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12-12-2012 at 8:58 AM
littlemiss...
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littlemisswitness is not online. Last active: 01-04-2013, 1:13 PMNewbie

How much into savings?

Can I ask- how much of your take home pay goes into savings? DH and I put no less than 10% into savings, and every bonus/gift of money we recieve goes into it. 10% sounds very low to me, but DH says it's average for middle-class?

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12-12-2012 at 9:22 AM
Apollo1123...
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Apollo11235 is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 10:00 PMBronze

DH and I are both grad students with fellowships/assistantships, and he has a part-time job outside of school as well. I think all of this puts us in the lower-middle class category.

We put about 25-30% of our take-home into savings each month, and even that never seems like enough. Our goals are all still so far away! We're young (25), so we have a lot of savings accounts and goals, though: a too-small emergency fund we're building up, a down-payment fund, saving for a baby, an IRA (we don't have 401k's in grad school, of course), a travel fund, plus we have savings accounts for semiannual insurance bills (so if you count those as bills instead of savings, we save more like 20-25%).

I'm by no means an expert, but I'd say 10% is probably on the low side.


 
12-12-2012 at 9:27 AM
polooo26
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polooo26 is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 1:02 PMBronze

I created a spreadsheet for myself to project how much money I'll have in retirement and how it will run off. Right now I contribute 6% to my 401k and 4% of that is matched. Right now I can retire at 65 and spend 80% of my income if I live to be 85. I'm ok with that right now. My take home pay is split between my generic budget and saving for a house so it's hard to tell how my savings will change once the house is taken care of. It's about a 50/50 split between the budget and house savings.

I think saving 10% is a pretty good start. I would suggest on trying to project how that savings will accumulate over the years and then run off in retirement and go from there.


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12-12-2012 at 9:28 AM
Sisugal
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Sisugal is not online. Last active: 05-12-2013, 8:53 AMPlatinum

We live on one salary and use the other to pay for luxuries, kids college funds, extra for retirement and household renovationsation.

How much to save depends on your situation.  I would pay off debt once I had a good emergency fund in place. Then save for future goals. This is a matter of values/goals and priorities.  Never mind what others do - they do not live at your house, nor pay your bills. Do what works for you.

A good book to help sort things out as a couple is Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach.

 
12-12-2012 at 10:58 AM
LS45
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LS45 is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 11:46 AMNewbie

I'm paying off a car loan still, so most of my extra money goes toward that.  I already have a fully funded E-fund and contribute to retirement savings, but I only save about 5% right now.  For me, it's a better return on my investment to pay off the car loan at 2.9% interest than to stick money in a savings accout that earns less than 1%.


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12-12-2012 at 10:59 AM
Amanda1443...
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Amanda1443994 is not online. Last active: 05-21-2013, 1:42 PMNewbie
If we're talking straight numbers, we put about 20% of our take home income into a savings account (this does not include our retirement/401k/etc). However, I think percentages can be pretty deceiving. There's a big difference between saving 10% of your income if you make $2k a month, versus 10% if you make $100k per month. The more money you make, the more discretionary income you can spend so comparing percentages isn't always equal. But honestly, you're probably saving more than the average family in the U.S. right now--that shouldn't deter you from trying to save as much as you can, though.

"Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are." 
12-12-2012 at 5:51 PM
MommyLiber...
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MommyLiberty5013 is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 10:52 PMSilver
We do about 20% into retirement only from every paycheck. Then, we are building up our E-fund to provide a few more months of cushion.
 
12-13-2012 at 8:26 PM
Wulfgar
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Wulfgar is not online. Last active: 05-23-2013, 8:59 PMNewbie

I am currently putting about 8% into my retirement account.  I put another roughly 10% into short term savings for vacations, gifts, home repairs, emergencies.  My wife puts only a little into savings and retirement.

We both have decent amount of student loans that we are working on paying off.  Hers are on the traditional 10 year plan while my larger one is on a 20 year plan.

If you are also funding retirement accounts you will be ahead of most people in the middle-class.

 
12-16-2012 at 9:55 AM
Kaiene
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Kaiene is not online. Last active: 04-15-2013, 4:36 PMPlatinum

20%

We are aggressively paying off my remaining student loan, and then will be focusing on living off DH's income.

ETA:  This does not include retirement savings. 


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