What % of your Income do you save?

[robex]

We save about 18% of our income in retirement savings. When Dh's benefits start up in December we hope to be saving more.
We put an additional 10% in a savings account for unexpected emergencies, and 20% into a freedom account so we don't go broke over Christmas, car insurance, property tax etc.
WOW! I have never added it all up...that's almost half our income!

[Firefly]

About 29% of it. Saving for a house and a nice car, not necessarily brand new.

[tomkat]

1. 6% of my pay pre-tax goes into my 401K.
2. Approx. $1400/month goes into joint savings account (includes All funds from my freelance job ($800/month) plus approx $600/mo from my 1st job pay)
3. Approx. $610/month of my pay goes into my personal savings (which I dip into very often, because I now pay my credit card in full each month).
4. DH saves anywhere from 25% to 50% of his take-home pay each month.

I wish I'd had the sense to save like this earlier in life! Thanks to my avid-saver husband of 2.5 years, I am getting on track as far as saving now! I made 3 fatal mistakes with my money before I married:
1. Not contributing to 401k at my previous job, which I held for 8 years. I'm now worried if I'll have enough money for retirement (I'm 33 years old).
2. I lived with a roommate for 7 years before I married and had opportunity to save a boatload of money (rent and utilities were really cheap, had my freelance job, plus no kids or student loans), but didn't save nearly as much as I should have. Those were my freewheeling, free-spending days!!!!
3. CREDIT CARD DEBT!!!!!

[pyotr]

According to my Quicken reports which I just checked, we saved 27% of our gross (pre-tax unadjusted) earnings last year and saved 37% of our earnings this year.

[Russell]

Very cool, you guys are saving an amazing portion of your income - wish I could save more. After calculating percentage wise I think I save about 27-30% a year in 401K, ROTH and personal savings. I really hope the DW can pay off her hefty student loans soon so we can start saving more.

[lisajane]

Once I find a way to actually have some recurring revenue, I'd like to put away 30% of the money I make.

As it stands about 50% of the money I make goes on bills. I don't have a stable income

[Russell]

This thread motivated me to find out what percentage of my total income is allocated to various expenses and savings etc. The results are a bit surprising:


Savings: 33.65%
Taxes: 27.64%
Rent: 24.52%
Bills/Food/Gas: 8.00%

That's about 93%...the remaining 7% is most likely spent on luxuries/hobbies etc. But the real surprise is the taxes and rent - I knew I was paying a lot in taxes but didn't know it was that much

[Moi?]

9% of my pre-tax income goes into Superannuation (compulsory).

I try to save about 70% of my after-tax income. I live at home and don't pay many bills so it's not too bad... however, considering I used to be a real spendthrift, it does get tricky at times!

If I find that I need more cash and don't want to touch my savings, I pick up some extra shifts at my weekend job.