Half of all Britons are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Apparently, a third of us are financial fantasists who believe that a higher salary, loan, windfall or inheritance – rather than sound planning – will solve all our monetary worries.

And around another one in six blithely admit they don’t give their situation any thought at all.

Excuse me for a minute while I tear out what’s left of my prematurely white hair…

When savings provider National Savings & Investments asked people to complete the sentence “I don’t worry about my current financial situation because…” the answers were predictably horrifying.

Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) said: “I expect to be earning more in the future”.

Five per cent replied: “I expect to always be able to borrow what I need” and 4 per cent went for: “I expect to receive a windfall or inheritance”.

Another 15 per cent say they simply didn’t bother to think about their finances.

And when NS&I asked people whether they had made any financial plans for their future, 55 per cent said no.

Only 11 per cent said they had a detailed plan and the rest said it was “vague” or they were “working” on it.

Dax Harkins, senior savings strategist at NS&I, points out: “There’s never any guarantee that people will earn more as they get older, so it’s really important that people start their financial planning and start saving as early as possible.”

Talk about stating the obvious – anyone who doesn’t realise that deserves to have their credit and debit cards confiscated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under UK Personal Finance, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.