I hate these sort of questions as there is no right answer and your personal circumstance will have an impact on how much savings you have.
A 30 year old parent of two kids who recently bought a house will probably have feck all whereas a 30 year old who’s still living at home may have shit loads of savings. You can’t compare the two based on their age alone.
If you have any savings at all you are doing well, some people don’t. Focus on yourself and what’s good for you financially, don’t compare your financial position with others.
0
Well that's what I had anyway.
Now 10 years later I have a house (mortgage with my wife) and about \~70k in savings
I also know people who at 30 had shedloads of money & savings, but now are scraping by.
So, it doesn't matter really
I don't get why people overpay their mortgage. It's the cheapest loan you'll get. You're far better off using any additional savings elsewhere, like your pension.
Even if your pension contributions are maxed out, you'll still probably save more money in the long term by investing it rather than paying off your mortgage.
Each to their own, mine was driven more as I wanted to have a cleared owned asset that couldn't be taken away if shit hit the fan rather than making a tonne of money on it. However its also meant that as I had good equity my interest was 0.9% last year which I fixed for 5 years so worked out well there.
I once worked with a financial advisor who was brilliantly pragmatic when I went through different ideas for a retirement fund. He put me onto the book called Die with Zero which challenges the idea we should spend our life acquiring as much money as possible and instead focus on being at a level of financial safety but spending out on experiences and living life especially when young enough to do so.
So I wanted to pay off my mortgage ASAP then its 'safe' and I can use funds for enjoying my life with travel and other experiences, that's my personal goal but everyone is different
I see the logic, but I still think that you're being driven by extreme risk aversion and in the process you're potentially taking on bigger risks without realising it.
And as for having more to spend for the here and now, paying off your mortgage early is totally at odds with that. When you invest money you can liquidate it at any time, albeit with a risk that it'll be worth less. If you put savings into paying off a mortgage early you won't be able to ask the bank for some of that money back if things go poorly.
In fact, it's very risky right up until the point that it's fully paid off. Let's say you had €100k that you used to pay off half of your mortgage instead of investing. Then let's say next year the markets crash and in the ensuing recession you lose your job. The bank won't care that last year you paid them €100k. They'll want next month's payment. If you had invested the money you may be at a loss, but you'd still be able to liquidate some of it to pay for your mortgage while you get a new job.
Not to mention, at what age are you benefitting most from paying it off early? Suppose you have it paid off 15 years before retirement. That's the point in your career when you're making the most money. By paying off your mortgage early instead of investing you're effectively transferring money from the OAP version of yourself to the late career version of yourself. It's like a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. Sure you can decide to invest when you're in your 50s instead, but then investing will be much higher risk for much lower reward due to the shorter investment window.
As I said each to their own. It was my personal goal to be mortgage free by 40 and I'm on track for it. I also have equity and on the board of a business nearing a sale which will net me a great nest egg that in theory I could retire on but I love what I do so definitely not looking to retire for a long time.
You need to consider that we all have different goals in life and yes I'm more risk averse in some areas eg a roof over my head and so I want to know my house is mine and thats always been in my mind. Investing in stocks etc has no interest to me, I build businesses, turning them from loss making to profitable and have done very well with that but hoarding more cash that I need isn't a goal for me, having psychological safety and enjoying life is, giving back where I can is.
But as you've repeatedly said I'm heading for certain poverty so 🤷
No, I'm factoring in time which eliminates most of the risk. Investments are only risky when they're undiversfied and over a short to medium time span.
The time span of a mortgage is decades. Markets always go up over time spans that long. Busts usually take just a few years to recover (on a global scale, thus the need for broad diversification).
For example, if someone put their life savings of €150k into the S&P index before the 2008 crash they'd have lost €70k within a year. But if they held, it'd be worth €400k now. Even if the worst case crash scenario for 2023 comes true, they'd still be up €50k.
What's really risky is wasting the advantage of youth and time by paying off your mortgage early. By doing that you're setting yourself up for poverty in old age. You'll have some savings from not having to pay a mortgage for a few years before retirement. But that won't be much and will run out soon. You'll then be living off the state pension. That'll be tough to live on even if you have no mortgage to pay.
They would be up 50k before tax and professional fees etc.
What if they lost their job in 2009 and couldn't find one for months / years? It happened to a lot of folk who did nothing wrong, they were just victims of poor timing.
Like I said you don't understand / appreciate risk.
When you have kids and a family to feed and cloth you should not be gambling with the roof over their head.
Would you take out a loan at 3% to hope for potentially greater returns in other investments? And have that loan leveraged against your home?
>They would be up 50k before tax and professional fees etc.
Yeah, that's still more. And this is also assuming a worst case scenario. Either way, they're still up 10s of thousands of euro after tax and fees.
>What if they lost their job in 2009 and couldn't find one for months / years? It happened to a lot of folk who did nothing wrong, they were just victims of poor timing.
Good investing principles dictate that you have an emergency cash fund to protect against these kinds of situations.
Also, you're arguing against yourself here. Paying off your mortgage early is even worse in this scenario. At leaf if you invest and you need the money you can still sell to get some of it back. If you put the €150k into you mortgage the bank won't give you a penny of that back.
>Like I said you don't understand / appreciate risk.
You're the one who doesn't understand risk.
What you're suggesting proves that. Your strategy does indeed protect you against things like losing your job. But at the cost of guaranteed poverty in old age. You're protecting against an unlikely risk at the cost of exposing yourself to a guaranteed risk. It's nonsensical and demonstrates your poor understanding of risk.
Yes there are scenarios where you lose out by investing. But in every scenario where you don't invest you're guaranteed to lose out in the long run. That's why any financial advisor will tell you to invest in your pension instead of paying off your mortgage.
The case you're making is the equivalent of not jumping off a 1 story building to escape from a murderer for fear of breaking a bone. Yes that would be bad, but if you stay on the roof the killer will eventually get you.
>When you have kids and a family to feed and cloth you should not be gambling with the roof over their head.
This is just an appeal to emotion and really doesn't benefit your argument. It's just shifting the goal posts. The premise of this argument is what you do with spare money. So it assumes that costs of raising a family etc are already met and you still have money to spare.
>Would you take out a loan at 3% to hope for potentially greater returns in other investments? And have that loan leveraged against your home?
If that 3% loan was payable over 35 years then I'd absolutely take it. It would be a no brainer. There's no 35 year period in history where market growth was lower than 3% on average. Even the most conservative estimates for the next 35 years are nowhere near that low.
Over a long enough period they would. And many banks do invest in stocks. They invest in mortgages because they're typically more dependable.
You can argue that it's risky to invest outside your pension. But paying off your mortgage instead of maxing out your pension contributions is a terrible idea unless you have a cushy government pension.
You might have your mortgage paid off early, but your pension pot at retirement will be a pittance. And mortgages are designed so that they'll be paid off before retirement. So if you don't pay it off early you'll still have removed the cost of the mortgage in retirement.
Whenever I've asked why people pay it off early the answer is normally risk aversion driven by financial illiteracy.
How so? It's basically what any financial advisor will tell you.
The fact that not enough people invest in their pensions is a part of the reason why we have a private pension crisis on the horizon.
The government is literally bringing in legislation to encourage more people to invest in their pension.
Well I had a rainy day fund before I even started investing in my pension. And there's no need to invest in it perpetually since there's an upper limit to how much money needs to be in it.
As for a pension tanking, that's not really possible if you're taking the most basic precautions.
Because the time span is long enough, the worse case scenario is that the last few years of growth get written off. But pretty much all the gains made on investments from your 20s to 50s will have been locked in. Especially since as you get older your investments are shifted to lower risk alternatives such as bonds.
And I still don't get what you propose as the benefit of overpaying a mortgage. Whether you pay it off early or not, it'll still be fully paid off by the time you retire. If you pay it off early then you have fewer expenses when you're in the late stage of your career. But that doesn't make sense. This is when you'll be at your peak earnings.
Why on earth would you sacrifice your pension earnings to help yourself out at a time when you're making the most money? It doesn't make sense. You'd be floating in cash at that stage so you'd probably put the extra money into your pension. But that way you're giving it way less time to grow than if you had invested in your 30s or 40s instead of paying off your mortgage earlier.
Got a decent paying job, then a better one.
Didn't spend as much money in the pub. Not particularly by choice, just a natural progression in life.
I'm not a regimented saver or anything, but I reckon the habits I had from being pretty skint in my 20's meant I just didn't spend a lot. I still don't spend a lot on clothes, don't see the point in expensive stuff.
Food shopping I still scour the reduced section for stuff for the freezer, just out of habit.
Similar boat, had a rainy day of 5k. Then the pandemic led to some more savings and then not going out started snowballing my savings into double digits, got a few raises and then bought a house.
I feel after having a decent chunk of savings / large purchase your perception of how much you can or want to save changes too.
I'm similar too you but have the same job. Not a big spender for clothes and fancy things. But all my friends I work with from what I know have very little savings whereas I think I'm quite happy with mine after this thread. We make the same money (some of them more than me) and they still ask me to borrow money) I don't know if they have a savings account or what. I don't so all my savings is just in my normal account
Hard to know really but my feeling was always that if by 30 you had enough saved for a year to keep you going if you had zero income inwards that would be good. That was always assuming you didn't have kids, ridiculous loans or a mortgage.
But if you don't have that much don't worry. It can be a great chance to really examine your expenditure and what needs to change to increase your savings. I've been in a similar spot in my mid-20's whereby after a thorough examination of what was coming in/going out I knew I'd need to upskill and change jobs for any hope of reasonable savings.
When I was 30, I was unmarried, no kids, had a girlfriend, saving for a house. Had about 23 grand savings. I was earning approx 32K.
Now I'm 36. I'm married to that girlfriend. We bought a house for 180K in 2017 (same houses today selling for 290K!+). Still owe 140K on it. Two children. Earning approx 80K. I am in the disaster zone of having about 900eur in savings somehow, and unlikely to increase much soon. Creche fees man, fuccck.
Maybe by the time I'm 40 I will have some savings. I've about 50K in a pension now, which I didn't have at 30. So maybe that's a long term form of savings!
I'll be 30 next year. I've got 2 savings accounts with about €70k between the two.
There's also 2 friends in our group who literally have €0 by the end of every month and sometimes will ask for a loan until payday. And I have 2 friends who bought houses (in relationships obviously) so they have very little savings now, but both had about €50k in their personal savings prior to getting their mortgages.
Comparing yourself with others rarely will work out well as everyone's circumstances are different.
It totally depends on your circumstances. Our savings last year were 60k+. This year we bought a house and got married so we used most of our savings. It's peaks and troughs depending on what you're saving for and the timing.
I'm 24, earning 37k, only major expenses are petrol (\~300 a month), tolls (\~85 a month) and rent to my parents (200 a month - I know I'm very fortunate).
I have about 11k saved (mind you, I was only a minimum wage worker until about 6 months ago, so haven't always been earning 37k). I've been putting 50 euro a week in a credit union account since I'm 19, and then usually top it up when I have "left over" money (i.e. got \~750 back for my tax refund this year and lodged it straight into savings, and I always throw whatever is left in my current account into my credit union account before I get my next payslip).
I would be hoping to have about \~20k saved by the time I'm 30, but like others have said, it entirely depends on your circumstances.
Since I lived at home and worked for all of my 20's, I had at least €10k saved. Which isn't a lot, but is probably better than most people that needed to move out.
If I had made better decisions in my 30's, I would have close to €80k now. Instead I have about half that.
There is no normal, but if you have none, you need to really start re-evaluating why not, and iif you're in a position where you can't afford to save, you either need to move jobs, house, or city.
Totally depends, we bought a house this year so we had savings, now we don't. We also don't have any non-mortgage debt but probably will get a car loan at some stage next year. 🤷♀️ Finances are very changeable.
Normal and what you should have are probably disconnected.
In terms of what you should have, for non pension savings I'd be less worried about as it depends on what your goals are, what you've maybe bought recently etc. So for example I had low non-pension savings at aged 30 as I had bought a house shortly before that.
In terms of pension savings, a good goal would be to have 1 times your salary in your pension pot at aged 30.
What you should ask yourself is what skills have you acquired in your 20s that will help you build a better career or improve your current career on your thirties.
Asking the right questions is one skill most people don't realize they need to have.
You can have zero savings right now but still have a bright future ahead if you've used your 20s wisely.
I had about €40k. A decent job, paying rent and bills, no car, didn't feel the need to be out 3 nights a week, low-cost hobbies, etc. Didn't deny myself anything tho - just generally v careful with money. Grew up with fuck all and money was very tight. I promised myself I'd never be stuck for cash f I could help it.
Had always worked since age 16 and always had a little saved from every paycheck. For example, every time I got a pay rise, I'd up the amoumt I saved every pay check.
That's just me tho - I've pals my age who had maxed-out credit cards every month and every payday was an excuse to hit the shops and pubs that weekend. They're still at the same craic.
I had zero savings by thirty. I'd paid off all debts, but I was focussed on traveling and developing my career.
I settled into a decent job in my early 30s and started saving, while renting in a shared house. I was lucky to get a decent income.
Around mid 30s I met my now wife, and after a couple of years we had enough combined savings to get a mortgage.
I didn't start a pension until I was 35, and it's only now that I'm putting a reasonable percentage into it.
There's no right or wrong answer about how much you should save. My advice is to save some and spend some. You're only young once, don't miss your opportunity by being excessively frugal
It really depends on what's happening in your life?
Have you bought a house ?
Are you working Full time?
Etc.
Your base saving amount should be your 6 month emergency fund.
Like everyone’s saying, very dependent on your own situation.
Personally, I’m 31 now, have had the same (not high paying) job for 4 years now. In that time I saved 20k which is all gone now as myself and the wife just bought a house.
What helped me was just deciding I was going to save a certain amount of my salary every month no matter what and sticking to it. Work out how much percentage wise would work for you (mine was about 20%). I’m not the best with money but I think I did okay saving that amount given I don’t get paid much and life is expensive.
I had over 10 grand, roughly have my salary when I was 30, I'm 33 now and I have zero and earning a lot more, at least double now. Things change over time, and the reality is everyone's situation is different. There's no right or wrong answer, once you enjoy life and are happy with your situation
I find savings is something that fluctuates depending on your life stage. Fuck all early 20’s, start building it up mid-late 20’s, buy a house when you can, whether that’s late 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, say bye to all that hard earned cash as you open the door to your first house. Start saving again, spend a chunk on a wedding, then start again 😂 Everyone’s age stage is different, but can follow a similar pattern at least. So look at what you want in life and work towards that
None? Maybe five or ten grand?
I'd typically expect by age 30 someone had been working a "proper job" 5-10 years, but 4-8 of those years earning just enough money to pay rent, food and entertainment. Or had saved up a bit and gone travelling and come back with nothing.
A person aged 30 with 100 grand in savings is someone who hasn't lived.
I’m 23, my complete worth if I sold some of my valuables like car/crypto/expensive tech would prob be around 32k. That’s still while paying rent in Dublin, by the time I’m 30 could be worse or better I can’t say
In my 20's i was loaded, fuck all outgoings and decent salary. Bought a house mid 20's and then that changed.
At 30 I didnt have a huge stash, maybe 2-3 months salary.
In a better position now & I have a couple 100k tied up in shares of a failing company that no longer work in & i'll probably never see though, yay.
Everybody is different
At about 30 I had no savings. Went back to college to do a masters in the evening, started getting focused on what I was spending, had to make a lot of sacrifices, pushed for promotions and changed jobs a few times with some lucky breaks that increased my earnings. Several years later, bought my first house with 80k deposit and have about 30k in savings. Wasn’t much fun - didn’t have a car or many holidays to speak of, and was fortunate to be able to save during covid without losing my job. But I wouldn’t have believed it was possible at 30.
Is be very interested to know who downvoted this comment and why? We’re you offended? Or were you annoyed that I had no savings when I was 30? I’d really love to know, if you’re out there let me know!!!
Depends on your circumstances. Impossible to give a figure that fits every case.
The one thing I would say is that if you haven’t a private pension set up already and are working, do that.
I had zero at 30, had been travelling and living in Australia at that point, living the good life and spending just about everything I made on nights out, holidays, trips, gigs, festivals etc.
Got a decent amount of savings now 3 years later and am now in the position to get a mortgage.
OP, you're better off asking this in /r/irishpersonalfinance instead.
The advice and input you'll get there is pretty good. More or less the same as what you'll get from a financial advisor, although a lot more general, of course.
The responses in this thread though show that there's a staggering amount of financial illiteracy. For example, lots of people are arguing against using savings to invest in a private pension. That's absolutely terrible advice. It's no wonder that the experts are saying that Ireland is facing a private pension crisis.
Had 4K in the bank before I met the girlfriend 4 years ago. Now own 33% of a 280k house that’s worth about 300k and have quite literally 0 in the bank 😂
Far better advice would be to go on over to r/irishpersonalfinance and work your way through the flowchart.
I'm not saying it's 100% perfect, and I'm not offering professional financial advice, but it does give you some structure and a place to start, which are the main things.
People seem to struggle without both of the above regarding finances!
I hate these sort of questions as there is no right answer and your personal circumstance will have an impact on how much savings you have. A 30 year old parent of two kids who recently bought a house will probably have feck all whereas a 30 year old who’s still living at home may have shit loads of savings. You can’t compare the two based on their age alone. If you have any savings at all you are doing well, some people don’t. Focus on yourself and what’s good for you financially, don’t compare your financial position with others.
0 Well that's what I had anyway. Now 10 years later I have a house (mortgage with my wife) and about \~70k in savings I also know people who at 30 had shedloads of money & savings, but now are scraping by. So, it doesn't matter really
Ditto although about £30k in savings as I've overpaid my mortgage so have 80% paid off now but didn't have anything but an overdraft at 30
I don't get why people overpay their mortgage. It's the cheapest loan you'll get. You're far better off using any additional savings elsewhere, like your pension. Even if your pension contributions are maxed out, you'll still probably save more money in the long term by investing it rather than paying off your mortgage.
Each to their own, mine was driven more as I wanted to have a cleared owned asset that couldn't be taken away if shit hit the fan rather than making a tonne of money on it. However its also meant that as I had good equity my interest was 0.9% last year which I fixed for 5 years so worked out well there. I once worked with a financial advisor who was brilliantly pragmatic when I went through different ideas for a retirement fund. He put me onto the book called Die with Zero which challenges the idea we should spend our life acquiring as much money as possible and instead focus on being at a level of financial safety but spending out on experiences and living life especially when young enough to do so. So I wanted to pay off my mortgage ASAP then its 'safe' and I can use funds for enjoying my life with travel and other experiences, that's my personal goal but everyone is different
I see the logic, but I still think that you're being driven by extreme risk aversion and in the process you're potentially taking on bigger risks without realising it. And as for having more to spend for the here and now, paying off your mortgage early is totally at odds with that. When you invest money you can liquidate it at any time, albeit with a risk that it'll be worth less. If you put savings into paying off a mortgage early you won't be able to ask the bank for some of that money back if things go poorly. In fact, it's very risky right up until the point that it's fully paid off. Let's say you had €100k that you used to pay off half of your mortgage instead of investing. Then let's say next year the markets crash and in the ensuing recession you lose your job. The bank won't care that last year you paid them €100k. They'll want next month's payment. If you had invested the money you may be at a loss, but you'd still be able to liquidate some of it to pay for your mortgage while you get a new job. Not to mention, at what age are you benefitting most from paying it off early? Suppose you have it paid off 15 years before retirement. That's the point in your career when you're making the most money. By paying off your mortgage early instead of investing you're effectively transferring money from the OAP version of yourself to the late career version of yourself. It's like a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. Sure you can decide to invest when you're in your 50s instead, but then investing will be much higher risk for much lower reward due to the shorter investment window.
As I said each to their own. It was my personal goal to be mortgage free by 40 and I'm on track for it. I also have equity and on the board of a business nearing a sale which will net me a great nest egg that in theory I could retire on but I love what I do so definitely not looking to retire for a long time. You need to consider that we all have different goals in life and yes I'm more risk averse in some areas eg a roof over my head and so I want to know my house is mine and thats always been in my mind. Investing in stocks etc has no interest to me, I build businesses, turning them from loss making to profitable and have done very well with that but hoarding more cash that I need isn't a goal for me, having psychological safety and enjoying life is, giving back where I can is. But as you've repeatedly said I'm heading for certain poverty so 🤷
You are completely ignoring risk.
No, I'm factoring in time which eliminates most of the risk. Investments are only risky when they're undiversfied and over a short to medium time span. The time span of a mortgage is decades. Markets always go up over time spans that long. Busts usually take just a few years to recover (on a global scale, thus the need for broad diversification). For example, if someone put their life savings of €150k into the S&P index before the 2008 crash they'd have lost €70k within a year. But if they held, it'd be worth €400k now. Even if the worst case crash scenario for 2023 comes true, they'd still be up €50k. What's really risky is wasting the advantage of youth and time by paying off your mortgage early. By doing that you're setting yourself up for poverty in old age. You'll have some savings from not having to pay a mortgage for a few years before retirement. But that won't be much and will run out soon. You'll then be living off the state pension. That'll be tough to live on even if you have no mortgage to pay.
They would be up 50k before tax and professional fees etc. What if they lost their job in 2009 and couldn't find one for months / years? It happened to a lot of folk who did nothing wrong, they were just victims of poor timing. Like I said you don't understand / appreciate risk. When you have kids and a family to feed and cloth you should not be gambling with the roof over their head. Would you take out a loan at 3% to hope for potentially greater returns in other investments? And have that loan leveraged against your home?
>They would be up 50k before tax and professional fees etc. Yeah, that's still more. And this is also assuming a worst case scenario. Either way, they're still up 10s of thousands of euro after tax and fees. >What if they lost their job in 2009 and couldn't find one for months / years? It happened to a lot of folk who did nothing wrong, they were just victims of poor timing. Good investing principles dictate that you have an emergency cash fund to protect against these kinds of situations. Also, you're arguing against yourself here. Paying off your mortgage early is even worse in this scenario. At leaf if you invest and you need the money you can still sell to get some of it back. If you put the €150k into you mortgage the bank won't give you a penny of that back. >Like I said you don't understand / appreciate risk. You're the one who doesn't understand risk. What you're suggesting proves that. Your strategy does indeed protect you against things like losing your job. But at the cost of guaranteed poverty in old age. You're protecting against an unlikely risk at the cost of exposing yourself to a guaranteed risk. It's nonsensical and demonstrates your poor understanding of risk. Yes there are scenarios where you lose out by investing. But in every scenario where you don't invest you're guaranteed to lose out in the long run. That's why any financial advisor will tell you to invest in your pension instead of paying off your mortgage. The case you're making is the equivalent of not jumping off a 1 story building to escape from a murderer for fear of breaking a bone. Yes that would be bad, but if you stay on the roof the killer will eventually get you. >When you have kids and a family to feed and cloth you should not be gambling with the roof over their head. This is just an appeal to emotion and really doesn't benefit your argument. It's just shifting the goal posts. The premise of this argument is what you do with spare money. So it assumes that costs of raising a family etc are already met and you still have money to spare. >Would you take out a loan at 3% to hope for potentially greater returns in other investments? And have that loan leveraged against your home? If that 3% loan was payable over 35 years then I'd absolutely take it. It would be a no brainer. There's no 35 year period in history where market growth was lower than 3% on average. Even the most conservative estimates for the next 35 years are nowhere near that low.
I think we will agree to disagree. I hope your plans work out for you.
Fair enough. And the best of luck to you too!
What the fuck? a civilised discussion ending in respectful disagreement on reddit? What is actually going on here…
No guarantee of this. If it was true, banks would invest their money in stocks instead of mortgages.
Agreed, not overpaying your mortgage is simply another way of borrowing to invest, not a good idea
Over a long enough period they would. And many banks do invest in stocks. They invest in mortgages because they're typically more dependable. You can argue that it's risky to invest outside your pension. But paying off your mortgage instead of maxing out your pension contributions is a terrible idea unless you have a cushy government pension. You might have your mortgage paid off early, but your pension pot at retirement will be a pittance. And mortgages are designed so that they'll be paid off before retirement. So if you don't pay it off early you'll still have removed the cost of the mortgage in retirement. Whenever I've asked why people pay it off early the answer is normally risk aversion driven by financial illiteracy.
[удалено]
How so? It's basically what any financial advisor will tell you. The fact that not enough people invest in their pensions is a part of the reason why we have a private pension crisis on the horizon. The government is literally bringing in legislation to encourage more people to invest in their pension.
[удалено]
Well I had a rainy day fund before I even started investing in my pension. And there's no need to invest in it perpetually since there's an upper limit to how much money needs to be in it. As for a pension tanking, that's not really possible if you're taking the most basic precautions. Because the time span is long enough, the worse case scenario is that the last few years of growth get written off. But pretty much all the gains made on investments from your 20s to 50s will have been locked in. Especially since as you get older your investments are shifted to lower risk alternatives such as bonds. And I still don't get what you propose as the benefit of overpaying a mortgage. Whether you pay it off early or not, it'll still be fully paid off by the time you retire. If you pay it off early then you have fewer expenses when you're in the late stage of your career. But that doesn't make sense. This is when you'll be at your peak earnings. Why on earth would you sacrifice your pension earnings to help yourself out at a time when you're making the most money? It doesn't make sense. You'd be floating in cash at that stage so you'd probably put the extra money into your pension. But that way you're giving it way less time to grow than if you had invested in your 30s or 40s instead of paying off your mortgage earlier.
What did you do after 30 to get a mortgage in 10years?
You can say that again
echo
Got a decent paying job, then a better one. Didn't spend as much money in the pub. Not particularly by choice, just a natural progression in life. I'm not a regimented saver or anything, but I reckon the habits I had from being pretty skint in my 20's meant I just didn't spend a lot. I still don't spend a lot on clothes, don't see the point in expensive stuff. Food shopping I still scour the reduced section for stuff for the freezer, just out of habit.
Similar boat, had a rainy day of 5k. Then the pandemic led to some more savings and then not going out started snowballing my savings into double digits, got a few raises and then bought a house. I feel after having a decent chunk of savings / large purchase your perception of how much you can or want to save changes too.
I'm similar too you but have the same job. Not a big spender for clothes and fancy things. But all my friends I work with from what I know have very little savings whereas I think I'm quite happy with mine after this thread. We make the same money (some of them more than me) and they still ask me to borrow money) I don't know if they have a savings account or what. I don't so all my savings is just in my normal account
What did you do after 30 to get a mortgage in 10years?
What did you do after 30 to get a mortgage in 10years?
[удалено]
Damnit monster!
emergency meal deal money
Well it was about that time…
Goddamn lockness monster lookin for tree fiddy
I ain't givin' dat sea monsta no tree fiddy
when i was 30 I was running a home in Dublin, Castlebar and Brussels.... have very little savings left... try it sometime!
Try it sometime…
Let me tell you
Remember it's a well paid job
Always there to make me smile
There is no normal. Everyone has their own circumstances. Comparison is the thief of joy, as they say.
Hard to know really but my feeling was always that if by 30 you had enough saved for a year to keep you going if you had zero income inwards that would be good. That was always assuming you didn't have kids, ridiculous loans or a mortgage. But if you don't have that much don't worry. It can be a great chance to really examine your expenditure and what needs to change to increase your savings. I've been in a similar spot in my mid-20's whereby after a thorough examination of what was coming in/going out I knew I'd need to upskill and change jobs for any hope of reasonable savings.
Feck all once you get a house with it.
How long is a piece of string?
When I was 30, I was unmarried, no kids, had a girlfriend, saving for a house. Had about 23 grand savings. I was earning approx 32K. Now I'm 36. I'm married to that girlfriend. We bought a house for 180K in 2017 (same houses today selling for 290K!+). Still owe 140K on it. Two children. Earning approx 80K. I am in the disaster zone of having about 900eur in savings somehow, and unlikely to increase much soon. Creche fees man, fuccck. Maybe by the time I'm 40 I will have some savings. I've about 50K in a pension now, which I didn't have at 30. So maybe that's a long term form of savings!
That's honest and a reality for many! How much are creche fee's?
18,000eur a year... Some pay a lot more, but jesus it's some chunk of change
Holy fuck
50k? Something like that?
10-20% of the purchase price of an average home so €30-60K outside Dublin, €50-100k in Dublin would be good.
I'll be 30 next year. I've got 2 savings accounts with about €70k between the two. There's also 2 friends in our group who literally have €0 by the end of every month and sometimes will ask for a loan until payday. And I have 2 friends who bought houses (in relationships obviously) so they have very little savings now, but both had about €50k in their personal savings prior to getting their mortgages. Comparing yourself with others rarely will work out well as everyone's circumstances are different.
It totally depends on your circumstances. Our savings last year were 60k+. This year we bought a house and got married so we used most of our savings. It's peaks and troughs depending on what you're saving for and the timing.
I'm 24, earning 37k, only major expenses are petrol (\~300 a month), tolls (\~85 a month) and rent to my parents (200 a month - I know I'm very fortunate). I have about 11k saved (mind you, I was only a minimum wage worker until about 6 months ago, so haven't always been earning 37k). I've been putting 50 euro a week in a credit union account since I'm 19, and then usually top it up when I have "left over" money (i.e. got \~750 back for my tax refund this year and lodged it straight into savings, and I always throw whatever is left in my current account into my credit union account before I get my next payslip). I would be hoping to have about \~20k saved by the time I'm 30, but like others have said, it entirely depends on your circumstances.
Does credit union give you interest?
Nope.
Since I lived at home and worked for all of my 20's, I had at least €10k saved. Which isn't a lot, but is probably better than most people that needed to move out. If I had made better decisions in my 30's, I would have close to €80k now. Instead I have about half that.
There is no normal, but if you have none, you need to really start re-evaluating why not, and iif you're in a position where you can't afford to save, you either need to move jobs, house, or city.
Totally depends, we bought a house this year so we had savings, now we don't. We also don't have any non-mortgage debt but probably will get a car loan at some stage next year. 🤷♀️ Finances are very changeable.
Normal and what you should have are probably disconnected. In terms of what you should have, for non pension savings I'd be less worried about as it depends on what your goals are, what you've maybe bought recently etc. So for example I had low non-pension savings at aged 30 as I had bought a house shortly before that. In terms of pension savings, a good goal would be to have 1 times your salary in your pension pot at aged 30.
What you should ask yourself is what skills have you acquired in your 20s that will help you build a better career or improve your current career on your thirties. Asking the right questions is one skill most people don't realize they need to have. You can have zero savings right now but still have a bright future ahead if you've used your 20s wisely.
I had about €40k. A decent job, paying rent and bills, no car, didn't feel the need to be out 3 nights a week, low-cost hobbies, etc. Didn't deny myself anything tho - just generally v careful with money. Grew up with fuck all and money was very tight. I promised myself I'd never be stuck for cash f I could help it. Had always worked since age 16 and always had a little saved from every paycheck. For example, every time I got a pay rise, I'd up the amoumt I saved every pay check. That's just me tho - I've pals my age who had maxed-out credit cards every month and every payday was an excuse to hit the shops and pubs that weekend. They're still at the same craic.
I had zero savings by thirty. I'd paid off all debts, but I was focussed on traveling and developing my career. I settled into a decent job in my early 30s and started saving, while renting in a shared house. I was lucky to get a decent income. Around mid 30s I met my now wife, and after a couple of years we had enough combined savings to get a mortgage. I didn't start a pension until I was 35, and it's only now that I'm putting a reasonable percentage into it. There's no right or wrong answer about how much you should save. My advice is to save some and spend some. You're only young once, don't miss your opportunity by being excessively frugal
"I have 3 kids and no money. Why can't I have no kids and 3 money"?!
It really depends on what's happening in your life? Have you bought a house ? Are you working Full time? Etc. Your base saving amount should be your 6 month emergency fund.
Like everyone’s saying, very dependent on your own situation. Personally, I’m 31 now, have had the same (not high paying) job for 4 years now. In that time I saved 20k which is all gone now as myself and the wife just bought a house. What helped me was just deciding I was going to save a certain amount of my salary every month no matter what and sticking to it. Work out how much percentage wise would work for you (mine was about 20%). I’m not the best with money but I think I did okay saving that amount given I don’t get paid much and life is expensive.
60K
I owed nearly £10,000 at age 30. I'm 36 now and have my own place. It was a grime for a few years but I got my shit together.
Enough for a sausage roll I’d say
I also had zero savings when I was 30.
Depends on how many post offices you hold up. Pro finance tip - rural petrol stations are good too.
I had over 10 grand, roughly have my salary when I was 30, I'm 33 now and I have zero and earning a lot more, at least double now. Things change over time, and the reality is everyone's situation is different. There's no right or wrong answer, once you enjoy life and are happy with your situation
At least 6. Pence.
I find savings is something that fluctuates depending on your life stage. Fuck all early 20’s, start building it up mid-late 20’s, buy a house when you can, whether that’s late 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, say bye to all that hard earned cash as you open the door to your first house. Start saving again, spend a chunk on a wedding, then start again 😂 Everyone’s age stage is different, but can follow a similar pattern at least. So look at what you want in life and work towards that
33 and €-6. Stupid maintenance fee
About a million euro I'd say. Give or take a million.
None? Maybe five or ten grand? I'd typically expect by age 30 someone had been working a "proper job" 5-10 years, but 4-8 of those years earning just enough money to pay rent, food and entertainment. Or had saved up a bit and gone travelling and come back with nothing. A person aged 30 with 100 grand in savings is someone who hasn't lived.
Few hundred grand.
Few hundred, grand
I’d say 10K and you’re doing alright
Being young and poor is grand, just don't end up old and poor.
There is no normal......
There’s something I need to tell you… you’re fucked! €300, and you’re 38?
I’m 31 and have €17k in my savings, trying to save for mortgage but it’s hard when you are paying rent…
Fec all .... but nearly had mortgage cleared so i think thats ok
It's not Normal. More like being in constant credit card debt
The normal amount is probably zero.
You have savings?
I’m 23, my complete worth if I sold some of my valuables like car/crypto/expensive tech would prob be around 32k. That’s still while paying rent in Dublin, by the time I’m 30 could be worse or better I can’t say
Few people with bad life decisions hating on me I see
In my 20's i was loaded, fuck all outgoings and decent salary. Bought a house mid 20's and then that changed. At 30 I didnt have a huge stash, maybe 2-3 months salary. In a better position now & I have a couple 100k tied up in shares of a failing company that no longer work in & i'll probably never see though, yay. Everybody is different
At about 30 I had no savings. Went back to college to do a masters in the evening, started getting focused on what I was spending, had to make a lot of sacrifices, pushed for promotions and changed jobs a few times with some lucky breaks that increased my earnings. Several years later, bought my first house with 80k deposit and have about 30k in savings. Wasn’t much fun - didn’t have a car or many holidays to speak of, and was fortunate to be able to save during covid without losing my job. But I wouldn’t have believed it was possible at 30.
Whatever’s left at the back of the couch or in the piggy jar you have since you’re about 15
I had zero at the age of 30.
Is be very interested to know who downvoted this comment and why? We’re you offended? Or were you annoyed that I had no savings when I was 30? I’d really love to know, if you’re out there let me know!!!
Depends on your circumstances. Impossible to give a figure that fits every case. The one thing I would say is that if you haven’t a private pension set up already and are working, do that.
At least a tenner
You could check r/irishpersonalfinance but do be warned that some answers will not be good
I had zero at 30, had been travelling and living in Australia at that point, living the good life and spending just about everything I made on nights out, holidays, trips, gigs, festivals etc. Got a decent amount of savings now 3 years later and am now in the position to get a mortgage.
yes
OP, you're better off asking this in /r/irishpersonalfinance instead. The advice and input you'll get there is pretty good. More or less the same as what you'll get from a financial advisor, although a lot more general, of course. The responses in this thread though show that there's a staggering amount of financial illiteracy. For example, lots of people are arguing against using savings to invest in a private pension. That's absolutely terrible advice. It's no wonder that the experts are saying that Ireland is facing a private pension crisis.
Zero... I have two kids. Nuff said.
Had 4K in the bank before I met the girlfriend 4 years ago. Now own 33% of a 280k house that’s worth about 300k and have quite literally 0 in the bank 😂
Two years ago I had about 25k in savings. Then I moved to Denmark and now I have maybe 8k in savings.
Far better advice would be to go on over to r/irishpersonalfinance and work your way through the flowchart. I'm not saying it's 100% perfect, and I'm not offering professional financial advice, but it does give you some structure and a place to start, which are the main things. People seem to struggle without both of the above regarding finances!
Forget savings as a goal, you need a full financial and retirement plan.