Savings

[merrijoy]

Just curious, what percent of your paycheck are you saving? Dh and I are having a friendly arguement.

 

[lilyfoot]

Currently between 5-10 percent per paycheck. I''m really happy with how much we''ve saved so far, but obviously the more the better. We''ll be restructuring our budget in January.

 

[megumic]

Well, personally I have no paycheck since I''m a law student, but FI thankfully has income! We save somewhere in the ballpark of 10-20% of his paychecks, depending on the month. It''s less than we''d like to be saving since we''re both living off one paycheck (and going into student loan debt), but ideally we''d be saving more like 25-30%. Hope this helps!

Curious to hear more about the friendly argument...

 

[DivaDiamond007]

We just bought our first place so not much right now! Before we bought our house we were saving around 40% of our income (living with DH''s parents). My DH has 5% automatically taken out and put into his 401K, and on Dec. 31 his company matches 15% of his gross pay for the year. Unfortunately, I don''t have a retirement option at work, but we''re paying off some bills (car!) in the spring so some of that extra money will be put aside for my retirement. DH is 31 and I''m 27.

 

[Luckyeshe]

I''m currently saving about 25% right now and 10% goes into savings, while the rest goes to retirement.

 

[noelwr]

we don''t put any specific amount aside every month. just when the bank accounts get to full, we move some to our savings accounts (we still keep our accounts separate). DH is fantastic at saving and has enough saved that if he didn''t have a job for a year he''d still be able to support himself. for me it''s about 3 months salary. I shop too much.

we have retirement funds that our companies take care of, but we don''t opt to put "extra" money in to there as I don''t have faith that the money will actually be there when retire. I don''t trust the state.

 

[elrohwen]

I'm currently unemployed, but when I was working we were each putting about 10% into retirement then about 25% of what was left into savings.

eta: We never specifically tried to put that 25% away, that was just an average of what it ended up being. We usually just spent money normally, then would move whatever was left in our checking account into savings at the end of the month. Sometimes it was less than 25%, sometimes more.

 

[purrfectpear]

I bank around 50% or more, but then my condo and car are paid off

When I was younger it was closer to 20%.

 

[Abril]

We put about 60% of salary to work (earning more money) in a kind of savings. Not as liquid as cash, but we can always withdraw the principal tax-free.

 

[merrijoy]

Date: 12/18/2009 9:23:48 PM
Author: megumic
Well, personally I have no paycheck since I'm a law student, but FI thankfully has income! We save somewhere in the ballpark of 10-20% of his paychecks, depending on the month. It's less than we'd like to be saving since we're both living off one paycheck (and going into student loan debt), but ideally we'd be saving more like 25-30%. Hope this helps!


Curious to hear more about the friendly argument...

Lol. The friendly argument was that I had said I would like to save about 40% and DH said that was impossible and that most people only save 10-20%. I told him that I bet the folks on PS will say they save 40%+. DH is is a CPA for quite a few years now so I probably should not argue with him about it. Lol. When he saw someone say that they save 60% he called BS. Lol. We discussed and figured a person doing so has to have no expenses at all - no phone, no gas, no debt, no insurance, no medical bills, no taxes, etc. Oh and definitely no kids.

 

[ljmorgan]

We each have 15% of our salary taken out for our retirement accounts, and our jobs match us 5%. From our take home pay, 15-25% a month (depending on purchases) goes into our normal savings account for new vehicles, travel, fun, and just more plain cushion money.) I will say that the 15% that comes off of the top is nice because since we''ve never seen it, we''ve never missed it!

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Date: 12/19/2009 6:10:32 PM
Author: merrijoy

Date: 12/18/2009 9:23:48 PM
Author: megumic
Well, personally I have no paycheck since I''m a law student, but FI thankfully has income! We save somewhere in the ballpark of 10-20% of his paychecks, depending on the month. It''s less than we''d like to be saving since we''re both living off one paycheck (and going into student loan debt), but ideally we''d be saving more like 25-30%. Hope this helps!


Curious to hear more about the friendly argument...

Lol. The friendly argument was that I had said I would like to save about 40% and DH said that was impossible and that most people only save 10-20%. I told him that I bet the folks on PS will say they save 40%+. DH is is a CPA for quite a few years now so I probably should not argue with him about it. Lol. When he saw someone say that they save 60% he called BS. Lol. We discussed and figured a person doing so has to have no expenses at all - no phone, no gas, no debt, no insurance, no medical bills, no taxes, etc. Oh and definitely no kids.

I have to agree with your DH! Either they don''t have many expenses to begin with or they are what I would call wealthy. And I do think that many of those posting on PS are wealthy. DH and I are far from wealthy and save winning the lottery we never will be.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 12/19/2009 7:55:54 PM
Author: DivaDiamond007

Date: 12/19/2009 6:10:32 PM
Author: merrijoy

Date: 12/18/2009 9:23:48 PM
Author: megumic
Well, personally I have no paycheck since I''m a law student, but FI thankfully has income! We save somewhere in the ballpark of 10-20% of his paychecks, depending on the month. It''s less than we''d like to be saving since we''re both living off one paycheck (and going into student loan debt), but ideally we''d be saving more like 25-30%. Hope this helps!


Curious to hear more about the friendly argument...

Lol. The friendly argument was that I had said I would like to save about 40% and DH said that was impossible and that most people only save 10-20%. I told him that I bet the folks on PS will say they save 40%+. DH is is a CPA for quite a few years now so I probably should not argue with him about it. Lol. When he saw someone say that they save 60% he called BS. Lol. We discussed and figured a person doing so has to have no expenses at all - no phone, no gas, no debt, no insurance, no medical bills, no taxes, etc. Oh and definitely no kids.

I have to agree with your DH! Either they don''t have many expenses to begin with or they are what I would call wealthy. And I do think that many of those posting on PS are wealthy. DH and I are far from wealthy and save winning the lottery we never will be.

Also, you do have to consider the number of responses here. One or two here probably do save 60 or more %. I''m sure you''d find that on any message forum. That doesn''t mean that everyone is putting large sums away. Surely some are putting what''s left at the end of the month into savings or getting by. There appears there are some wealthy members here, but there are also A LOT of students!

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 12/18/2009 9:23:02 PM
Author: lilyfoot
Currently between 5-10 percent per paycheck. I''m really happy with how much we''ve saved so far, but obviously the more the better. We''ll be restructuring our budget in January.

Oops, this doesn''t include retirement fund savings, I always forget about that

.

I wish we could save 60%!

 

[Kay]

We save approximately 40% of our after-tax income. Uncle Sam and the State of California "save" almost 40% of our gross income.

We can save aggressively because we spent way less on our house than most of our colleagues.

 

[diamondringlover]

None, I need it all to pay my bills

 

[4ever]

I have just finnished uni and am looking fo a job so have no income but my BF saves about 40-50% of his pay since we live with my parents. Once I have a job and we get our own place I''m hoping to keep saving atleast 30% of our joint income.

 

[that_someone_special]

Not a whole lot... but I do make an effort to put 25-40% of his over time into savings.

 

[swimmer]

Merrijoy,
I call your DH on this. I have to put 12% in my pension, but then put 20% in a 503b. DH puts 30% in his 401k, and we bank 50% of our total net in an online savings that now gives almost 6% return (the more you save the more you earn) so seems a safe place these days. We are about to have our first kid, never had to pay any tuition (yay nerds!), and drive fully paid off cars. We would buy a house, but can''t decide where to live for the next 5 years. Most of our friends are in similar situations; paying dirt cheap rent, a large chunk of savings, and not sure where to go next. Perhaps folks in our situation just don''t go to CPAs? I know! we should buy a house, but where to live? Gah!

 

[cnspotts]

DH saves 20%, me 30%, I got a call from work asking if my % was correct or if I meant 3%?????? I always feel like we''re not saving enough.

 

[lovegem]

Date: 12/20/2009 8:38:41 PM
Author: swimmer
Merrijoy,

I call your DH on this. I have to put 12% in my pension, but then put 20% in a 503b. DH puts 30% in his 401k, and we bank 50% of our total net in an online savings that now gives almost 6% return (the more you save the more you earn) so seems a safe place these days. We are about to have our first kid, never had to pay any tuition (yay nerds!), and drive fully paid off cars. We would buy a house, but can''t decide where to live for the next 5 years. Most of our friends are in similar situations; paying dirt cheap rent, a large chunk of savings, and not sure where to go next. Perhaps folks in our situation just don''t go to CPAs? I know! we should buy a house, but where to live? Gah!

Merrijoy, I hope you realize that it is important for both you and your DH to feel comfortable on saving whatever percentage of your pay check. People make scarifies (i.e. live in smaller apartments, buy used cars, eat at home, etc) to achieve their goal. Swimmers and her friends have done an excellent job at saving up, but not everyone can achieve that level of savings. There are basic needs in every household, what works for her does not mean will work for you. You may want to start with a lower percentage of saving (i.e. 10 - 20 %) to get use to save. You have to get into a habit of saving to really save.

Swimmer, if you don''t mind I ask where you park your money. The highest online savings interest rate I know of is 1.6% from Ally. I would be extremely happy with 6% interest rate right now. Care to share?

 

[JSM]

Right now we save 0% - while we both have jobs, we went for months unemployed and drained our savings (3 months worth of expenses, not bad considering I was a grad student) during that time, and accumulated a lot of bills.

Once we dig ourselves out of this hole, we are going to reevaluate. We''d like to save as much as possible (we can probably swing 30%) and work on a down payment for a home someday.

 

[swimmer]

Date: 12/21/2009 3:14:34 AM
Author: lovegem

Date: 12/20/2009 8:38:41 PM

Author: swimmer

Merrijoy,


I call your DH on this. I have to put 12% in my pension, but then put 20% in a 503b. DH puts 30% in his 401k, and we bank 50% of our total net in an online savings that now gives almost 6% return (the more you save the more you earn) so seems a safe place these days. We are about to have our first kid, never had to pay any tuition (yay nerds!), and drive fully paid off cars. We would buy a house, but can''t decide where to live for the next 5 years. Most of our friends are in similar situations; paying dirt cheap rent, a large chunk of savings, and not sure where to go next. Perhaps folks in our situation just don''t go to CPAs? I know! we should buy a house, but where to live? Gah!

Merrijoy, I hope you realize that it is important for both you and your DH to feel comfortable on saving whatever percentage of your pay check. People make scarifies (i.e. live in smaller apartments, buy used cars, eat at home, etc) to achieve their goal. Swimmers and her friends have done an excellent job at saving up, but not everyone can achieve that level of savings. There are basic needs in every household, what works for her does not mean will work for you. You may want to start with a lower percentage of saving (i.e. 10 - 20 %) to get use to save. You have to get into a habit of saving to really save.


Swimmer, if you don''t mind I ask where you park your money. The highest online savings interest rate I know of is 1.6% from Ally. I would be extremely happy with 6% interest rate right now. Care to share?

Lovegem and Merri, I wasn''t saying in any way that everyone HAD to save that much or that it was normal; we will be saving far less with kids and when we eventually have a mortgage. We got into frugal habits in grad school and haven''t managed to bust out of that rut yet. So, at this point in our lives...well, we earn a nice bit and have minimal expenses. To answer your question Lovegem, with any of the online accounts, once you hit 75-100k in savings, the interest gets better and better than even what they advertise. I suggest HSBC or ING''s premier or plus accounts.

 

[partgypsy]

Up until about 6 months ago 10% went pretax into retirement. It is also matched 5%. But then in the summer I reduced my contribution to 7% because I am trying to save up a bigger emergency fund. However as this was the year of medical expenses haven''t made much headway

. When the e-fund is done I would like to increase our savings rate. There is this book out (I haven''t read it yet, but the reviews say it''s good) "All your worth" that say people should shoot for: 50% necessities, 20% savings, 30% non-necessities. As this is something the author says people should shoot for I would think that people who save 40% are a rarity. Me, I would be esctatic with a 20% savings rate.

 

[charbie]

6% to my 401k, then ~10% goes to savings.

DH and I have joint accounts, and 6% for him goes to his 401k, and ~15% to savings.

We have been keeping a lot more in our checking than savings at the moment, and will be looking into getting a portfolio going in the next year.

 

[Keepingthefaith21]

I put roughly 10% of my paycheck directly into savings and another 10% into retirement. I also put at least 75% of my yearly bonus into my savings account. My company matches my retirement contribution so I am actually putting away 20%. Next year I will start contributing more to my retirement. I wanted to get all my accounts changed over into my new name before I changed any allocations.

 

[bee*]

hardly any at the moment as I''m a student. I''m hoping to save 25% once I graduate.