to that of your peers. Add to this the cost of living crisis, it can feel difficult to bring up the topic of savings, or the topic of money as a whole.
What if you make somebody else feel bad. What if you feel bad? It can be easier just not to talk about it.
Luckily, the experts at Finder have done the investigating for us so you don’t have to have any awkward conversations (though maybe we all should be talking more!).
They’ve worked out the UK median savings for different age brackets, but remember that in all the categories there are a percentage of adults who have absolutely no savings at all – and, for most, it’s an extremely difficult time to even think about saving right now.
The data shows almost half of UK adults (46%) have £1,000 or less in savings, with 25% having less than £200 saved.
With your lifestyle changing as quickly as the British weather, saving money can be difficult, if not impossible.
At this age, it’s hard to demand high wages, and with the job market increasingly shaky, if you’re managing to keep up with the new world of bills, jobs, perhaps university, and a social life, you’re probably doing just fine.
Your late 20s and early 30s are a strange time – some of your friends might have kids, some are still figuring out what career they’d like (and some are doing both).
It can feel a bit like you’re floundering between life stages. You’re meant to be a proper adult now, right? Or are you meant to be enjoying your youth?
The usual milestones of promotions and buying your own place sometimes feel far, far out of reach.
In terms of savings, this age bracket hasn’t changed all that much from the 18-24 bracket, and we can guess that the little extra might come from the barrage of stag and hen parties you now have to fund.
Maybe you’ve moved up the career ladder a rung, or that business you started to work on in your 20s is finally seeing the light of day, but savings in this age group have jumped up.
We’re now at a median average savings of £5,714. Perhaps you’re also starting to use the phrase ‘saving for a rainy day’ in earnest.
In the next age bracket, we see a rapid increase in savings with the median pot now sitting at just under £10,000.
With age comes wisdom, apparently, and maybe you have discovered the best way to budget for you.
You may have figured out the things worth spending money on to enjoy life or you’ve managed to reach a peak in your career and have more to save.
Whatever the reason, with this being a time you’re quite likely to end up with dependents counting on you (whether that’s your parents, children or others), it’s a good thing many have these savings to help out.
People aged 55-73 are more likely to own homes and have a plan to save for retirement – therefore it makes sense that they would tend to have significantly more savings than younger generations do.
Between these ages, when you may be anywhere from thinking about retirement to fully retired, the median average savings is £18,245.
The final category and the biggest amount of savings we’ve seen. Is this why some nans always slip you a tenner on your way out?
There’s no escaping the fact that saving money is important, if you can, but it may also be reassuring to know that huge amounts of savings isn’t everyone’s reality.
Good news though, gender doesn’t seem to have as noticeable an impact on savings as it does wages; overall, men have an average of £11,805 in savings and it’s £10,563 for women.
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2024-09-06T11:57:24Z dg43tfdfdgfd