personal savings

Meanings

1. 1nounplural

   Money that an individual has put aside from income and not spent, kept for future needs rather than used right away.

   Grammar: Takes a plural verb: her personal savings were enough to cover the deposit.

   Patterns

   • use your personal savings to do something
   • dip into your personal savings

   She paid for the course out of her personal savings instead of taking out a loan.

   After two years of careful budgeting, his personal savings reached five thousand dollars.

   Many retirees rely on personal savings as well as a state pension.

2. 2noununcountablebusiness

   In economics, the part of a household's income that is not spent on consumption, counted across a country as a measure of how much people set aside.

   Grammar: Treated as a single figure in statistics: personal savings fell last quarter.

   Patterns

   • the rate of personal savings

   Economists were worried that personal savings had dropped to a record low.

   Higher interest rates tend to encourage personal savings.

   Government figures showed that personal savings rose sharply during the lockdown.

Common combinations

use personal savings

They used personal savings to start the bakery.

dip into personal savings

We had to dip into our personal savings when the boiler broke.

build up personal savings

It takes years to build up personal savings on a low wage.

personal savings rate

The personal savings rate climbed as people spent less.

deplete personal savings

Months without work depleted his personal savings.

Synonyms and how they differ

nest egg

A nest egg is a sum set aside for a specific long-term purpose such as retirement, whereas personal savings can be any money kept back, large or small.

savings

Plain savings is the everyday word; personal savings stresses that the money belongs to an individual rather than a company or government.

capital

Capital is money or assets used to produce more wealth, so it sounds like business, while personal savings sounds like household finance.

Opposites

Word family

save verb

to keep money rather than spend it

saver noun

a person who puts money aside regularly

savings account noun

a bank account that pays interest on deposited money

saving noun

an amount of money or time you avoid spending

Commonly confused: personal savings or personal income?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “personal savings”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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