How Much Of Your Salary Do You Save?

My savings rate at the moment is around 25% of my pre-tax income... though that amount includes my 401(k) contribution (5%) and employer match(4%).

I'm trying to save as much as I can before those money-sucking machines called children come into my life... I've heard they can get expensive.

50% of pretax

Not as much as I would like but there isn't that much room to spare at the moment.

15% pre-tax to my 401(k)
15% post tax net to the emergency fund

This doesn't include any stocks just raw savings nor equity in my home.

I put 7% into my 401k.

I calculated my (monthly savings * 12) / annual salary

and came up with ~ 24%. So I'm saving about 31% at the moment.

After bonus, stock, and side income: 61% pre-tax

100%, Paycheck gets directly deposited right into a savings account.

mariojm said: 85%-90% of post-tax ... around 65-70% of pre-tax.

holy moly.
i thought mine was high at 30%ish.. but 65%?

wonder if people that have 6 figure incomes save more or less.

i remember this post way back of a new grad that was a teacher. he said he tried to save 90% of his salary. too much work no play?

About 15%, but I am putting my 2 children through college. So, not to bad.

Here in NYC I'm saving 56% of my post-tax pay...it used to be 65% in LA, but living in Manhattan is just plain expensive.

75% pre-tax at the moment.

I'm curious to know more about the people who are saving 50% or more of their pay.

1. Why are you saving so much?
Are you in a transition period and saving specifically for something, some kind of life goal to accumulate wealth, desire to retire early?

2. How are you managing to save such a large portion of your pay?
Are you low income but living off mom and dad?
Are you middle income and living well below your means?
Are you well off ($100K+) and living below your means?
Do you have a second job (or fleabay stuff) to make extra money to save?

I understand the need to have a safety net and desire to retire early with a comfortable amount of money. But beyond that I don't see the point of dieing on top of a huge pile of money.

autologic said: I'm curious to know more about the people who are saving 50% or more of their pay.

1. Why are you saving so much?
Are you in a transition period and saving specifically for something, some kind of life goal to accumulate wealth, desire to retire early?

2. How are you managing to save such a large portion of your pay?
Are you low income but living off mom and dad?
Are you middle income and living well below your means?
Are you well off ($100K+) and living below your means?
Do you have a second job (or fleabay stuff) to make extra money to save?

I understand the need to have a safety net and desire to retire early with a comfortable amount of money. But beyond that I don't see the point of dieing on top of a huge pile of money.

It's not dying on top of a huge pile of money, but moreso (for myself anyway, I can't speak for the rest of FW) to retire well before 65. According to some estimates, I may do this around age 40, maybe up to 45 if push comes to shove.

scorched03 said: mariojm said: 85%-90% of post-tax ... around 65-70% of pre-tax.

holy moly.
i thought mine was high at 30%ish.. but 65%?

wonder if people that have 6 figure incomes save more or less.

i remember this post way back of a new grad that was a teacher. he said he tried to save 90% of his salary. too much work no play?I guess if you had extremely cheap housing, no car, and and rarely bought anythig other than food, you can get away with that high of a savings rate. Also, six figure income people have a tough time saving that high because taxes alone will take 40%.

I think anything 10% or higher is a healthy savings rate for the long term.

Aprox 50 percent of my household's after tax income goes to either savings or extra debt repayment (not the required payments, extra on top of that). We are trying to pay down my husband's student loans ASAP. After that (about 2 more years) the money will all go towards savings.

We are young, make decent incomes and would like to build up a cushion and strong position for the future. We both work professional positions. I do eBay on the side but I am not counting that in my figure...we are using that money to purchase a rental property.

scott1961 said: autologic said: I'm curious to know more about the people who are saving 50% or more of their pay.

1. Why are you saving so much?
Are you in a transition period and saving specifically for something, some kind of life goal to accumulate wealth, desire to retire early?

2. How are you managing to save such a large portion of your pay?
Are you low income but living off mom and dad?
Are you middle income and living well below your means?
Are you well off ($100K+) and living below your means?
Do you have a second job (or fleabay stuff) to make extra money to save?

My whole pay check goes straight into a savings account and is only touched to pay year end taxes. I do this for mainly one reason. To show even with inflation and taxes on the interest that you can make enough in the bank to live off. Seems everyone loves to tell me I am actually losing money by having it sit in the bank. If the interest alone can support my family I guess I am proving them wrong

So your situation is that you have a large enough sum of money in the bank to live off the interest earned, aka retired. My question is then why work if this is the case? If you are completely self sufficient why do you work? And if your answer is to keep busy then why do you save to reach a goal (retirement/not working) you aren’t ready for?

autologic said:

So your situation is that you have a large enough sum of money in the bank to live off the interest earned, aka retired. My question is then why work if this is the case? If you are completely self sufficient why do you work? And if your answer is to keep busy then why do you save to reach a goal (retirement/not working) you aren’t ready for?
I really do enjoy working, I own the company so having no boss makes it easy and I get to post on forums all day. Also knowing that I could live off my savings takes away the stress of worrying every day about how business is. I am only 44 so to young to just retire plus if I did then my wife would work part time to get us insurance. I would then have to be more involved with child care. I don't know how women do it, I would rather work 12 hours a day than take care of kids.

autologic said: I'm curious to know more about the people who are saving 50% or more of their pay.

1. Why are you saving so much?
Are you in a transition period and saving specifically for something, some kind of life goal to accumulate wealth, desire to retire early?

2. How are you managing to save such a large portion of your pay?
Are you low income but living off mom and dad?
Are you middle income and living well below your means?
Are you well off ($100K+) and living below your means?
Do you have a second job (or fleabay stuff) to make extra money to save?

I understand the need to have a safety net and desire to retire early with a comfortable amount of money. But beyond that I don't see the point of dieing on top of a huge pile of money.

I would also be curious:
1) do you have kids
2) do you live in a high or low cost area
3) do you live in a modest house, drive modest cars, etc.
4) do you enjoy life or do you obsess about not spending money to the point that you're miserable (not rhetorical, I have relatives on both extremes, penny-pinching misers who cannot possibly enjoy life because they are always worried about spending money on everything, and those who live well beyond their means buying silly junk and will never be able to retire. I like to think there's a happy medium.)

We save 40% of my husband's pre-tax earnings. We don't put anything into a 401(k), since there is no matching, and a money manager who deals in commodities handles most of our money, and he needs to have margin to work with (we also have a sizeable emergency fund in high-yield bank accounts in case he totally bombs), I trust him very much, but he can't do what he does with an IRA, and he gets great returns. So, the 40% of pre-tax amount is actually all saved after taxes.

I'm a stay-at-home mom now, but before I quit, we were saving all of my take-home pay, some in IRAs, some post-tax. We have 1 kid, are trying for another for those that were asking about family situation.

We save so much so that we will have the option to retire very early, we are on track for my husband to retire in about 5 or 6 years if he so desires. We are weighing whether or not we truly want to retire, or try to get into careers we truly enjoy. It's a tough question to answer, so we just save as much as possible to leave our options open as much as possible. We still enjoy life, we love doing outdoor things, free festivals, free concerts, etc, so the saving is not a hardship, if it was, we would adjust it to where it was no longer. There's not much sense in sacrificing the enjoyment of life while you are younger and can best enjoy it for enjoyment when you are older and less healthy, IMO, but there's also no reason to not see how cheap you can go without sacrificing enjoyment.

Scott -just think about it. A million dollars doesn't buy as much now as it did 20 years ago. The same is true for whatever amount is in your bank account.