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The headline results from our survey: people have a surprisingly high £28,500 in cash savings, but still 25% have less than £1,000 saved. Only 36% think they are on track for a comfortable retirement, and also 36% of people are investing regularly. More insights below.
From surveying Nuts About Money readers from January to March 2025.
These results from our survey are super interesting. We were surprised that people had an average of £28,500 in cash savings (and some people have considerably more, which has pushed the average up slightly). So well done everyone!
What is concerning is that 25% have less than £1,000 in cash savings. It’s vital to build a buffer big enough to cover your bills for at least a few months. It doesn’t need to replace your whole salary, just your bills. What’s great is that 80% do have this emergency fund in place, although we don’t know how much this is for each person, and may be below £1,000).
Nuts About Money tip: if you’ve got lots of your savings in cash, and if you’re not planning on spending it any time soon, consider investing some – when invested sensibly (such as with experts) you’ll typically make more money over time than earning interest from a bank. You can invest tax-free within a Stocks and Shares ISA too (meaning your money can grow even more over time) – here’s our top picks for Stocks and Shares ISAs.
When it comes to pensions, only 36% feel they are on track for a comfortable retirement, this is concerning as it would be great if it were 100%, but back to reality, we all need a huge pension pot to afford a comfortable retirement (for example if you are 40 now, you'll need as much as £1.4 million by the time you retire. This is due to the price of things like food and household bills increasing over time).
Nuts About Money tip: are you on track for a comfortable retirement? Find out, and how to get on track, with our pension calculator.
A positive takeaway from this is that people might be aware that they do need a very large pension by the time they retire, and therefore not on track to get there (if you weren't aware, you are now!).
50% saving into a personal pension alongside a work pension is pretty great considering how hard things are at the moment money wise. Saving into a personal pension is one of the best ways to get on track for that comfortable retirement – it’s likely most people will need to be saving much more than what they just add to their work pension.
And to be saving an average of £520 per month towards retirement is really great. And is roughly what most people need to be saving, particularly if you’re a bit younger (such as under 40).
How much you’ll actually need to save for a comfortable retirement varies depending on your current savings and your age. Check out our pension calculator to see how much you might want to save.
Let’s recap the average pension pot figures too (from our readers). For 18-24 year olds is £10,500. For 25-29 it’s £25,000. For 30-39 it’s £82,500. For 40-49 it’s £120,000. For 50-59 it’s £300,000, and for 60-66 it's £310,000.
That’s really great and shows that on average, we are all saving quite well. We expected it to be a bit lower, as it is hard to keep saving for your future. However, as bad as it sounds, it’s likely still not enough for a comfortable retirement. We’ll mention it again, get saving into your pension if you aren’t already!
How do you compare? If you’re a bit short, saving into a personal pension can really help boost your retirement savings over time.
When it comes to investing regularly, 36% of people are. This is surprisingly good.
We expected it to be quite a bit lower than this, as in the UK, we’re a bit scared of investing, as it has an unwarranted image of being risky and losing money for people. The reality couldn’t be more different, and it’s a great way, if not the best way, to grow your savings over time (as long as it’s invested sensibly). In fact you can earn far more on average over time than cash savings and earning interest from a bank). Did you know the majority of your pension will be invested?
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re keen to start investing, but not sure how, consider a managed ISA. The experts handle the investments, you just add money. Simple.
Also surprising is parents are investing too (27%). We expected that lots of spare cash would go on the kids (if there was any left!), but lots of you are still prioritising investing, which is great, as regularly saving and investing really is key to growing your money over time. Potentially this might be because people started investing before they became parents and know the importance of it and want to continue it, or once they became parents, they realised they might need to start putting away some money for theirs and their kids future. What do you think?
When it comes to the actual investments, interestingly, 62.5% of people manage their own investments. This means making the decisions which investments to buy and sell, using a self-managed investment platform. This is great, and suggests their level of investment understanding is good (perhaps they’ve been reading Nuts About Money!).
25% of those investing use an expert-managed investment platform, which is great too – and perfect for those who are just looking for somewhere to save and invest, without all the hassle of deciding their own investments – the experts simply handle things. We highly recommend this option for most people.
And finally 12.5% use a financial advisor. This seems about proportionate with the number who actually use financial advisors in general. A financial advisor is someone who looks through your finances and puts together a financial plan for you, and often manages it too. Those with a larger amount of money or a complicated financial situation can often benefit (such as selling a business, or planning to pass inheritance down).
As much as 18% of our survey owned crypto. And of those investors, crypto was 20% of their total savings. We are impressed with the findings. We initially thought people would either invest in crypto or traditional investments, such as stocks and shares, but it seems that people are doing both, with traditional investments still the largest part (80%). Which to us, is quite sensible.
Crypto can be a great investment, becoming a very legitimate investment and technology, and is beginning to play an integral role in an investment portfolio for all types of investors, particularly large investment companies. Who knows, in the future you might have some bitcoin within your pension!
Nuts About Money tip: don’t invest in crypto until you carry out some research. There’s lots of coins, but they’re not all equal. Bitcoin and ethereum are typically seen as the most reliable with proven technology and are legitimate projects. If you’re ready to invest, check out the best crypto exchanges.
Finally, we asked about general habits. On average, people are saving £650 per month, which is a combination of both cash savings and investments (excludes pension savings). This is much higher than we expected, which is really great, and explains one of the reasons why the average cash savings were £28,500.
With savings building up like this it’s important to ensure you are making the most out of your money by getting the best interest rate on your cash savings, and invested in the best way possible for you with investments. For cash savings, make sure you’re getting one of the top rates with one of the best savings accounts. And for investing, make sure you’re using one of the best investment platforms.
By the way, if you’re not quite saving this much (or far from it), don’t worry. We all have different financial circumstances, jobs, health, bills and many other things. The important thing is aiming to get on track, and things can grow from there – so if you aren’t saving yet, start saving a little bit each month if you can.
35% of us are finding it difficult with money currently, and 15% have money worries which are affecting their mental health. This is around the figure we expected, as it’s very expensive to simply exist these days, let alone get ahead in life or provide for others.
Again, don’t compare with these averages or other people’s finances, if you are able to put food on the table and a roof over your head (and your family if you have one), that is a huge achievement, and things will get better over time.
If you are in debt and/or struggling to cope, please take a look at the free charity services we’ve outlined on our guide to getting free financial help and advice. They’re really great, and can help with money management plans, or just someone to speak to confidentially. You are not the only one out there worrying about this.
That’s it for this year’s survey. We were quite surprised, and impressed with most of these results. On average, we’re doing well, with a decent amount of savings, most of us have an emergency fund saved.
The areas where we need to improve on, and where Nuts About Money exists to help, is looking at ways to get that 25% of people with less than £1,000 in savings to boost their savings pot if they can. Just having a little bit stashed away can really help when an emergency happens. And, focusing on retirement savings, with only 36% on track for a comfortable retirement. How great would it be if this could be near to 100%?
Lots of us are saving regularly, and investing too (36%), which is great. If you’re not investing, but have cash savings, have a think about investing some too – you’ll likely make more cash over time, which can snowball over and over (compound), and can really benefit your future, and it’s not as scary or risky as you think!
If you are now considering investing, consider letting the experts handle things with an expert-managed investment platform. And for your cash savings, make sure you are getting a top rate. Happy saving!
If you have a lot of cash savings and you don’t need it soon, you could consider investing some.
If you have a lot of cash savings and you don’t need it soon, you could consider investing some.
If you have a lot of cash savings and you don’t need it soon, you could consider investing some.
If you have a lot of cash savings and you don’t need it soon, you could consider investing some.
We’d love to hear from you, and it will help others too.
Edward Savage is a leading expert on money, with a background of 8 years working in financial services in London, has a business, accounting and finance degree, runs an investing community, and teaches people about money. He writes about all aspects of personal finance, including pensions, investing, mortgages and insurance.
This article was written, reviewed and fact checked by the expert team at Nuts About Money. You’re in safe hands. Learn more.
We're experts in all things savings, with many years of combined experience writing and talking about savings (and ISAs). Some of our team were top financial advisors. We understand the ins and outs of planning your finances well, how to communicate savings in an easy to understand way (we hope you agree), and of course, how to get the best savings rate for you.
More than 20 years of combined experience researching and writing about savings
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If you have a lot of cash savings and you don’t need it soon, you could consider investing some.
