How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2013?

[partgypsy]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Oh dear, after all the fun I've been having shopping for Christmas you have to ask about this?

My financial life is very boring. I work a regular job, and save 10% plus 5% of matching. Since I'm the primary breadwinner (hubby works part time as bartender) that works out to be (guestimating) around 13% of gross and 16% of take home. I've only been doing that for a couple years. Before it was 7% + 5% matching (to try to save more for efund, but it didn't work). Because of a home refinance, we do now have a fund with 2-3 months living expenses, and another fund with another 3 months expenses).

2013, same job, no big surprises. The biggest change is that our youngest is now full time in school. I was hoping that meant hubby might be changing jobs, or doing something to bring in more money because he no longer needs to be full time caregiver, but we just don't agree on that. But since my job is based on grant money, I would love to figure out a way to have more financial security than we do right now. Even something crazy, like fixing up our attic to be a rental apartment (I live near a university and many neighbors do some variety of this), I would consider it.

 

[Octavia]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

I put 8% of my gross pay into my TSP (gov't version of 401(k)) and get a 5% match. There is also another mandatory retirement deduction of about 1%, I think (?) which is separate from TSP. Prior to buying our house over the summer, I was putting an additional 40% of my net pay each check into regular savings, but unfortunately I haven't been able to keep up such a high rate since we moved in due to the various costs of homeownership. Lately I've been saving about 12.5% of my gross pay, or about 15% of my net pay after all deductions (including retirement). I hope this will go up a bit in the new year, since I just paid off the last of my law school loans after throwing every spare penny at them. So that should free up not only the minimum payment amount, but a few hundred more per month. I haven't had time to feel the effects of this yet, though! So I guess overall, I put aside around 21% of my own gross salary plus the 5% match. Not too shabby, but I'm itching to do better.

My hubby and I haven't totally combined financed yet, and we're not exactly on the same page for retirement planning, so a goal for 2013 is to integrate a little better and come up with a "master plan." And although a couple people here think financial planners are a waste of money, I'm pretty sure that we will need one for a session or two to help us get there...but I don't think we will have one actively manage our finances. I just think that an outside perspective can sometimes be very helpful.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Octavia, we used a financial planner last year and we found it helpful. Ours isn't managing things on a regular basis for us, but it was helpful to tell him what we were doing and hear his advice on how to meet a few of our goals. We met with him two or three times and we'll keep in touch as we work through and check off the goals sheet he drew up for us. That's enough for us for now.

 

[NOYFB]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Well...our goal for 2012 *was* 20%, but that didn't work out so well with all of the unexpected things that came up (vet bills, condo special assessments, auto repairs, etc.). So, our revised plan for 2013 is at least 15%. I'm getting a raise and hopefully a huge bump in salary soon, so that should help. I suck at financial planning, but am too cheap to pay for someone to help me. I do have a 401K and am currently putting 3% towards that with a 1% increase per year. LOL

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Guys, I should've made a disclaimer: I have extensive experience working in the financial services industry, I have a Masters in Finance and am also a qualified accountant. I am therefore quite conversant in and enjoy as well as devote a fair amount of time to managing our finances. That's why I don't feel I need nor want a financial advisor.

Please don't let this deter you from using an FA. Some I am sure must be good, otherwise the profession would have already evaporated!

If you are not financially-inclined or don't have time to do research and manage your finances actively, it may be worth it to see one, even if it's just occationally or just the one time upfront for them to help map out your financial goals and plans to achieve them. The best FA's are by word-of-mouth. I wouldn't go to the ones that advertise heavily or ones that come to you. On one of Suze Orman's shows, she said correctly that the ones who have to seek you out are inexperienced without a lot of experience behind them; those that are worth their salt are tried and tested by your friends and relatives and have solid track records to back them up.

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Just under 10% of my pre-tax income goes into my state pension. This is automatic, as I'm a public educator and we have a defined benefit pension plan.
We put 10% of all of our post-tax income into our general savings account.
We put extra into our general savings every year on a monthly basis, it just depends on how much we have left over.
We put the max amount ($5,000) into a Roth IRA for DH every year.
Now that we're expecting a baby we're putting $500 per month into a savings account for the baby. We'll adjust this moving forward, but $500 is where we're going to start. I haven't looked into our state's college tuition plans, but I know we can lock in the current state tuition rate if we open an account and but semesters now, so that's something else we're going to do.

Now that I look at it this doesn't look like much, but I'm happy with what we've saved and how much we add every year.

That's great, Haven. Again for younger people in their 20's and 30's, this kind of ratio is good.

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Ginger,

Thanks for your detailed reply.

Have you heard yet?

No, we were told Tues would be the earliest we'd hear, Thurs the latest.

Really anxious about it - would prefer to get a wiggle on if it is accepted. I imagine getting paperwork through our mortgage broker, bank, and settlement agent will be a PITA around this time of year. Australia basically shuts down for the holidays, far more time taken off work than the area I grew up. Nice most of the time, but not when you're actually on a deadline!

Sooo excited for you! Keep us posted.

Paperwork is always a PITA even without the extented holiday involved. If only you knew how troublesome it is for foreigners like ourselves to buy a landed property in SG!

 

[justginger]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Ginger,

Thanks for your detailed reply.

Have you heard yet?

No, we were told Tues would be the earliest we'd hear, Thurs the latest.

Really anxious about it - would prefer to get a wiggle on if it is accepted. I imagine getting paperwork through our mortgage broker, bank, and settlement agent will be a PITA around this time of year. Australia basically shuts down for the holidays, far more time taken off work than the area I grew up. Nice most of the time, but not when you're actually on a deadline!

Sooo excited for you! Keep us posted.

Paperwork is always a PITA even without the extented holiday involved. If only you knew how troublesome it is for foreigners like ourselves to buy a landed property in SG!

Yes, with our current house I had to receive approval by the national Foreign Investment Review Board before I was allowed to purchase property. Just one more ridiculous hoop to jump through. I appreciate the idea behind it though - there are a LOT of overseas investors buying up Aussie land. They limit that with conditions regarding the mandatory sale of said property within one year if you cease to be an Australian resident.

This time I'm a permanent resident, so I can buy everything is sight!

 

[SB621]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

hmmmmmmm... weird I could have sworn I posted on this topic already but I don't see anything. I guess I will retype!

I took a BIG paycut in 2011 when we moved back to the USA. I had expat status and made about 60% more When we moved back we bought 2 SUV's and a house...oh and had 2 babies back to back....we were busy

As a result we don't save as much as we used to in savings as we have more expenses now (childcare, house, insurance etc etc) but our breakdown is still pretty good

-22% of my income for 401k
-Max out my IRA and come close to maxing out DH's IRA
-12% for DH's TSP
-15% for kids 529 plan (college savings). And my in laws match what we put in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-10% work stock plan (Fortune 5 company)
10-20% per month throw into other savings account, stock or money market account pending what our expenses are that month

For 2013 the goal is to really put more money into our actual savings account as we will probably buy another house next year when we move. I hope to keep our current house as an investment property and rent it out. We also are coming up to our 6 year anniversary and we are trying to plan a rather large luxury vacation with the kids for 2017 when we hit 10 years!!! And include my upgrade with that (at least 4cts please ) so I would like to start saving for those milestones.

 

[Haven]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Just under 10% of my pre-tax income goes into my state pension. This is automatic, as I'm a public educator and we have a defined benefit pension plan.
We put 10% of all of our post-tax income into our general savings account.
We put extra into our general savings every year on a monthly basis, it just depends on how much we have left over.
We put the max amount ($5,000) into a Roth IRA for DH every year.
Now that we're expecting a baby we're putting $500 per month into a savings account for the baby. We'll adjust this moving forward, but $500 is where we're going to start. I haven't looked into our state's college tuition plans, but I know we can lock in the current state tuition rate if we open an account and but semesters now, so that's something else we're going to do.

Now that I look at it this doesn't look like much, but I'm happy with what we've saved and how much we add every year.

That's great, Haven. Again for younger people in their 20's and 30's, this kind of ratio is good.

Too bad DH is in his 40s.

We are simple people with simple desires and don't need much to be happy. We live well within our means, and we have no ambition to ever own a large home or fancy cars. Our priorities are very clear to us, and I'm pretty certain that we can continue to make them happen financially. We are both very committed to having as much free time to spend together as possible, so while we could both work more and thus save more, we choose not to. So far, it's working for us. We would rather have more time than anything else, even money. (Or diamonds!)

Our two biggest financial desires right now are 1) to be able to support my mom when she gets a bit older so she doesn't have to work for her entire life. This would necessitate a larger home or an addition to the one we have now, so she can live with us, so it's a big one. And 2) To keep that savings account going for the baby, and to beef up our monthly contribution to it over time.

We have been talking about putting some sort of plan into action re: our first big goal, but we're not ready to really commit to it, yet. I love our home, and can't imagine leaving it. We've been thinking about purchasing a very modest home in our neighborhood for her, but that is something we wouldn't do for several years. We shall see.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Just under 10% of my pre-tax income goes into my state pension. This is automatic, as I'm a public educator and we have a defined benefit pension plan.
We put 10% of all of our post-tax income into our general savings account.
We put extra into our general savings every year on a monthly basis, it just depends on how much we have left over.
We put the max amount ($5,000) into a Roth IRA for DH every year.
Now that we're expecting a baby we're putting $500 per month into a savings account for the baby. We'll adjust this moving forward, but $500 is where we're going to start. I haven't looked into our state's college tuition plans, but I know we can lock in the current state tuition rate if we open an account and but semesters now, so that's something else we're going to do.
Now that I look at it this doesn't look like much, but I'm happy with what we've saved and how much we add every year.

That's great, Haven. Again for younger people in their 20's and 30's, this kind of ratio is good.

Too bad DH is in his 40s.

We are simple people with simple desires and don't need much to be happy. We live well within our means, and we have no ambition to ever own a large home or fancy cars. Our priorities are very clear to us, and I'm pretty certain that we can continue to make them happen financially. We are both very committed to having as much free time to spend together as possible, so while we could both work more and thus save more, we choose not to. So far, it's working for us. We would rather have more time than anything else, even money. (Or diamonds!)

Our two biggest financial desires right now are 1) to be able to support my mom when she gets a bit older so she doesn't have to work for her entire life. This would necessitate a larger home or an addition to the one we have now, so she can live with us, so it's a big one. And 2) To keep that savings account going for the baby, and to beef up our monthly contribution to it over time.

We have been talking about putting some sort of plan into action re: our first big goal, but we're not ready to really commit to it, yet. I love our home, and can't imagine leaving it. We've been thinking about purchasing a very modest home in our neighborhood for her, but that is something we wouldn't do for several years. We shall see.

Haven - I confess I haven't followed this thread from the beginning, and only clicked in here on page 2, but what does the above bolded language mean? Lock in the current state tuition rate for . . . ??? For 18 yrs from now? Sorry, but I have never heard of this and suspect I may be misunderstanding?

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

hmmmmmmm... weird I could have sworn I posted on this topic already but I don't see anything. I guess I will retype!

I took a BIG paycut in 2011 when we moved back to the USA. I had expat status and made about 60% more When we moved back we bought 2 SUV's and a house...oh and had 2 babies back to back....we were busy

As a result we don't save as much as we used to in savings as we have more expenses now (childcare, house, insurance etc etc) but our breakdown is still pretty good

-22% of my income for 401k
-Max out my IRA and come close to maxing out DH's IRA
-12% for DH's TSP
-15% for kids 529 plan (college savings). And my in laws match what we put in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-10% work stock plan (Fortune 5 company)
10-20% per month throw into other savings account, stock or money market account pending what our expenses are that month

For 2013 the goal is to really put more money into our actual savings account as we will probably buy another house next year when we move. I hope to keep our current house as an investment property and rent it out. We also are coming up to our 6 year anniversary and we are trying to plan a rather large luxury vacation with the kids for 2017 when we hit 10 years!!! And include my upgrade with that (at least 4cts please ) so I would like to start saving for those milestones.

Don't remind me about not being an expat please! When I was an expat in Hong Kong, I was saving 70% of my pay! And when we lived in Shanghai, even though we weren't strictly expats and even though A HUGE amount went out to pay our taxes, we still saved a decent amount - but only b/c I hated going shopping there and I couldn't buy any bling from the US!

WOW, you mean you save 50-70%? Is that post-tax or pre-tax? Either way, that's still a huge percentage! I don't think I want to know how much you used to save before! Maybe I should come to you for financial advice. Congrats!

What is this about an upgrade to at least a 4ct? Enquiring minds want to know! And a luxury vacation too? I am jealous! ...FABULOUS goals!

 

[Haven]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

LV--In Illinois we have the option to purchase what they call a 529 Prepaid program. Here's a brochure:
http://www.529prepaidtuition.org/en/PDF/529PPTPrackbrochure0910FINAL.pdf

The prices may not be what today's tuition costs, I'm not really sure because we haven't yet looked into it. But the prices are fixed, so whatever we pay when we purchase the plan will be the cost of college tuition, should our child go to one of the state schools.

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, I remember seeing pics of you and yr DH on here. He's NOT in his 40's, surely?! You both look like babies, so young and good-looking!

 

[Loves Vintage]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

LV--In Illinois we have the option to purchase what they call a 529 Prepaid program. Here's a brochure:
http://www.529prepaidtuition.org/en/PDF/529PPTPrackbrochure0910FINAL.pdf

The prices may not be what today's tuition costs, I'm not really sure because we haven't yet looked into it. But the prices are fixed, so whatever we pay when we purchase the plan will be the cost of college tuition, should our child go to one of the state schools.

Thanks for the link, Haven. We do not have this in CT, which explains, in part anyway, why I have never heard of it.

 

[Haven]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, I remember seeing pics of you and yr DH on here. He's NOT in his 40's, surely?! You both look like babies, so young and good-looking!

I knew there were a lot of reasons I adore you, Phoenix!
It's the truth; DH is 42. I will pass along your post, I'm sure it will make his day! (I'm 32, but the kicker is that we look like we're the same age. Men.)

I really like this thread, by the way. So much excellent advice and insight, it's awesome!

 

[Haven]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

LV--In Illinois we have the option to purchase what they call a 529 Prepaid program. Here's a brochure:
http://www.529prepaidtuition.org/en/PDF/529PPTPrackbrochure0910FINAL.pdf

The prices may not be what today's tuition costs, I'm not really sure because we haven't yet looked into it. But the prices are fixed, so whatever we pay when we purchase the plan will be the cost of college tuition, should our child go to one of the state schools.

Thanks for the link, Haven. We do not have this in CT, which explains, in part anyway, why I have never heard of it.

I was curious so I looked up the current tuition for U of I and compared it to the plan's cost, and the plan does cost significantly more. I don't know how much we can expect tuition rates to increase over the next 18 years, but this is definitely something we'll take advantage of if we think it makes financial sense. Besides, I'd be so proud if our little one became an Illini one day. No pressure, of course. I remember breaking my mother's heart when I refused to go to her alma mater, I don't want to do that to my kids.

 

[Phoenix]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, I remember seeing pics of you and yr DH on here. He's NOT in his 40's, surely?! You both look like babies, so young and good-looking!

I knew there were a lot of reasons I adore you, Phoenix!
It's the truth; DH is 42. I will pass along your post, I'm sure it will make his day! (I'm 32, but the kicker is that we look like we're the same age. Men.)

I really like this thread, by the way. So much excellent advice and insight, it's awesome!

Awww, you're too sweet!

 

[rubybeth]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

I'm a big money nerd, so I keep track of lots of our money stats. We are both 31 (DH's birthday today!) and have been working to aggressively pay off our student loan debt (our only debt). We live simply, for the most part--no mortgage, car payments, credit card debt, or kids.

Plans and goals for 2013 include going on a vacation to Seattle in May, since we didn't go on any trips in 2012. We also want to get our debt below $15k sometime in 2013. DH is likely going to apply for grad school, and possibly start in the fall of 2013, and our goal will be to pay for his tuition without student loans.

This year, we put 5% into DH's 401(k) and he'll get a match of up to 4% of his salary.
I am required to put 6.25% into public employees retirement plan (defined benefit/pension plan). Employer puts in 7.25%. If I leave, I can take my portion and roll into an IRA.
We paid nearly 20% of our take-home pay toward our debt. Required payments would be about 4% of our take-home, but like I said: aggressively paying this down, because interest rate is not great.
We bought a new-to-us vehicle since my car was on its last legs, which was out of savings, but it cost roughly 12% of our take-home pay. OUCH. Oh, well, DH loves the car.
We then had to replenish our emergency funds, so we saved about 10% of take-home to re-stock that account.
Looking at all of this, we put a huge amount toward debt/retirement/savings this year.

 

[partgypsy]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, my mother went to U of IL, but my sister and I didn't. I don't know if she was disappointed or not, but I know she had an awesome time at school (was actually on the school paper with Roger Ebert, football team went to the Rose bowl, etc). My nephew recently transferred to U of IL. Only after he accepted did they let him know he got a small "legacy" scholarship (not very much $500?) because his grandmother went there. Anyways my mother was very happy about that!

 

[Haven]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, my mother went to U of IL, but my sister and I didn't. I don't know if she was disappointed or not, but I know she had an awesome time at school (was actually on the school paper with Roger Ebert, football team went to the Rose bowl, etc). My nephew recently transferred to U of IL. Only after he accepted did they let him know he got a small "legacy" scholarship (not very much $500?) because his grandmother went there. Anyways my mother was very happy about that!

That's very cool! My mom went to Northwestern and was kind of heartbroken when none of us followed in her footsteps, but here's the thing: I had to pay for college on my own! Northwestern would have cost me triple what U of I cost, AND NU is waaaaaay too close to home, as in my parents could have been on the doorstep of my dorm within 20 minutes. I wanted to get a bit farther away. Had my parents offered to pay for a Northwestern education, that would have been a different story . . . I could have dealt with the proximity for a free ride.

I LOVED my undergrad experience at U of I, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I really wanted to go to a small, private liberal arts school, but I didn't get the scholarships I needed to make it affordable so when I went down to Champaign I thought I was going to hate it. I quickly realized that it was up to me to enjoy my education, or not. Two of my sisters followed me and went to U of I, as well. The fourth went to Iowa, but we can't make fun of her for it because she didn't get in to U of I. (Despite the fact that she had better grades and a higher ACT score than I did--just goes to show you how admissions change over time.)

ANYWAY, to sort of tie this back into the thread , DH and I hope to be able to support our children when (if) they go away to college. I don't think we would pay for the entire education, because I believe paying my own way was very beneficial to me in many ways, but I also don't want my kids to have to compromise on the type of school they attend because of financial reasons, if we can avoid that.

 

[partgypsy]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

I really want to help my kids make college affordable, but saving for their college always seems to come in last (retirement savings, regular bills, unexpected expenses, then college savings). We have started 529's for each of them but they only have about 3K in each of them, and we don't contribute on a regular basis. It's 9+ years away so it's hard to get really motivated about it.

There was no money for my nephew to go to college, so he went to a community college for 2 years, then transferred to U of IL, which makes it doable.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Re: How much r you saving, % wise? Your plans & goals for 2

Haven, I wish I'd had your sense when choosing a college. I also paid my own way, but chose an expensive private school because I'd fallen in love with it. My parents tried to talk sense into me, but I was 18 and was a know-it-all. An then I ate Ramen for years.

Our savings goal for 2013 is to continue living on DH's salary and saving mine. I took a large paycut so that I could reduce my hours (after having a baby), so at this point my salary only accounts for about 30% of our take-home pay. But my medical plan is superior to his and I can still participate in my company-matched 401K, so there are other benefits to my keeping my job.

We just started a large renovation project on our home, so that is going to eat into our savings. We are also planning to buy a new vehicle this year and since we are cash payers, that will eat into savings. All in all, I don't see 2013 as a big savings year for us. Plus we are hoping to have baby #2 in early 2014, which means more costs. Financially, I'm a little nervous about the next few years.

We are chipping away at our mortgage, though. When D asks me what I want for my b-day, mother's day, christmas, etc., I just ask that he put money towards the mortgage. He hates that I don't want any gifts, but it genuinely make me happier putting gift money towards our debt so that we can be debt free ASAP (mortgage is only debt).