HOW much cash do you have to spare each month and what do you plan to spend it on?
According the latest disposable income study compiled by Scottish Friendly and the Social Mobility Foundation, the average Scottish household has £1,158 left over after paying for essentials such as housing, heating and food, with the cash generally being used to buy less-vital items including clothes and furniture or to earmark for luxuries like holidays or cars.
The thing is, the research found that three in ten households are now choosing to delay making any big purchases, with most saying that thanks to rising prices and static wages they feel they simply cannot spare the cash.
This, says Scottish Friendly’s Calum Bennie, is a function of us being “stuck in a rut of economic uncertainty”.
“The country is anticipating the outcome of Brexit negotiations and the impact this will have on the wider UK economy,” Bennie adds. “Employment levels are continuing to rise [but] this is tempered by the reality that stagnation in wages coupled with creeping inflation is leaving many households needing to do more with less money in real terms.
“Little wonder then that many of us are deferring purchasing big ticket items as we wait to see if the financial situation will improve.”
Does this matter? Surely it makes sense to put a bit of cash aside in times of economic uncertainty so we have something to fall back on if inflation continues to spiral and wages continue to stagnate - or worse.
But with interest rates at next to nothing, does it make more sense to continue to spend as normal as a means of getting the value out of our cash now?
After all, with the UK economy being propped up by the consumer, would it be more damaging in the long term if we all simply stopped spending?
It is not an easy one to answer, although one thing is certain: something has got to give. It is working out what and when that is the tricky part.
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