When we asked 1,000 people aged 40 and over why they spent money on lifestyle upgrades, 32% answered that that they “simply deserved it”.[1] Being a savings bank it got us thinking about savings and the relationship between spending and how we live our lives in our 40s.

Throughout our life, the words “saving” and “lifestyle” don’t normally sit side by side. Spending is about nice cars, good food, new furniture and holidays and saving is about cutting back and restricting… apparently. Well - we disagree. Instead, we think that saving allows us to do all the best things in life; to go on holiday with our family; to care for our home; and to buy food that we know is good quality and makes us feel good.

So, we’ve launched the upgrade lifestyle campaign to raise awareness of how you can save to enjoy the better things in life in your 40s, to do what you love and have always wanted to do, because you’ve worked hard and you deserve it.

The upgrade lifestyle: how much will it cost? Well, according to our research, the top three upgrades we make in our 40s are on our holidays, our cars, and our home. And we’ve done the maths too. Did you know that each individual spends just over £38,000 on upgrades over a five year period?!

Top five lifestyle upgrades for over 40s by £

• Holidays: £11,896

• Car: £7,227

• Home/furniture: £6,500

• Support services (gardeners, drivers, cleaners, concierge service): £3,729

• Expensive hobbies: £1,645

Yet despite this cost, only 22% of us are saving for this lifestyle. Not a luxurious statistic. There’s much more you can be doing and we want to help you get there.

How should you save for an upgrade lifestyle? The first step is to choose a savings product that’s right for you and your lifestyle goals. At RCI Bank we have two products to choose from:

1. Our easy access offers unlimited withdrawals with no penalties and a competitive rate.

2. Our Fixed Term products offer a guaranteed rate over a fixed term of one, two or three years.

• 1 year: 1.71% AER gross

• 2 year: 2.11% AER gross

• 3 year: 2.36% AER gross

Your 40s are the perfect time to kickstart your savings. We know people have high expectations for their futures and our research showed that 35% of those aged 50 and over think they will achieve a more comfortable standard of living between the ages of  61-65. So, while we’re all for ‘living in the now’, it’s crucial that we start thinking about funding our lifestyle upgrades in our 40s as well as throughout our retirement.

To help, we’ve partnered with Faith Archer, personal finance guru and founder of More with Less. Faith’s also passionate about helping people make the most of their money, so she’s shared her tips for how to upgrade your life for less, and how saving helped her get there. https://www.muchmorewithless.co.uk/lifestyle-upgrades-for-less/  

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be posting about our campaign on our Twitter and Facebook page, so stay tuned.

[1] Research carried out by Opinium Research between 9^th – 12^th April 2019 amongst a nationally representative sample of 2,013 UK adults (+18).