Average savings by age: How much should I have in savings?

Understanding how much of your income you should be saving is an important part of taking control of your finances.

Once you build a good saving habit and set aside an emergency savings fund, you will find it much easier to achieve your broader financial goals like saving up for a house deposit, a wedding, or buying your dream car.

The median amount a person in the UK has in their savings is £19,214, according to data from finder. However, this statistic is heavily skewed by the over-55s, who have much more saved on average.

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When correcting for this in the data, the average savings for under-55s is much lower at just £9,888.

If you want to grow your wealth and work out how much you should have in your savings accounts, it could be useful to see how much money others at your age tend to save so you have a figure in mind to work towards.

We look at the average savings by age, and how much you should be aiming for.

Average savings by age in the UK

On average, the longer you have been working, the more you tend to have in your savings.

This is because the longer you are in work, the more likely you are to have a better-paying job and therefore the ability to save a larger proportion of your income.

Your savings will also compound over time as long as they are held in a savings account that pays an interest rate, meaning the more you have saved, the more interest you will earn.

The table below shows how much the average person has in their savings account by age range, according to a survey of 2,000 UK adults by finder.com.

Source: Finder, January 2026

Our average pension pot by age guide explores how much people typically have saved for retirement as they get older.

Average savings by gender

Along with age, another factor that influences how much the average person has saved is their gender.

There is a significant savings gap between men and women, separate data from Raisin UK found, with the average man having thousands more in their savings than the average woman.

The data found the average man has £13,140.61 in their savings, while the average woman has just £6,869.84.

This gap reflects other disparities in the amounts men and women earn and invest, such as the gender pensions gap.

How much should I have in my savings?

How much you should have in your savings by a certain age depends entirely on your personal circumstances.

For example, someone who lives in London may need to have more in their emergency savings pot than someone who lives in rural Lancashire as the cost of living in the capital is much higher.

This means there isn’t a “hard-and-fast rule to determine how much you should save by a certain age,” says Craig Rickman, personal finance expert at investment platform Interactive Investor. Instead, he says it comes down to changing financial priorities as you age.

An example of this is saving for a deposit on your first home. Rickman said: “Imagine you’re 25 years old and want to buy a house in 10 years’ time. Regardless of what other people are doing, the important thing is to build a sufficient deposit over the next decade to fulfil your dream of home ownership.”

But, speaking in more general terms, there are some good rules of thumb that can help you work out how much you need to have in your savings.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The rule of thumb is that when you’re working age, you should have enough cash in an easy access account to cover three to six month’s worth of essential spending.”

The size of this pot will depend on what you consider ‘essential spending’ and your personal life conditions.

She explained: “If, for example, there are a number of people relying on your income, and you have had health problems in the past or your income is variable, you’ll probably feel more comfortable holding more [in easy access savings].”

“However, if you have a secure job, good health, a wider family to call on when things get tough, and nobody else spending your income, you might be happier with less.”

How should you budget your salary?

A popular budgeting principle to follow is the “50/30/20” rule.

It suggests around 50% of your income should go to your needs, 30% to your wants, and 20% to your savings.

Following the rule provides a good framework which you can adapt to fit your own personal circumstances. For example, if you live somewhere rent or mortgage-free, you probably will not need to spend 50% of your salary on needs, meaning you can spend more on your wants or put more away in your savings.

A table budgeting the median UK salary of £39,039 using the 50/30/20 rule can be found below.

Source: ONS, median gross annual earnings (October 2025), thesalarycalculator.co.uk *Calculations assume you do not have a student loan or contribute to a pension.

Applying this rule, we can see that someone on the average UK salary may find it useful to save around £6,325 every year. But remember, this budget may not be a good fit for your own personal circumstances.

You may be in a position where your essential spending has to be more than 50% of your pay. Or, you may need to save more to help you meet a target you set for yourself.

Ultimately, how much someone should have in their savings will be different for each person. You should use your best judgment to work out how much you should be saving each month.

Find out how your wealth compares to peers in our average net worth by age guide.

How can I grow my savings?

Once you decide to start saving, the next step is to work out where you’re going to keep your money and make sure its purchasing power is not eroded by inflation.

When building your emergency fund, you should make sure it is in an easy-access savings account that has no restrictions on either the frequency or size of withdrawals. This ensures that you can access your money the moment you need it.

It may be a good idea to see if you can use an easy-access cash ISA for this, as you do not have to pay any tax on the interest you earn from your savings inside an ISA.

You can put up to £20,000 a year into ISAs and you can split this between different types, such as a cash and stocks and shares ISA. However, from April 2027, under 65s will only be able to use £12,000 of this allowance for cash savings each year.

Once you have built up your emergency savings, it may be a good idea to start building up long-term savings – perhaps for large purchases like house deposits, a wedding, or for a special purchase.

To make your savings as tax-efficient as possible, consider maximising your annual ISA allowance first. If you want to put more than £20,000 a year away, you will have to use a taxable savings account once you’ve used the annual ISA allowance. You can earn some interest in these accounts tax-free such as via the personal savings allowance.

To build up your long-term wealth it may also be a good idea to consider whether you should start investing. Over the long-term, investments can grow your money more than savings accounts, but this is not guaranteed.

Be aware that past performance does not guarantee future returns, and that the value of your investments can go up as well as down.

For more information on saving vs investing, read our guide. Also look at our beginner’s guide to investing.