Third of Scots ‘Don’t Save Any Money Each Month’

Slightly over a third (34 per cent) of all adults living in Scotland don’t set any money aside as savings on a regular basis, according to a new piece of research.

The figures underline how tight people’s financial margins are across the country, with very significant numbers of Scots now living with little or no savings buffer to fall back on if they need to.

Bank of Scotland commissioned the research into savings habits across the country and found that 9 per cent of Scots now have no savings to fall back on at all.

Around one in five (19 per cent) said that while they do have some money set aside, it wouldn’t be enough to last them longer than a month if they were to lose their jobs.

Worryingly, perhaps, around 16 per cent of the Scots polled on behalf of Bank of Scotland said that they essentially don’t plan their finances in advance at all, despite knowing that they could find themselves running out of money as a consequence.

Four in five Scots aged between 18 and 24 say that they are currently saving money on a regular basis but 21 per cent admit that they generally struggle to manage their money as well as they would like to.

Ricky Diggins, a director at Bank of Scotland, has encouraged people of all ages and from all parts of the country to set money aside if they possibly can and to get help from experts if they’re finding it difficult to do so.

“Saving for the future can feel like a major challenge, especially with other financial pressures such as rent and bills taking priority,” Mr Diggins has said.

“The truth of the matter is even small savings can really add up, and when done regularly over a long period of time it can result in a significant sum.

“There are tools and accounts available to make saving easier and simple saving tricks will help set yourself up for the future.”

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