Could 'fiver a day' campaign get us saving again?

I save every £2 coin I get in change. Took £400 worth to the bank last week and have flipped it into my savings account. Some days I get none and on others 2 or 3 and I'm amazed how quickly it mounts up.....

The press are full of stories about inflation and near-zero interest rates being around "for years". At the same time there are articles about house prices going back up again by huge amounts (20% in the Express). What sane person would save in such an environment? Saving money is losing money if inflation is 5% and interest is 1%. The government are paying you to borrow. Good luck Gavin, you'll need it.

Unless you get those savings into Index Linked gilts as soon as it is economical to, you are just gifting the value of your savings to the government in its desire to inflate away the deficit.

The prudent are still being sacrificed to save the profligate. It happened last in the 1970s. Don't save. Borrow and let inflation destroy your debts. Only a fool saves cash today.

Great idea. Why not couple it with "Don't charge a bean " campaign. Anyone saving a fiver a day won't be charged anything (ever) by the financial industry to invest it. Now that would be revolutionary.

Thanks Tony, but I'm not a fool....I've got a 1/2 mill pension pot...mostly saved by me over 30 years with a small portion from employers.... I manage my own portfolio and keep fees to a minimum...and, yes, I have Index Linked gilts....

You have to start somewhere and better to encourage people to save than get into debt which they then can't manage. The reason I'm a saver is because I experienced my father's bankcruptcy in my teens. It's no fun being broke so I do all I can to encourage people to save.....it pays in the end.

Save money? At BoE rate of 0.5% and inflation at 3.2%+.

You must be mad! Get your savings out of cash and into anything else that will go up with inflation. Borrow till you cannot borrow anymore. This is what the financial crisis has taught me, an ex-saver (cash saver).

@Tony Peterson

"Borrow and let inflation destroy your debts. Only a fool saves cash today."

Er, genius, except wage restraint ain't really helping with that one. Austerity for the less-well-off whilst the overleveraged receive a "get out of jail free card".

What will it take for the members of this country to actually take arms and revolt against its rulers?

It's Chuck's reckless attitude that has got us into this mess in the first place.

People need money for a rainy day (about 6 months income as a starting figure), this money needs to be liquid so that it can be used in case of emergency. Inflation / interest is not currently favorable. But neither is having to dis-invest / wait / having no accesible money in a personal crisis. Based on this I do not see how saving is stupid.

Cash ISAs do not pay great rates of interest at the moment mitigating much of the use of the tax advantages. However, building up a large amount of funds which are classed as cash ISA holdings can be very advantagous in the future as these accumalted funds can be invested for income / growth and will not be subject to tax providing the right products are used. I currently save around £8 in my savings account plus a day, plus £5 into my savings account any money which is an excess above these amounts is put on one side for eventual use in 5-10 year investments. This way of saving has been successful so far at least.

I cannot believe what bad advice this is from a Citywire journalist.

The return on cash is negative with retail price inflation running at 5% and zero interest on cash savings.

Plus the Govt is doing all it can to stoke up inflation which makes holding cash even more dangerous

Cash is the worst asset class to be in these days - especially if your bank goes bust (again)

Save by all means - but not in cash - commodities or real estate or equities - anything but cash in an inflationary environment

I agree with prior comments . Savings rates are far too low to encourage people to save . The basic principle is good , but to get it going , somehow there needs to be a better reward to kick start it .

Saving this way in an unstable environment is crazy

You can give the banks £5 a day if you wish but you are not saving anything. Think real inflation, not fictional statistics given out by the Government. Then any money put in to the banks as SAVINGS are actually diminishing by the month not increasing.

There are ways of saving in an unstable environment, by putting it in to a bank or building society that is most definitely not one of them

As a saver of many years I despair at the current situation the Government does not want prudent people anymore they what spenders to get the economy moving. If only it was possible for savers to withdraw all their money and hide it under the mattress it would send out the message that savers have had enough of being the soft touch for HMG and it is time to change the order!

How many of you savers want to club together, withdraw all bank deposits and invest off-shore?

Do that, and you will take control, para joder los prestatarios (borrowers) y la banca tambien!!

Do it and justice shall be done!

respondes to Andrew 2, (if enough reply positively, I'll look into possibolities!)

Andrew 2 is right.

The many savers out there who are not content with the poor returns will get absolutely nowhere without some form of action. The government is as others have said on here using savers to subsidise those in debt. Lets face it a newspaper headline of 50,000 people having their homes reposest would be seen as a bad thing (even if they should have them reposest for being so stupid in the first place).

People need to rise up and take action, this action could be investing offshore as Andrew 2 said or organising all the savers out there to remove all their savings from one institution to one of the others. Put the banks under pressure by removing your funds, the key is getting enough people to do it at the same time which is obviously where it all falls down.

Whatevre Planet do some of you people live on.

Spare a thought for others on such low pay thathey would believe themselvesVERY fortunate if they had £5 to save at the end of the year.

My ethos has always been: Work hard, save money, buy what you need, and if there is a surplus spend half on pleasurable indulgences, and save the other half with the intention of never spending the accumulating capital. Of course many people think that they only have enough income to cover what they need. My experience tells me that this is often not true. If you put your mind to it, there are always means by which you can economise. However I only speak for myself. The people I meet are so self assured that I gave up trying to enlighten them a long time ago.

I'm retired. How many years have i got left to spend what I have? Its a question I refuse to address, I cannot break the habit of lifetime. I still save from my small pension and it gives me reassurance to do so.

I take on board all you guys say about not putting assets into cash because of the abysmal returns. But after more than twenty years of investing in property, equities and bonds I've done just that.

Looking at the state of the world economy I'm absolutely convinced that we are in for the 'perfect storm' where nothing will be safe - and, approaching 70 years of age, I don't feel I have the time-frame to sit out another roller-coaster ride - so I prefer holding on to my cash rather than risking it on either property (which could well take another dip) or the stock-market.

Only time will tell who's right,

Best wishes to you all - and happy investing !

I don't know about a fiver a day but 5% per annum would get most of us saving. At the moment the banks borrow our money for next to nothing, invest it or loan it on at a profit, make many billions in profit, and pay their staff huge sums in bonuses- at whose expense we might all ask? The answer is obvious- a rip off such as this we haven't experienced in decades, if not centuries. Shades of the South Seas Bubble!

As opposed to saving & holding cash. My mortgage is likely to be the most expensive money I borrow over my life time & it is currently at a historic low, so I am trying to get as much paid off now as possible. This will ease the pain & increase my flexibility when interest rates go up.

Quite right too. But remember it's the banks who are inflicting the pain and reaping the profit not the savers- one of which you will be when you pay off the mortgage.

I think the writer of this article was suggesting ways to encourage those who haven't saved to start . It's clearly impossible to start investing in shares, property, commodities etc until one has built up some capital. How about banks/savings institutions having to have a simple deposit account that accepts up to £20,000 but paid in by monthly standing order up to a max of £100 a month. Interest rate always to be no less that I% lower that their SVR? and, like an ISA, interest is tax free. Might that encourage small savers?

I agree with Sooz Blooz, my interpretation of this article was to encourage people who may not be saving already to start. Why not? I think it is a great idea for those that can start to put by any amount at all - rather than waste it unnecessarily as we have been encouraged now to be spend, spend, spend and the obsession has taken grip - hence huge record debt! I am a saver, I invest and although my savings don't earn me huge amounts right now I do feel safe in the knowledge that I have a stash to do with what I wish as and when, I move my savings around a lot to maximise on the highest interest paying accounts and I still enjoy seeing the sums of interest that I am paid, albeit it is not enough but I would prefer this than max out on debt, some people just dont wish for that!

Agreed. I appreciate the arguments about inflation vs. interest, but isn't that a bit short-sighted? Isn't it more important to encourage a culture of saving, even if there is some degree of 'loss' to start with? Wasn't it ill-advised borrowing that got us into this situation?

Alternatively why bother saving at all?

Why not just get some bird pregnant, and live off benefits?

Seems to work well for millions in this country!

Be independently wealthy thanks to the taxpayer - who needs savings??!!