It’s no secret that most of us are broke. On a typical day, I’ll have toast for breakfast (even though my bread is at that I’m-Stale-Throw-Me-Away stage), a Pot Noodle for lunch and pasta with Tesco Basic sauce for dinner. It tastes worse than it sounds.
Having no money is depressing AF. But what makes it worse is those weekly calls from your mother telling you to set up a savings account. It’s not that we don’t want to save, it’s just not logistically possible. Sometimes we will try to make cutbacks. We will buy Iceland's £4 own-brand Rosé that tastes like sweat and our makeup exclusively from Savers. All to no avail. Student loan repayments, rent, bills and little luxuries like food all come out of our paycheck. So what does that leave us with? Big. Fat. Zero.
I thought that was pretty well understood, but apparently not. A money expert by the name of Kelly Smith has told ATTN that you ought to have six months of living expenses saved up by the time you’re 30. Yep, that’s a lot of money.
According to the Office for National Statistics the average household spends £531 a week. Their most up to date figures are from 2013, so you can pretty much guarantee that this has gone up. If you have average outgoings that means you need to save £12,744 to cover six months worth of basic living expenses. That's rather a lot isn't it? In a word, yes. Especially when you consider that the average salary in the UK is £26, 500 which, after tax, comes in at £1,697 a month, after tax. Living costs are rising while wages remain low. As more and more people live hand to mouth month on month the prospect of saving six months worth of living expenses feels daunting.
I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say I’d love a nest egg like this in the bank. I'd have business cards printed with the titles 'High Flyer / Minted / Baller ' and then hand them out at family gatherings. Plus, it would be great if Future Me had enough money for a house deposit, understood her pension plan and made her parents proud with sensible spending habits.
I just can’t see that happening.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.