As living expenses such as food and fuel rise, so has the proportion of income we spend on these consumables, putting the squeeze on our ability to save and service debt, a survey reveals. Savings as a percentage of household spending have been declining since 2013, when they represented on average 20% of household spend compared with 14% this past year. The latest Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor results, released this week, reveal that households are spending 67% of their household income on living expenses compared with 62% the previous year. Fourteen percent is being saved, 13% is spent on servicing debt and 6% goes towards insurance and medical schemes. Savings (pension funds, education policies, and so on), as well as insurance and medical scheme costs, have been cut back by a percentage point each, while debt servicing has to 13% of income from 16% last year. Furthermore, the outlook for the economy, and therefore the prospect for saving, is gloomy, according to Rian...
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