Am I trying to save too much???

[Dixiechick]

OK, this issue has been waging a war with me over the past several months. The question is: Am I trying to save too much? Here is the breakdown...I'm not going to use actual numbers, but will give percentages of gross income based on averages:

Pre-tax savings -- 15% (max allowed, employer kicks in additional 5%)

After tax savings -- 12.7% (maxing Roth IRA and cash savings)

Taxes -- 23% (State, Fed, OASDI, Medicare. I may get $750-1000 back, but I want to keep a cushion here because it may fluctuate, but willing to rethink it.)

Mortgage -- 13% (includes taxes & insurance)

Insurances -- 5.3% (health, life and LTC - thinking of dropping LTC until I reach 50+)

House hold thingies -- 6.3% (phone, cable, utilities)

Food & Gas -- 10.5% (Yup, it costs me about $340/mo in gas even with cutting back. It's 50 miles to work and back.)

Debts -- 5.3% (looking to payoff within the next several months)

Misc holdbacks -- 3.9% (yearly dentals, car maintenances (oil changes, tires, etc), kid's sport fees, summer day care, etc....)

Splurge money -- 5%

My issue is that I'm only giving myself 5% of my gross paycheck to do stuff with whether it's to buy clothes, plants, fun things to do with the kids, etc... When the debts are paid off, this will double, but still...

How much out of gross pay should typically be accounted for in splurging??? I know I'm in a good financial situation compared to alot of people. But am I denying myself and kids? We don't go to movies like we once did, we rent now. We don't go out for pizza on Fridays, we buy frozen and cook at home. I just feel that I'm taking some fun out of the picture with my kids. They don't say anything because they hear alot about the price of gas and how much it costs just to run into town. Everything is at least 10+ miles from the house...

What do you all think? Am I complaining for nothing??

I'd like to hear from unbiased 3rd party opinions...

Thanks and have a great weekend everyone!

[noppenbd]

If you want to loosen up a little bit I think you could probably do that...

But you could also just compromise a little:

Maybe go out to a matinee with the kids and sneak in your own candy?

Or order delivery/carryout pizza instead of the frozen pizza? It's not much more where I live...

[maat55]

5% can be 5 dollars or 500 dollars, so generically speaking, when you stop enjoying life, you might be saving ,a tad too much. I'm currently only blowing about 2 to 3% and not missing anything. Of course, my wife might beg to differ.

[humandraydel]

This is really a "to each his own" situation. But, I don't think you are saving too much. My breakdown is pretty similar, with 6% of gross as splurge, and 17% of gross as after tax savings (and 10% pre-tax in 401k).

[DebbieL]

As Maat said above, it makes a difference whether 5% of your pay is $5, $500, etc. I think that if I were personally starting to feel really deprived then I might ease up a bit on the savings. Everyone needs to enjoy themselves in the present to some extent as well as saving for the future.

PS - I just realised I really don't know exactly what percent of my gross I spend on fun stuff!! I think it is between 6-7% on an average month. Sometimes I don't really spend that much - but I make up for it big time other months, lol.

[Aleta]

I think that it is normal to cut back on wants right now until your debts are paid off. You said that you are a few months away from paying off your debts. I found that when we cut back that we had to discover new areas of intertainment. It's not always a bad thing.

As for pizza, there are those that don't like eating out because of all of the questionable ingredients. I personally like cooking from scratch as some call it.

You might think about setting an amount to budget for fun money.

MSN and many other websites have areas with budgets that you can use to compare your budget with those of others to see how your budget is working for you and your family.

Your mortgage percentage is great ( 13%). That's great but you always have to look at having emergency funds, funds for home maintenance, car maintenance, vacations, holidays, gifts, etc. If you don't have any of these categories, you might want to set up a budget after your debts are gone.

You also don't mention your age and whether you are married or how many incomes are involved.

[Dixiechick]

Originally Posted by Aleta

Your mortgage percentage is great ( 13%). That's great but you always have to look at having emergency funds, funds for home maintenance, car maintenance, vacations, holidays, gifts, etc. If you don't have any of these categories, you might want to set up a budget after your debts are gone.

You also don't mention your age and whether you are married or how many incomes are involved.

Oh yeah. I do have the misc category to include car maintenance, medical deductibles, dental, summer day care, home maintenance, etc...

I'm 42 and have about $22K in EF, I'm single with 2 kids - one in college and the other in middle school. My youngest son's college tuition is paid for in a prepaid college tuition through the state.

The 5% covers their "fun" also. The college kid is on 100% scholarship but lives at home so she gets a cut back to her from the school since she doesn't have dorm & food expenses. She pays her own expenses except room and board while living at home. I cover that so she can pay for gas, books, fees, and other expenses. No money from ex per se but he does cover 1/2 their bills; hence my misc fund may seem smaller than normal.

I think I may take $100 a month out of the Roth IRA deposit, that would lighten it up a bit. Any left overs from the other budget items will go back to the IRA at the end of the year...

BTW, 5% equates about $380/month for the 3 of us...

Thanks for the inputs! I don't feel so uptight about it now.

[Aleta]

DixieChick; I would really reccommend a book to you that you could get from your library. It's called ALL YOUR WORTH by Elizabeth Warren. It has alot of extremely helpful advice that I think you would like. I requested the book online with the library.

One area of our life is our wants and sometimes our wants are too low according to her percentages.

Once you find our how much you'll need in retirement; you'll know how much you need to put away.

I think that you are doing great and so are your kids. You've obviously done a great job with them. Congratulations.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Dixiechick

My issue is that I'm only giving myself 5% of my gross paycheck to do stuff with whether it's to buy clothes, plants, fun things to do with the kids, etc... When the debts are paid off, this will double

Only you know if you and the family are feeling deprived, so we can't answer that for you.

I think your breakdown looks fine from the outside. And I think you will feel much more comfortable when that debt is gone and you have an additional 5% free. You may choose to put it all in the fun category, which would be fine given your 28% savings rate. If not, maybe splitting it and boosting savings even more. Whatever works for you guys.

[jIM_Ohio]

Are you saving because
a) it's what you think you should be doing
b) you have a stated goal in mind
c) you like depriving yourself or others from nice things

[Dixiechick]

"Are you saving because
a) it's what you think you should be doing" ------ Yes, I've been taught growing up to save/invest/put aside for a "rainy day".

"b) you have a stated goal in mind" ----- Not so much a goal as a feeling that, for some reason, I'm "behind" on retirement savings...even though I've always been putting 15% pretax in my TSP (401k) since I was 22.

"c) you like depriving yourself or others from nice things" ----- Good heavens, No! When I was married, there was more disposable income and we blew through our fair share.

I guess I'm just feeling the squeeze due to rising gas and food prices cutting into more of my splurg money. I think I'm not too far off the mark. If worse comes to worse, I can always cut back on the saving % to something around 22-25%.

And to the poster mentioning "All Your Worth", I listened to the book on CD! That's why I'm thinking I may be trying to save too much. I'm a little over the saving 20% category. My needs are close to 50% and my wants (as defined by the book) is about 16-17%.

Thanks again!

[Snave]

I like disneysteve's thoughts about using the funds earmarked currently for debt since it is going to be paid off in a few months. If 5% is $380, then that means your debt money at 5.3% is going to net you an additional $400 a month. That would a HUGE addition to your "fun" money.

[ScrimpAndSave]

I often ask myself the same question...and I think my fiance is more annoyed by it. I just want to stay home and fine cheaper things to do..he likes to go out to eat etc...

[TBH]

I dunno, 28% is quite a lot.

Your kids are not going to be at home for too much longer. When they're gone and busy with their own lives, will you regret not doing more fun things with them?

I'd say you should cut back to saving 25%, and instead of blowing that extra 3% on little stuff like pizza and movies, you should save it for some really big, meaningful thing, like taking your kids on a nice trip or something.

But really, I agree with everyone else that it's up to you, and this would be a fine amount to save if you didn't feel pinched. If you feel pinched, I think you'd also be okay if you cut back the savings.

If you've been saving 15% in your retirement account for the last twenty years, I think you could probably to save a bit less and still be okay.

[zetta]

I was curious and ran your numbers through a speadsheet to compare them with the All Your Worth recommendation of 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings. (The 30% wants is what most people supposedly find sustainable over the long term.) Note that these percentages are after taxes are paid, so I had to recalculate your percentages.

Currently you are 50% needs, 42% savings & debt reduction, 6% wants (and 2% rounding error). It's not surprising you're really feeling a pinch. Once your debts are paid, if you move that money into wants you will be 50% needs, 36% savings, 13% wants (and 1% rounding error).

I would run your retirement numbers through this calculator:
Future Value/Annuity Calculation. If you've been saving for retirement since age 20, you may be in good shape.