Do you have more savings (in the bank) than your peers? How much savings do you have? And is that a lot or a little compared to other generations. Many are looking into various avenues to earn more from their savings. With the exemption of burial insurance for seniors, non-traditional insurance is worth considering.

Savers are currently complaining about the low-interest rates. But that does not mean that fewer people are saving. In fact, the mountain of savings is rising year on year and is now around 370 billion euros. But there are considerable differences per age group.

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For most people, savings serve as a buffer for unforeseen expenses or for a major purchase such as a car or money that you want to put in a house for sale.

Saving yields nothing more

The mountain of savings is growing, but interest income is constantly declining. The European Central Bank ( ECB ) has systematically lowered interest rates in recent years to boost the economy in the eurozone. This has led banks to lower their interest rates.

The major banks in the Netherlands now pay interest rates that are close to zero for freely withdrawable savings accounts. Even a negative interest rate on savings is no longer excluded.

Average piggy bank

But who now suffers the most from the low-interest rates? A household had on average 40,000 euros in bank and savings in 2017 according to CBS. It is true that the average does not say everything. A couple of extremely rich savers distort the picture, they raise the average savings amount considerably with bank balances that most people can only dream of.

It is, therefore, fairer to look at the savings of an average household. In general, a household has 13,000 euros in savings. This so-called median amount means that half of the households have more savings and half less.

Savings per generation

The graph below shows the median savings amounts per age group. Either half of the households in an age group have more, the other half have less.

The savings amount is gradually increasing over the years. But from the age of 65, the saved assets hardly increase anymore. People over the age of 65, on average, have the highest savings assets and are therefore most affected by the low-interest rates.

It is not illogical that the saved assets do not increase much from the age of 65 onwards: when people retire, the income often does not grow or is very limited. In addition, retirement income is often somewhat lower than income from work, which means there is less room to set aside larger amounts. And some elderly people also give wealth to children and grandchildren.

In the graph below you can also see the average savings and bank balances per age group. And indeed, these amounts are a lot higher than the median savings capacity per age group. But as said, this is mainly because the richest savers raise the average considerably.

Saving does not say everything about your assets

Of course, your savings balance does not say everything. You can also look at the so-called net assets. That is the sum of savings, investments and the value of, for example, the owner-occupied home, minus debts such as mortgages and personal loans. So if you think that your savings are yielding you enough earnings, you may want to consider other avenues to earn the income from savings you need.