This Woman Would Very Much Like To Normalize Talking About How Much Is In Our Savings Accounts

Life right now feels... hard. Literally everything is getting more expensive — even the government's grocery cost estimate has spiked. People who were once fortunate enough to own homes now struggle to keep them due to rising home values, property taxes, and mortgage payments. Financial struggles and strict budgets seem practically universal at this point. So, why aren't we talking about it more with each other? From this perspective, one TikToker wants to start an open dialogue: "Can we normalize telling each other what our savings accounts are?"

Hannah Lasche asked this question in a TikTik video that clearly struck a chord (or a nerve, or maybe both); it's racked up more than 50,000 comments and counting. "I really wanna know," she implores. "I feel like I see people saying they have no savings. I feel like I see people having insane savings. And I just don't know what the norm is."

Lasche conceded that everyone has different lives, so this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. Still, it's hard to know if you're entirely off-track when you're reading reports online and not hearing from real people. Or you are, but you're hoping some of the stories you hear are the exception and not the norm.

Such is the case for Lasche, who explains, "I live in Australia. People live with their parents after they graduate high school, in college, and then even later. I know someone who still lives with their parents at 26. No shade at all. But they've lived with their parents the whole time. They have over $60,000 in savings. What?! No. That's nuts."

That savings number is goals, but being a "boomerang kid" isn't an option for everyone. Sure, if you're working a decent job and living at home paying minimal household bills, it can be incredibly easy to pocket money into your savings accounts. But let's face it: Many millennials are working their asses off while making wages that don’t even qualify as middle class anymore to afford mortgage or rent payments plus student loan debt on degrees they may or may not use.

As you can imagine, a lot of this turmoil is reflected in the comments section of Lasche's video. Most people who responded (particularly millennials) shared that they have little to no savings or are living paycheck to paycheck.

"I am 32 and currently have $100.20 in a high-yield savings account. That twenty cents was all interest, baby! 🤪" wrote Peppernaquin.

"There's no way to save because there's actually a rule where if your savings goes over 3k, an appliance breaks," joked Shannon.

"I have leftover fries in the fridge," humble-bragged Jaime Mack.

"I had $10k in 2022. We now have $341. 💔. The economy took us right out," said Donna Samuelson.

A few did share sizeable savings amounts, though.

"50k in my savings account. 1.9 million in investments. 46 years old. At 35 I had virtually no savings, but I did have 600k in investments," Aling Mer.

"I'm 24 I have in my checking 3k, savings 10k, high yield savings 20k, investments — retirement 45k, individual 18k," J.

"I had 12k, then saw Taylor Swift twice and now I have 4K 👍🏼 eeek," Larissa <3 admitted in a deeply relatable confession.

And honestly, it's worth spending a few minutes reading through the comments and responses — there's a lot of sound financial advice there.

But if you feel you're behind in life, you aren't alone.

In fact, a report released by Bread Financial earlier this year found that a giant chunk of younger generations are worried about their financial situation. The study shared that 64% of millennials are so stressed over it that they'd rather skip social activities than worry about the consequences going out might have on their budget. And across all generations, 84% of respondents claimed their social lives had been negatively impacted by their financial concerns.

Yet, financial experts say you should have three times the amount of your salary in savings by the time you hit 40. In this economy? B*tch, please. To the contrary, a recent Forbes study found that the majority of Gen Zers (54%) and Millennials (52%) have less than $5,000 saved — with more than one in four total Americans (28%) having savings below $1,000.

Many folks might feel Lasche is asking too personal of a question. But is it? Yes, money talk has long been taboo, but isn't that part of the problem? So many of us were never exposed to family finances or the realities of financial responsibility, and now we're playing catch-up.

Knowing your bestie, your co-worker, or your neighbor's savings situation may not help you improve your savings plan — sometimes saving any money at all just isn't possible. But Lasche is right. Perhaps just knowing you're not the only one with a sad little savings account might make you walk through life a little lighter. Are you willing to share those deets?