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Saving for a rainy day. It’s been one of Britain’s Top Ten Mantra’s for many decades, but how is that working for people in 2022?
According to Lumio’s yourMoney website, the average total savings by UK age group in 2020 was as follows:
- 18-24: £2,481.16
- 25-34: £3,544.16
- 35-44: £5,995.92
- 40-54: £11,013.99
- 55 and over: £20,028.60
To anyone’s eyes, those figures are more than alarming.
In times past, saving for a rainy day really meant saving for retirement, but as the concept of SAVINGS started to take on a wider remit within society and be pushed by the banks and government, saving took on a whole new set of parameters to cover many needs and situations – i.e. weddings, anniversaries, once-in-a-lifetime vacations, moving home, uni fees, as well as emergencies and, heaven forbid, financial catastrophe.
Well, such a financial catastrophe of course emanated like a tsunami two years ago, throwing many households and individuals into financial peril, with many having to rely on any, or all, the savings they had, as well as revert to extra credit card spending.
But another stat from five years ago is even more eye-popping. It reveals that around 6.5 million adults in the UK had NO cash savings whatsoever.
The Lumio data goes on to reveal that, on average, low-income families in the UK had just £95 in savings, while high-income families had an average of £62,885 in savings. That gap has become even wider during the pandemic.
Lumio goes on to calculate that an individual wishing to live on a £19,000 a year pension would need to save around £7,300 every year and hit retirement with at least £266,000 in savings.
Therefore, Lumio posits, the average savings by age should be £51,434 at the age of 30, going up to £124,911 by the age of 40 and £198,390 by the age of 50.
Their conclusion?
“The average Brit is some way away from the expected savings and needs to save a lot more to reach the recommended levels of savings in the UK.”
Wow. They are some high numbers and most likely highly unachievable.
So. How can one save?
At the very basest level, The Daily Express has some very handy tips such as the loose change jar, piggy banks and shopping discounts/promotions.
Piggy banks? Shopping discounts and promotions? Really?
While the Big Banks, such as HSBC, have their own strategies for “rainy day savings” which is all pretty common sense stuff involving a few quid here and there.
That’s all well and good when you have to make ends meet, pay the rent/mortgage and put food on the table; saving ANY amount can be all you can do.
The point is, are people relying too much on this “old school” approach and narrative? Have they got too used to it because they are told this is the way to do it? It’s all they are used to seeing in the press and on TV and from their banking apps and brochures.
It’s social conditioning.
Thing is – the days of MAKING money on your savings are pretty much over when you get such paltry returns. But SAVING money is still pushed by the banks and government because it makes money for them.
What about Premium Bonds and National Savings and others of that kind, you may ask? Sure, they may offer more in rewards, but essentially, they are still savings.
Then we have ISA’s and even ISA Stocks & Shares. Again, Lumio has found that in 2020 approximately 15% of UK citizens had a cash ISA, while roughly 2.2 million people had a stocks and shares ISA (about 3% of the population).
“What this tells us,” Lumio concludes, “is that very few people are able to save money each month, and even fewer people are able to invest it.”
That’s quite a shocker. But why is this? Why are very few people able to save money each month, and even fewer people able to invest it? Is it simply lack of spare funds?
Or is there something deeper going on?
Maybe, really, it’s all about attitude. Mindset. Because let’s be honest, it is extremely difficult to choose your best investment option if you are relying on advice from a third-party financial advisor or if you are scouring the internet for the best deal with a broker or agency.
There is an awful lot to consider, and even learn, if you know nothing at all about it. You are basically having to TRUST someone else, a supposed expert, who tells you repeatedly, they have your best interest at heart.
But at the end of the day, you are the one who is handing your money over to that third person to hopefully invest that money for you wisely.
You really have no idea where it is going or what it is being invested into.
The point?
You are not in control.
Is your money helping to fund terrorists or arms dealers or some despot in a Third World country? How do you really know?
Sure, they have tightened up on that now, made investments more “transparent” but as the recent Panama Papers prove – you just cannot trust the status quo!
So where does that leave us?
Well how about we start taking control of our own money? Knowing where it is and exactly what it is doing. Making more money with it – for ourselves!
It is happening. Things are changing. There has been a great surge in the number of people seeking to achieve financial independence, to be in control of their money and use it to create new wealth.
Many thousands are now learning, studying, taking training to become their own stocks and crypto investment trader.
They are learning that money is a tool to a better way of life.
They are “ordinary” folk from all walks of everyday life, but they are doing extraordinary things for themselves in becoming investment traders.
And they are doing it because they KNOW it can be done. They have seen the evidence, the real-life testimonials, working people or those in retirement, using online tools to make their own investments, from home, using their knowledge gained, skills and strategies learned.
Even families are doing it together!
They are proving it can be done. Is being done.
Maybe it’s time for you to do the same?
