Earlier today I read a report by the Yorkshire Building Society suggests that the average person’s savings would last them 52 days if they lost their job. Monthly outgoings average £1,445 but on average we have £2,474 in accessible savings.
My initial reaction was, wow, that means the average person has an emergency fund of nearly 2 months worth of salary, which actually seems quite a lot – I’m jealous.
Of course, averages can hide the real figures, in this case somebody with thousands of pounds worth of savings who spends very little each month would skew the average. It seems to be born out by the fact that over a third of the respondents to the survey said they would run out of money within 11 days.
So here’s our latest poll: how long could you survive on your savings if you were to lose your job?
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If you have any more thoughts, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
photo credit: Unhindered by Talent