Savings is an important step on the road to financial resilience.

 Andrew Gall, Head of Savings and Economics at the Building Societies Association and a leader of UK Savings Week joined Tony on the Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast to talk about why saving is about more than pounds and pence. It is about habits, confidence, security, choices, and giving your future self more options.

 Key Takeaways 

• Small savings habits can help build financial resilience over time.
• Saving is personal, and the best approach is one you can stick with.
• Consistent saving matters, even when the amount feels small.
• Savings can provide security, peace of mind, and more choices.
• Getting started is more important than saving perfectly.
• Checking whether your savings are earning interest can help your money work harder.
• It is okay to use savings when you reach your goal or need the money.

 

Tony’s Take: Saving is one of the simplest ways to prepare before life happens. The goal is to find a way to save that fits your life, build the habit, and give your future self more choices.

 

 🎥 Watch this episode below: 

 

🎧 Listen to the podcast below or on your favorite podcast app. 

 

Connect with Andrew Gall: 

 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-gall-uk/

 

Connect with UK Savings Week: 

 

• UK Savings Week Website: https://uksavingsweek.co.uk

 

Resources mentioned: 

 

• Bristol University research: https://www.bsa.org.uk/getmedia/924bff5b-c408-4b26-99f2-ec34a73d3d72/BSA-Saving-Attitudes-Behaviours-Policy-Report-2026.pdf

 

Bio: 

 

Andrew Gall has worked for the Building Societies Association for twenty years. This is the trade body for all of the UK's building societies, customer-owned savings and mortgage providers which have their origins 250 years ago when people came together to start to save. They also represent some of the larger UK credit unions. 

 

Five years ago Andrew led the launch of UK Savings Week, a campaign to get people engaged in saving. This aims to help people to start to save, and to make the most of the money the have. The campaign has grown so that hundreds of organisations - savings providers, businesses, charities, educators, government and others have come together in a cross-sector campaign. Backed by rigorous research and working with partners, UK Savings Week is now delivering results in helping people to build their savings and financial wellbeing.

 

In collaboration with The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (the MAIAs) which celebrate the increasingly important work being done to help people understand money better. Learn more: https://www.maiawards.org.  

 

👉 Start Your Financial Readiness Plan: A free, practical plan that helps you create your in-case-of-emergency Financial First Aid Kit, organize what matters, and prepare before life happens. Start Your Free Financial Readiness Plan  https://www.tonysteuer.com

 

👉 Support Get Ready. Become a Get Ready Insider and help keep the Financial Readiness Plan free, support the podcast, trusted resources, and consumer-first financial education. You’ll receive access to the Get Ready Library. Support Get Ready here. www.tonysteuer.com/support

 

 

Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Tony: How can a small savings habit today create more choices tomorrow?

Welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens. I’m Tony Steuer.

Today, I’m joined by Andrew Gall.

Andrew, welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

Andrew: Hi, Tony. Thank you. It’s great to be with you today.

Tony: We’re here to talk about UK Savings Week.

What inspired the creation of UK Savings Week?

Andrew: In my role, I’m Head of Savings at the Building Societies Association in the UK. That’s the trade body for building societies, which are a group of savings providers in the UK.

We’ve been looking at savings for a long time and asking: How can we really help people start to build savings habits?

The need is pretty extreme.

More than 10% of the UK population has no savings, and another 21% has less than £1,000 to fall back on in an emergency.

Meanwhile, even among people who do have savings, there’s around £300 billion sitting in current accounts and not earning interest.

So people who already have savings could potentially be getting more from their money as well.

The idea for UK Savings Week originally came from one of our members.

A lot of the conversation and reporting around savings tends to be hectoring.

It’s telling people:

“You need to do this.”

“You shouldn’t be doing that.”

“You’re missing out on this interest.”

It’s very negative and not particularly engaging.

We wanted to turn the conversation on its head and talk about saving in a much more positive and engaging way.

We wanted to make saving something people could get behind.

And none of this is really a secret.

Everybody knows saving is good for you.

It’s like exercise or eating healthy food.

But simply telling people off isn’t going to change their behaviour.

That’s what we wanted to address.

Tony: I think that’s important.

It’s also been an issue with the financial literacy movement overall.

A lot of it comes from that perspective of:

“You need to do this.”

As you said, people often already know what they’re supposed to do.

It’s like dieting.

There really isn’t a secret.

People know they should save more money.

But if they’re constantly being hammered about it, it becomes uncomfortable.

Andrew: Exactly.

We all know why we don’t eat healthy food all the time or exercise as much as we should.

Life gets in the way.

With savings, we’ve also had the cost-of-living crisis, high inflation, and situations where people simply don’t have much money left over.

Everybody also faces temptation to spend money on the latest new thing.

So encouraging people can be a better approach than telling them off.

These problems are also really intractable.

They’ve been around forever.

There has been a lot of attention on them for decades, and we’re still not moving the needle very much.

The approach we’ve taken with UK Savings Week is to ask how we can work in partnership and bring in a cross-sector approach.

How can people hear positive messages and encouragement from different areas of their lives?

This year, we’re particularly looking at workplaces and working with employers.

We’re looking at schools for younger people.

We’re working with savings providers, charities, government agencies, and others.

We aren’t going to change habits in a single week.

But we can do something to change the way people think in that moment.

That potentially gives us a way into the bigger question:

How do we change behaviour?

Tony: I think that’s really important.

A recent study in the U.S. showed that financial literacy has actually declined despite all the efforts being made.

So we may need to recalibrate both our approach and our expectations.

Let’s dive a little deeper into UK Savings Week itself.

When you use the word savings, what exactly are you referring to?

Andrew: That’s a crucial question.

It builds directly on what you were saying about research.

We’ve found that doing in-depth research has been incredibly helpful.

We’ve been working with the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol for several years and doing rigorous research into savings.

Everybody knows about savings.

Everybody knows it’s supposedly good.

But when you dig into what people actually mean when they say “savings,” they’re often talking about different things.

That becomes important when you’re discussing policy because people can end up talking across purposes.

Working with the research centre, we developed what they call a taxonomy, but essentially it means different categories of saving.

Sometimes those categories overlap.

For example, somebody may save money during the month simply to help them get through the end of the month when their income has run down.

That helps them pay for groceries and other expenses.

That’s partly cash-flow management or budgeting, but people legitimately describe it as saving.

They save money intending to run it back down.

That’s perfectly valid.

Then someone may be saving for a rainy day.

But even that becomes a grey area when you really examine it.

Is the rainy day replacing a tyre?

Repairing the boiler?

Or is it preparing for job loss or a long-term illness?

Those are very different situations in terms of how much money and what type of savings you might need.

Then you get into more aspirational saving:

Saving for gifts.

Saving for a dream holiday.

Saving for a home.

Eventually, you move toward investments, pensions, and longer-term saving.

All of those things may get described as savings.

But if you’re trying to change behaviour, understand why people aren’t saving, or create policies designed to encourage saving, you have to get much more specific.

Who are you trying to reach?

What behaviour are you trying to change?

Our research has also looked at barriers and the psychological responses around security, safety, empowerment, and longer-term goals.

And there are some interesting numerical findings.

For example, £2,000 emerged as a meaningful threshold.

It isn’t that everyone has to have exactly £2,000.

But statistically, there is a dramatic fall in the likelihood of getting into problem debt once someone has around £2,000 in savings.

Then another threshold appears around £10,000.

That’s obviously a much bigger stretch for many people.

But it’s around that point where people really begin to report feeling financially secure.

There’s a lot of depth here.

When we started UK Savings Week, we didn’t fully appreciate it ourselves.

It has been a voyage of discovery.

Something everybody thinks they understand turns out to be deeply contextual.

And it’s only once you understand those differences that you can really start addressing the challenges.

Tony: I think that’s fascinating.

It also points to a bigger issue in financial literacy: agreeing on terminology.

If you and I are talking about “savings” but mean different things, how do we expect consumers to know what we’re talking about?

People use “savings” to describe an emergency fund, a holiday fund, retirement savings, and other things.

Those are vastly different.

So what does savings actually mean within the UK Savings Week campaign?

Andrew: We’ve realized we need to be specific about the segment we’re focusing on.

One benefit of UK Savings Week is that it is broad.

It’s about getting people engaged in saving, helping them start, and helping people make more of the money they already have.

Much of the campaign works through partner organizations.

They can then have direct conversations with consumers, open accounts where appropriate, provide debt advice if needed, and so on.

We create some of the noise and amplify awareness.

Our partners then have conversations with real people.

But because saving means so many different things, we need to focus the core campaign on a particular group while allowing other organizations to focus on different segments if that makes sense for them.

This year, in September, we’re focusing particularly on young adults between 18 and 35 who are in work.

There are several reasons.

Our research shows they have a particular need.

Around 35% of them couldn’t meet an unexpected £300 expense, compared with about 20% across the wider population.

Around 38% keep most of their money in current accounts rather than accounts earning interest.

That’s also much higher than the population average.

The “in work” part matters because having income at least gives someone an opportunity to save.

But money worries are also affecting work itself.

Around 32% say money worries have negatively affected their performance at work.

Again, that’s higher than average.

The focus also comes from evaluating our previous campaigns.

Among 18- to 35-year-olds who had heard about UK Savings Week, more than 80% took some kind of positive savings action.

That could mean reviewing their accounts.

It could mean stopping to think about needs versus wants.

It could mean looking at budgeting.

So when you combine the level of need with the level of impact we’ve seen, this seemed like a particularly relevant group to focus on this year.

We’re working with influencers who are relevant to that audience.

We’re tailoring the campaign messaging and imagery.

And we’re reaching out through employers and related organizations to reach those young adults.

There are many different groups we could focus on.

But for those reasons, this seemed like a very important one.

Tony: I think one issue with younger people is that we expect them to know these things, but where would they have learned them?

There are financial literacy programs in schools, but they aren’t universal or always comprehensive.

Savings itself seems basic, but as we’ve just discussed, it’s actually quite broad.

One thing you mentioned is where people hold their savings.

What should someone think about once they actually have some money saved?

Andrew: As I mentioned, a high proportion of people keep savings in their current account.

More than a quarter say they never check the interest rate they’re receiving.

Again, it comes back to:

What are you saving for?

Then:

What kind of account makes sense for that goal?

We provide general guidance around whether someone might want to look at a fixed-term account, instant-access account, notice account, or eventually stocks and shares and other investments.

But practically, we encourage people during UK Savings Week to take five or 10 minutes and do a few simple things.

First:

What is your goal?

What are you actually trying to achieve?

Are you trying to build a buffer?

Are you saving for a dream holiday?

Then check the interest rate you’re receiving on your main savings account.

And I think it’s important to stress that this is not supposed to become a full-time job.

Don’t stress about constantly finding the absolute highest rate.

Aim for a decent rate.

It doesn’t have to be the best buy every single day.

Then put a reminder in your phone or calendar to check again in three to six months.

You don’t need to become a professional investor managing a portfolio.

You’re simply keeping an eye on things.

Maybe an account matured.

Maybe you thought you were receiving 4%, and now you’re receiving 1%.

Take a few minutes and check.

Savings Week is an ideal prompt to do that.

Tony: I think that’s really important.

I know I probably keep too much in my checking account sometimes.

Life gets busy.

It does take a little time to deal with these things.

And consumers face this huge laundry list of things they’re supposed to manage with their money.

It can become overwhelming.

Andrew: And you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it either.

Even if you forget.

Even if you don’t do it perfectly.

As long as you’re moving in the right direction, that matters.

We’re not aiming for perfection.

We’re aiming for good habits and good enough returns.

And we always come back to habit formation and starting small.

Just get started.

That’s the main message.

Tony: I think that’s so important.

People can feel overwhelmed:

“Do I need a short-term account?”

“A long-term account?”

“What do I do first?”

But if you start and build the habit, you can move forward.

Where should savings fit into somebody’s regular cash flow?

Should they save before expenses?

After expenses?

How do you think about that?

Andrew: Our message for UK Savings Week is:

Save your way today. Thank yourself tomorrow. 

The “save your way” part means these are general rules of thumb.

Find what works for you.

Generally, we would say that if you can, pay yourself first.

Put something aside before you have the opportunity to spend it.

Some providers in the UK offer payroll deduction, where money goes directly from your pay into a savings account.

That can be a great option because the money doesn’t even have to pass through your current account first.

It’s also important to start small.

You don’t have to put away half your salary.

Start with a small amount and let it build.

Our latest research found that 76% of people felt confident they could save an additional £10 per month.

Even among people who currently have no savings, 38% felt they could save £10 more each month.

So even among people without savings, a meaningful proportion think they could start with a very small amount.

That can be a really important way to build the habit.

If you can pay yourself first, you’re less likely to spend it.

And if you can automate it through a standing order or automatic transfer from your pay into savings, even better.

You’re making the decision when you’re thinking about your future goals.

Then when temptation comes along, you’re less likely to spend that money.

We also encourage people to prepare to be tempted.

One technique is an “if-then” plan.

Before you go onto an app, make a commitment:

“If I see something I want to buy, then I’m going to think of two other things I could use that money for.”

Or:

“If I want to buy another item of clothing, I’m going to think about two similar things I already have in my wardrobe.”

You’re creating a check before you press “Buy Now.”

That helps break the frictionless flow these apps are so good at creating.

Tony: I think that’s incredibly important.

When I was growing up, I’m going to sound like an old-timer here, you had to go to the bank.

You had to get money.

Then you had to physically go to the store or the record store or wherever you were buying something.

Then you actually handed over the money.

That whole process created friction.

And friction gave you time to think:

“Do I really want this?”

Now, with the internet and something like Amazon’s Buy Now button, the information is already stored.

You click the item and you’re done.

That makes it much harder.

So creating a pause, even 10 minutes, can make a difference.

Andrew: Absolutely.

Tony: One of the things we talked about before the show is that saving isn’t really about money.

Obviously, money is what we’re saving.

But why do you say it’s not really about money?

Andrew: That comes from our research.

For most people, saving isn’t emotionally experienced as wealth-building.

It’s experienced as security.

Everyday safety.

A buffer against an unexpected bill.

It contributes to peace of mind.

And when you build the habit, it becomes the foundation for longer-term financial goals.

Our latest research with the University of Bristol really emphasizes that safety and security.

Having savings can give people the freedom to explore new opportunities.

It can lighten the mental load.

It can help them make better financial decisions more broadly.

Another element of this year’s message, Save Your Way Today, Thank Yourself Tomorrow, is gratitude.

Being grateful that you had savings because it allowed you to deal with a broken boiler.

Or get through a period of job loss.

Or help a family member.

This is deeply psychological.

We’ve even mapped some of it against Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Safety and security can be a primary motivation for saving.

Once you start talking only about accumulating £5,000 or £10,000, people don’t necessarily connect with that emotionally.

Obviously, if you’re buying a house, eventually you do need to know how large a deposit you need.

If you’re building a pension, eventually the numbers matter.

But if you’re trying to change behaviour, you need more than numbers.

You need motivation.

That often comes from the emotional side of saving.

So when we say saving isn’t really about pounds, we mean it’s about the freedom, safety, and choices those pounds can provide.

Tony: I think that’s a huge takeaway for everybody working in financial literacy.

Those are the things that actually drive people to take action.

And for consumers listening, if something is holding you back from saving, it can help to ask what’s really going on.

Everybody knows saving is good.

But people don’t save for many different reasons.

And as you’ve said, you don’t have to save £1,000 a week.

If you can start with £10, start there.

Andrew, what small step would you recommend somebody take to start or restart a savings habit?

Andrew: Just start.

There is always a reason not to.

You have a big bill coming.

You haven’t found the perfect savings account.

You don’t have time.

You have to break through that inertia.

As you said, it could be £10 or $10 a month.

The action of saving can be almost as important as the amount.

Start.

Use a small amount.

Find a method that works for you.

And remember, savings are there to be used.

They aren’t supposed to sit somewhere looking pretty forever.

Maybe you build savings during the month and then run them down when you need them.

That’s perfectly valid.

Savings exist to help you when you need them.

And what counts as a need is partly determined by you.

Tony: That’s really important.

We see something similar with retirement.

People spend decades accumulating money, and then retirement arrives and they have difficulty switching from an accumulation mindset to a spending mindset.

If you saved specifically to buy a house, it’s okay to eventually use those savings to buy the house.

That can actually feel difficult because you become attached to seeing the balance grow.

Andrew: Exactly.

And it comes back to psychology.

Those savings gave you safety and security while you were building toward the house.

The same pot of money can have multiple purposes along the way.

Maybe it’s ultimately for a house deposit.

But before you buy the house, it also protects you if you lose your job.

It can help if the car breaks down.

Then when you spend much of it on the house deposit, your safety blanket becomes smaller.

That’s why you may then want to rebuild it.

Again, it’s deeply psychological.

Tony: It all comes back to psychology.

Money is a tool.

In this case, savings are a tool that can help protect you against an unexpected medical expense, a major car repair, job loss, or whatever else life brings.

Andrew, to wrap up, I have what’s called the Get Ready Hot Take Trio.

These are three quick questions I ask all my guests.

First:

What’s one savings myth you’d like to break?

Andrew: That there is one right or wrong way to save.

I’ve touched on this several times.

Our approach is:

Find your way to save. 

Life is complex.

People’s situations are complex.

Saving is about peace of mind, freedom, and lightening your mental load.

The best way to get there depends on you.

Be honest with yourself about what you can save.

Don’t necessarily give yourself an easy ride.

You still have to make decisions.

But rules of thumb are only rules of thumb.

No general rule fully understands your personal circumstances.

Find a method that works for you, that you can stick with, and that helps you begin building that buffer.

Tony: I think that’s really important.

Find a way that works for you and that you can stick with.

A lot of financial literacy advice may be technically sound but unrealistic for a particular person or situation.

What’s one savings habit you personally wish you had started earlier?

Andrew: We already talked about starting, and that applies to me as much as anyone else.

I wish I had started earlier.

But beyond that, I’d say automation.

What has worked well for me is putting money aside immediately after payday.

I wish I had done that earlier because otherwise it’s too easy to spend the money.

Tony: Definitely.

The exact options depend on the country.

In some places you may have payroll savings or retirement-plan deductions.

You can also automate transfers into a savings account.

When it happens automatically, it becomes easier because you don’t have to make the decision every single time.

The last question:

What’s your number one tip to change the way we think about money and savings?

Andrew: Get away from focusing only on pounds and pence, or dollars and cents.

Focus on the behaviour.

Focus on the act of saving.

It isn’t necessarily about building up a pot of a particular size.

It’s about giving yourself peace of mind.

Confidence.

Resilience.

Choices and opportunities when life changes.

Pat yourself on the back for the act of saving, no matter how much you’re saving or how much you accumulate over time.

Saving itself can improve your well-being.

Tony: I think that’s huge.

Recognize the positives.

Even if you haven’t saved as much as you hoped, if you’ve taken action, recognize that.

Give yourself some grace if you don’t hit every goal.

Andrew: Absolutely.

If you hadn’t saved anything, maybe you would have needed to take on debt.

Maybe you would have had fewer choices.

So even if you eventually use the savings and the balance goes back down, the alternative might have been worse.

Celebrate what saving allowed you to do.

Reward yourself, ideally in ways that don’t undermine the saving.

That’s what we’re trying to celebrate through UK Savings Week.

And that’s why the message is:

Save your way today. Thank yourself tomorrow. 

It’s important to celebrate the reasons why saving helped you too.

Tony: I think that’s a great place to wrap up.

Andrew, where can people learn more about you, UK Savings Week, and the resources that go along with it?

Andrew: UK Savings Week is happening September 21st through September 27th this year.

People can find information and resources through UKSavingsWeek.co.uk.

There’s a resource hub there.

And we’re always happy to have conversations and learn from people around the world and across different sectors.

We learn something new every year, and we’re keen to work with others who can help us continue the journey.

Tony: Fantastic.

And if you’re in another country, there may be similar savings initiatives where you live.

Andrew, thanks for joining us on Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

Andrew: Thanks, Tony. It’s been great.

Tony: And thank you, everyone, as always, for tuning in to this episode of Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

If you learned something today that changed the way you think about money and savings, please subscribe and share this episode with a friend.

You can also go to TonySteuer.com to start your free Financial Readiness Plan and begin creating your in-case-of-emergency plan.

Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.