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Until something pops out of the ordinary and screws you.
How much $ a month would you find acceptable as a surplus for savings after all of your MAJOR bills have been paid for? ie:Car,Rent,Mortgage, Utilities, cell phone, etc... And what is the minimum you would want to have left? Not to count out the richers here, but the numbers you guys will prob come up with would probably out match my paychecks for the month. lol
Until something pops out of the ordinary and screws you.
Couple hundered a month would give you 2400 a year savings, not high but it depends on how your finances are.
I'm just a person that always like to have something in savings just in case the unexpected happens. I am not against credit cards, but having your own $ always helps imo. Breaking even I guess is okay as long as unexpected crap like your car, or if you have a house having to get repairs doesn't come up.
We try to channel $100 monthly into savings. Of course, said savings is wiped out every time something goes wrong with one of the cars or the house
I map out all expenditures (not just the "big ones"), this includes gas, groceries, cell phones, even spending money (I pay myself a $75 allowance twice a month). After all of that I try to get about 300-400 in the savings account every month. I will do this until I have 6 months worth of bills saved, then will probably increase my allowance and decrease the amount going into savings (probably 125 per paycheck allowance for myself, and my wife, and about 100-200 into savings).
florige, mrsmaalox+, coyotes_geek, Spurstro, Das Texan, marini martini+
Maalox you aren't allowed in this thread because your numbers will more than likely send me into a deep depression.
Between retirement savings and regular savings my wife and I are setting aside about 15% of our income.
Believe me, it depresses me too!florige, mrsmaalox+, coyotes_geek, Spurstro, Das Texan, marini martini+
Maalox you aren't allowed in this thread because your numbers will more than likely send me into a deep depression.
save 30 percent of your paycheck.
I normally am okay up until the winter months when my utility bills usually skyrocket.
During the bubble, and it's probably only a little better now, avg household debt was about 115% of household income.
The US household/personal savings rate has been under 5% for 15 years. The worse the economy is, the higher the savings rate.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/PSAVERT.txt
When 70% of the GDP is consumers buying "instant gratification" , then it's treasonous if you don't, in dubya's immortal words of national security, "Just Go Shopping".
During the bubble, and it's probably only a little better now, avg household debt was about 115% of household income.
The US household/personal savings rate has been under 5% for 15 years. The worse the economy is, the higher the savings rate.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/PSAVERT.txt
When 70% of the GDP is consumers buying "instant gratification" , then it's treasonous if you don't, in dubya's immortal words of national security, "Just Go Shopping".
Its funny you mention that because while I have been debating buying a flat screen television for like 2 years now you would never know people were supposedly struggling if you happened to be in a Walmart on a weekend. Sometimes if I am on duty there like for OT or something, I think to myself, what the kind of jobs do these people have where they can go out and spend like this. Maybe I am just cheap or something. When I was younger and still lving home I didn't give a crap if I lived paycheck to paycheck.
I save in Argentine pesos
I have direct deposit, and each payday, I have my credit union move $100 to savings. That's $2,600/yr.
A brand new, shiny quarter, works for me!
I will admit that when I bought my house 2 years ago, my "gift" to myself was a 50 in Samsung DLP HDTV. I purchased it the day after I signed the papers. As anyone can see by the "DLP", I didn't get the most expensive model, and I did my due dilligence to make sure I got a great deal (I even got 3 years no interest on it). Due to all of this I was able to make this purchase and spend only $30 a month on it (paid off this November, interest free period is up in April).
I know, though, what a way to celebrate the taking on of a huge amount of debt, by going out and racking up more debt. Moment of weakness and all.
I get paid on the 15th and end of the month.
When my end of the month check hits the bank, whatever I have left from the 15 in there automatically goes into savings. Some times its a few hundered dollars and some time its under a 100.
Yeah, all said, if you include the savings, and the money that goes into my investment account, and retirement then we are saving about 14%. If we get raises this year, the biggest change in our lifestyle will be more money added to our retirement. Depending on the size of the raises (if any), we may get a second car since we will be paying off our truck in May (2 years early!).
That's exactly how my father phrased it to me. Approach savings like it's a bill that you have to pay every single month and you stand a much better chance at being a good saver than someone who looks at savings as just whatever money is left over at the end of the month.
Hmm. That's a good routine.
I try to put away atleast $450 a month- $250 a month in the summer, in a liquid cash savings not counting my IRA.
I found that just watching little things like going out for lunch and dinner allow you to save alot more than you would think. Also getting rid of credit cards makes you save alot more too. I switched to an AMEX just so I couldn't get myself into trouble. I have a Visa for emergencies, but I haven't even taken it out of my wallet in 2 years
We're putting quite a bit into savings right now because we have two cars paid off, no kids yet, and we're spending about the same amount of money we spent five years ago when we were making half what we make now.
Once we have kids, new cars and our next home, I would still want to be putting at least $600 a month (not counting 401K's) into savings, hopefully more.
Actually I do it for the 15th as well.
Whatever is left when the next check comes goes ...
This is about exactly what we do
I have a spreadsheet i made back when i went to college, we still use it today for our budget.
I allow $1000 every paycheck (1st and 15th) for Gas, Groceries and Spending money, and $150 a paycheck into savings. My goal is to get the savings to $10,000, then i can divert that money into other forms of investment. This isnt counting the 6% that comes off the top from payroll deductions into 401k. This is just a liquid cash account for emergencies and what not. In the span it will take to reach 10k, i may increase the amount allotted to savings, but not decrease it.
Last edited by Soul_Patch; 03-08-2010 at 01:17 PM.
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