How much money do you have saved up?

(I think my response was too long so I made a new thread)

I understand how easy it is to feel like you need to compare yourself with your piers on this topic.

I was 19 year old, middle class and privately educated when I started university to study Art and Design (lucrative I know). My parents didn't have much savings and even less from inheritance. I joined uni with about £1500 total savings from working weekends over my foundation year in London.

In my first year I worked alongside study and throughout my second and third year my savings fluctuated between £3000 and £5000.

I never felt bad about my savings throughout my degree. Everyone I knew would be thousands of pounds into their overdraft, complaining about having no money until student loan dropped. The only person I ever met who had any significant savings was a northern girl who had £12000. She was saving for a deposit on a place. I remember thinking, "wow someone has rich ****ing parents" and then carried on eating my hall cafiteria eggs and baked beans. My point is uni is like a vacuum where there are seemingly no real life consequences. People spend and squander without thought. However, circumstances are different for everyone. A lot of people are helped out significantly by their family. So many people spend like nothing else because they know they'll always have support from the bank of mum and dad. It is very rare in this country for people to be honest about their finances. I'm sure many people reading this will have asked mates about savings and the response is always something along the lines of "mate, I'm broke AF! No saving! got like 54p left!" However this is rarely true.

I graduated this year and a few days after my final submission I started working full time in London. For most that seems like a successful story to graduate with a first and go straight into work despite a nationwide pandemic and recession. However I developed an unhealthy obsession with saving whatever I could from my monthly wage. In the six months since I started working I've raised about £6000. A couple week ago I raised my first ten Gs. I thought I would be excited, but I constantly feel as though I am in some way behind. That I need to do better to catch up with everyone else. I go out for lunch and instead of spending £3 on a sandwich I get a reduced one for 50p. I have developed some kind of Martyr complex where I feel like I need to suffer because I am saving.

If you are in the same mindset as me, please do not follow in my footsteps. Please take in these points:

1. The amount of money 18 - 25 year olds make is usually so small that any savings you do make are, in the long run, very insignificant. Ten grand can be saved and spent very quickly for someone in their thirties and forties. We'll all get there. try not to be concerned about small sums of money.

2. Everyone's circumstances are different: I knew an orphan who sofa surfed in the holidays. I also knew a guy who was given £2000 a month by his parents on-top of his loan. You cannot judge all people by the same set of criteria. You need to understand your own situation and adjust you expectations accordingly.

3. Don't try to plan things out too much: Circumstances can change very quickly. Good or bad, big life events can drain your bank account. Your goals shouldn't be so rigid in their expectations. Pro tip, if your goal is to raise £10000 in a year, change it to 'save as much as you reasonably can in one year.' Adding a numerical value to your success can result in a binary 'success' or 'failure' outcome. By saying you will do the best you reasonably can, you are much more likely to feel satisfaction as an end result.

3. Prioritise your own mental health over all else. Life is short, and if a little bit of money spent can improve your experience, it's worth doing. Enjoy youth.

There is a book that really helped me called 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****' by mark Manson. If you don't end up reading it (which you absolutely should), the gist is that you should only care about things that are truly important, and personal satisfaction is the most important metric to use when making life decisions.

If you have read this far, I hope you can take something of value away from this. I myself need to take my own advice, be less frugal and more forgiving. If you are a 'trust fund baby' (and I mean that in the most endearing way possible), acknowledge you are privileged. Make the most of the opportunities that come along with wealth. Don't flaunt wealth and gain perspective of those around you. And if you are on the other end of the spectrum, take pride in knowing you are self made, and you are single handedly responsible for you success, however small it may be.