Young People, Do You Still Try to Save Money? Or Have You Given Up?

It is a question that has been sparking heated discussion online lately: are young people in the UK still bothering to save, or has the whole idea started to feel pointless? Scroll through any personal finance forum and you will find thousands of comments wrestling with this exact issue — and the picture that emerges is messier, more honest, and more human than the usual headlines about "lazy Gen Z spenders" would suggest.

The truth is that most young people are not giving up on saving because they do not want to save. They are giving up — or at least feeling like they are giving up — because the maths often does not add up, and because nobody ever properly taught them how money is supposed to work in the first place.

The financial literacy gap

One of the loudest and most consistent themes in these discussions is that a huge proportion of the UK — some commenters estimate as much as three-quarters of the population — simply is not financially literate. Nobody sits people down and explains how investing actually works, so people default to what feels safe: parking money in a standard bank account and calling it a day. A lot of people genuinely believe that earning 4-5% interest on a savings account is a great outcome, when in reality many "easy access" savers are actually paying closer to 1.5%, and even the better rates barely keep pace with inflation over time.

This is not a personal failing — it is a systemic one. Financial education is not a core part of most school curriculums in the UK, which means most people leave education without ever hearing about ISAs, LISAs, pensions, or the basic principles of compound growth. Instead, financial knowledge gets passed down informally through family and friends — which is a problem when the people passing it down grew up in a completely different economic climate, or hold outdated fears about investing being akin to gambling.

That generational gap in understanding creates real friction. It is not unusual for a young adult to open a Stocks and Shares ISA, tell their parents about it with excitement, and be met with panic and warnings that they are about to lose everything and end up bankrupt. Those inherited beliefs are hard to shake, even when they are based on outdated assumptions rather than how modern, diversified, long-term investing actually works.

Saving is not always the first problem

Here is where the conversation gets more nuanced: plenty of people argue that jumping straight to investing is putting the cart before the horse. Before anyone should be thinking about stocks and shares, they need liquidity — a proper safety net that can absorb the shock of redundancy, illness, or an unexpected bill. Without that buffer, a single bad month can wipe out months of progress and force people into debt.

And for a significant chunk of young people, even building that basic safety net feels out of reach. Wages simply have not kept pace with the cost of living, housing, or family expenses. It is not uncommon to hear from people earning what sounds like a solid, above-average salary — say £50,000 a year — who still find that once the mortgage, bills, and the costs of raising children are accounted for, there is genuinely nothing left over at the end of the month. Add in a partner working part-time to help make ends meet, and the family can still be one unexpected expense away from serious financial strain.

This is the uncomfortable reality underpinning a lot of the "have you given up on saving" sentiment. It is not always about discipline or bad spending habits. Structurally, many people are being asked to save money they simply do not have.

The numbers paint a worrying picture

Survey data backs up how widespread this struggle is, even if the exact figures vary depending on who is asking. The Financial Conduct Authority's Financial Lives Survey — based on a sample of roughly 17,000 people — found that around 31% of UK adults (about 16 million people) have less than £1,000 in cash savings, with 1 in 10 having no savings at all. A separate survey by AJ Bell's Opinium Research, using a smaller sample of around 4,000 people, put the figure lower, at 19%. The gap between these estimates is a reminder that self-reported financial data is inherently imperfect — but even the more conservative estimate points to millions of people living with essentially no financial cushion.

For young people in particular, this lack of a buffer makes the leap to "proper" saving and investing feel abstract, even irrelevant, when the immediate priority is simply staying out of overdraft.

So have young people actually given up?

Not exactly — but many have recalibrated what "trying" looks like. Some have shifted their entire relationship with money toward short-term survival rather than long-term growth. Others have become more resourceful, deliberately shopping around for the best easy-access savings rates rather than settling for whatever their bank offers by default. And some, especially those who have watched a parent lose money through reckless day trading, have become fiercely risk-averse, distinguishing sharply between long-term, diversified investing and outright gambling.

There is also a quieter, more emotional side to this. People who suddenly find themselves with an unexpected lump sum — through inheritance, for example — often describe feeling completely paralysed by the decision of what to do with it. Faced with a dizzying menu of options (cash ISA, stocks and shares ISA, premium bonds, overpaying the mortgage), some admit it is simply easier to leave the money untouched in a regular savings account and try not to think about it.

Where to actually start

If any of this resonates, here are some practical starting points that come up again and again in these discussions:

• Build your emergency fund first. Before anything else, aim for 3-6 months of essential expenses in an easily accessible savings account. This is the buffer that stops a single bad month from derailing everything else.
• Understand what is actually available to you. Take the time to learn the basics of ISAs (Cash, Stocks and Shares, and Lifetime ISAs), workplace pensions, and employer contribution matching. These are not advanced concepts — they are foundational, and most people simply were never taught them.
• Shop around for savings rates. Do not assume your existing bank account offers a competitive rate. Comparison sites can quickly reveal whether you are sitting in a 1.5% account when 4-5% options are readily available.
• Separate investing from gambling. Long-term, diversified investing — for example, through low-cost index funds — is a fundamentally different activity from day trading or picking individual stocks speculatively. Understanding that distinction can help ease inherited fears about "losing everything."
• If you receive a windfall, pause before acting. Large, unexpected sums can feel overwhelming. Resist the urge to either freeze completely or spend impulsively — instead, take time to research your options, or consider speaking with an independent financial advisor.
• Advocate for better financial education. Whether that means pushing for curriculum changes, sharing what you learn with friends and family, or simply being transparent about your own financial choices, breaking the cycle of financial illiteracy starts with open conversation.

The bottom line

Ultimately, the "have you given up" question misses something important: for many young people, saving is not a mindset problem — it is a resourcing problem, layered on top of a knowledge gap that was never properly addressed. Fixing that means going beyond blaming individual habits, and starting to look seriously at financial education and the economic pressures that make saving genuinely difficult in the first place.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial advice. Consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor about your specific situation before making major money decisions.