Sort of feel like I am living paycheck to paycheck...

[ScrimpAndSave]

...and I guess it is not necessarily a bad thing.

I currently make about $1500 a pay and immediately put $1000 into my INGsavings account. I put $200 toward rent (which is $400 a month) and then there is $15 for the gym once a month...the rest is for groceries, gas and other miscellaneous things.

So, when my paycheck comes...I basically have it all spent. Even though I am paying myself the $1000 first - I don't use it. Sometimes I think that maybe I need to save less and live a little...


And then another part of my says, "Oh no, no Scrimp...you will never be able to save this much with what you make now (50k!)...when you have a house it will be much harder...so save aggressively now!"

[maat55]

Make sure the house does not stop your ability to save. Too many people buy a house that eats up their ability to save and invest.

[ScrimpAndSave]

Well, after doing some number crunching, I am finding that I will be able to put a downpayment on the house large enough so that my PITI would be $1500 a month. I really don't want to go over that.

We will have an income of $110,000 (and rising at least $10,000 per year because mine goes up $7,000 a year and his will increase, too). He has student loans as well...but that monthly payment will be about $800-$900.

That should give us enough disposable income to save.

[MonkeyMama]

I will personally, never regret the years I lived like that (pretty much age 18-25 though I saved little in the college years because I Was paying for college - but I lived on a shoestring for all those years, for sure. My spouse had a free ride in college and just saved 90% of his paycheck working the whole time). It has made young adulthood immensely easier. Though the most impactful savings years, for us, were the very few years after college.

Just stay the course and know the rest of your life will likely be 1000% easier than most, financially. With these financial building blocks.

& heck, one month out of every year, take that full savings for a month and splurge it, if you must. It probably won't make a large difference. Either that, or give yourself an allowance of something like $100/month just to spend on anything you want. "Little" stuff like that will help you to enjoy while you still save a lot.

[MonkeyMama]

Yeah, we save plenty - LOL. But will never save 75% of our income again. Not for many years again. The benefits of youth I guess.

I understand where scrimp is coming from. We were able to save 50% of our income when we bought a house, but not 75% (As we did before when we were single and able to make cheaper living arrangements, like living with parents). & then we had kids. We're lucky to save 20% any more.

It just goes downhill from here, scrimp...

[kork13]

I'm the same way right now... straight out of college, and without trying I'm able to save about 35% of my pay. I suppose I could do more if I had to, but I think I'm doing just fine. I think the biggest benefit for people who can get into the habit of saving alot early is that as you get older, saving is just instinctual--I wouldn't think of not putting a fair chunk of my money away, and MonkeyMama, I'd bet you probably think along similar lines...

[Snave]

We are sort of like this too. However, I view it differently. We use a budget and pay ourselves first with our savings. We know exactly where our money is going, so it is already allotted. That leaves us with the money that we need to pay bills, have a little fun, etc...At the end of the month, there really isn't a whole lot left in the checking account. However, there is a huge hunk of money that has been shifted over to savings. Technically we could keep that money in our checking account and pay ourselves at the end of the month with what we haven't spent. However, we see more benefit in paying ourselves first. If you feel like it is too tight, then give yourself a little more "fun" money so you don't feel suffocated.

[osadg]

Saving now is the surest way to save yourself from debt in the future.
If you can do it now, keep doing it, your life will be all the better for it!

[disneysteve]

I understand the feeling. 19% of my gross and 50% of DW's gross goes to savings. As a result, we do occasionally hit a cash flow snag where I need to wait for my paycheck to clear before I pay a bill. Either that, or I need to transfer money from the money market into checking to cover something. Makes me feel like I'm living on the edge sometimes even though I know we have plenty of money in savings.

[Almond73]

I'm a newbie here, so please bear with me. But, if you have to ask "am I living paycheck to paycheck", isn't there some discomfort there? Doesn't that discomfort sabatoge saving efforts? Would it hurt to figure out where the discomfort is coming from and ease the saving just a little? I know these questions may be blasphemous on a savings forum, but isn't there some type of balance that can be reached in these situations?

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Almond73

isn't there some type of balance that can be reached in these situations?

I think we all agree with you. We often talk about "balance" here. You need to save but you need to live, too. If you are constantly feeling deprived, at some point, you may rebel against all the saving and go on a spending binge and you don't want to do that. Save enough that you meet your goals but not so much that you feel like you've got no life today.

[tripods68]

If you think you are living to paycheck-to-paycheck now with the enjoyment of being single and renting. Wait until you have kids and a family to raise and a mortgage payment to support. Just enjoy your life

[kork13]

Originally Posted by Almond73

I'm a newbie here, so please bear with me. But, if you have to ask "am I living paycheck to paycheck", isn't there some discomfort there? Doesn't that discomfort sabatoge saving efforts? Would it hurt to figure out where the discomfort is coming from and ease the saving just a little? I know these questions may be blasphemous on a savings forum, but isn't there some type of balance that can be reached in these situations?

Yes, and no.... with some maybe thrown in there.

Yes, it can backfire terribly and make someone say 'forget it', then rush to best buy for a 52" plasma and a new surround sound system. However, you generally won't find that happening. If someone feels uncomfortable with the amount they're saving (as in, being too much), as you said most people will naturally back down on it.

And I think that's the balance... Probably what many of us (at least on these boards, whose saving philosophies may border on scrooge-like at times) have done is either worked up from a low amount of savings, or started high then realized it's too much to sustain, settling around an amount that we're comfortable with.

We only feel 'paycheck-to-paycheck' due to our level of savings, with the knowledge that there is enough liquidity that if it becomes too much, the money is there for you. Thus the HUGE emphasis on EF's you'll see here. It's much easier to save less than to save more, so realistically you can't actually be 'paycheck-to-paycheck' due to high levels of saving. (unless it's all put directly into retirement or other locked-up accounts.... but that's still manageable)

Almond, welcome btw...

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I feel paycheck to paycheck. But it's necessary. We have so many bills right now.