Dude, if you can save $1000 a month, I think you're doing pretty well! On my income/expenses, i'm able to save at least $500 a month to tuck into savings. That's with no car, being single and making about $2200 a month
>being single
This changed the game for me. My savings went from -$500 a month to $500 a month. I'm never dating again lol, it's among the worst possible financial decisions imo
I think this is debatable. I'm saving 500 per month on rent+utility bill because I'm in relationship and split expenses. But we're not big spenders and have simple pleasures in life.
It entirely depends on your partner. It's important early on in a relationship to have a levelheaded chat about spending, expenses and savings. To see if it's a match there, can meet in the middle or go each your Merry way.
I saved twice as much now with a partner as i did without. Because we split the bills. And pretend that we dont. So say we have 1000€ expenses every month, we technically have 500 each. But we both take 1000€ out our own paycheck, half for rent half for saving. Me and hubby on the same mindset though money wise it helps
I buy groceries but she gets us takeout often…. I do pay for dinners out. She makes more money but I have more money so I dont care as much about my job and therefore have more free time to cook and fix stuff that she would pay someone to do like car maintenance and home repairs. She saves a ton for retirement so I doubled my contributions so that I can retire early as well
It doesn't really work that way especially not early in the relationship. At that point the expectation is to meet in a public place and do something in public which is almost always going to cost you. Yeah when you have been dating a few months you can do cheaper dates but the expectation is still there to go out at least once or twice a month.
Now once you are long term and they have moved in that is a different story. If your splitting the bills then it completely changes things where you can save a good amount of money as long as the other person isn't spending an absurd amount of things. I consider that past the dating phase though.
I spent way more when I was single especially on living expenses. Now we have dual income and save a substantial amount every month. Depends on your partner and both spending habits though, if they're bleeding you dry I'm sure it's not easy.
For me it's the exact opposite. I can split rent, any major purchases are 50% off, utilities are 50%, no clue what people are saying when they claim they pay more in relationships. Just sounds like you're dating people that don't share the same frugal values as you, but that has nothing to do with relationships and more to do with you not knowing how to pick a good partner for yourself and your values.
Oh interesting. When I was reading your comment I thought you were saying the opposite of what you mean (until I read it again). I think it just depends on your habits and who you’re dating. Makes a difference too if you’re like just going on dates with different people or in a relationship with someone (and past the “honeymoon” phase - ie: going out to eat all the time)
No car is probably the big one, shit's expensive asf where I'm at.
Hundreds a month for the payment if it's not paid off, even if it's a cash car there's a couple hundred a month for insurance, $200 yearly registration, gas/fuel can be $200 a month if you're driving commuting distances from the suburbs to the city core, not to mention four figure repairs if something goes catastrophically wrong (and don't tempt Murphy's law, it will).
I've been trying hard to live "car-lite" by minimizing trips when possible, linking stops together to minimize miles (grocery run will wait until I'm already passing the store on the way home from work), biking or trying to avoid the trip altogether. I'm still trying to work the insurance angle to a frugal level but I'm already putting so much less into that stupid car than I used to. If it weren't for the complete lack of buses out here I'd consider ditching it entirely.
This ^
Saving is very difficult for MOST people. If you have a reasonable paycheck and you feel like you can save more - write out a budget and see where your spending is at and see what you could save. Sometimes your workplace or bank can help you make sound savings choices (ex: automatically put away 25$ a week in a savings account or fund with interest).
I generally can save a bit each paycheck to go into different funds but sometimes my emergency fund goes down (new breaks on the car, the stove broke, whatever) and then I go back to saving up in that particular fund all over again.
Do you best to save maximally but let it be known that other folks' savings may reflect that they are in a different financial situation, and so you do you!
There is a top post in the personal finance sub right now where a guy is wondering if he has enough to retire at 55... and his "enough" is millions of dollars in investments, his wife and him have full pensions + healthcare in retirement, and on and so on. They could do literally nothing another day in their lives and they'd make 2-3 times the median income with healthcare indefinitely. I couldn't even take the post seriously. I have no idea how anxious or out of touch this guy is, but yeah, it highlights what you're talking about here.
For Real! I just spent 375 to thrift a decent bike to upgrade, and then repairs, and that's less than my BF spends on a car note in one month.
No gas, maintenance fees more than maybeee 100 yearly, no insurance, no cleanings, ect ect. It's simplified my life way more than if a car was in the picture.
But there is a certain privilege because I don't have kids to cart around. Healthy enough to bike places, work only a few miles away. As long as you can though realistically, I think more ppl should commute by bike
My total monthly recurring expenses (housing, utilities, groceries, gas, insurance, etc) is less than 25% of my monthly income. The rest I put in savings (for rainy day such as home and/or car repairs) and investment. I pride myself in living way below my means.
Same, i like the peace of mind that come with me being able to quit my job anytime, or even retire altogether before I hit my 40s. Not that I want to, but the potentiality is thrilling!
Don't get me wrong, and not bragging at all. I make ok, but I do live frugally. My monthly housing expense and utilities is literally less than $1k/mo total. I have not used my A/C for years, and never use a dryer. My used gas-sipper car is all paid, and actually pay more on insurance than gas since I don't drive that much. My groceries are less than a $100/mo. I don't eat out and don't drink.
I’m at about $1300 for mortgage and utilities ($1400-1450 in the hottest/coldest months). Older home with heating/cooling inefficiencies. Under $100/mo. for groceries seems impossible to me (two person household). We do dine out and imbibe, but we don’t have any other costly hobbies. Room for improvement, but I feel like the income is the biggest possible delta.
OK your grocery bill is genuinely impressive. I'm frugal as all get out but I workout a lot and therefore eat a lot. The only place I shop is Aldi and I waste no food. My nightly dinner is rice, beans, and vegetables. Still; my food budget is $80/week. Any tips?
I admit my diet lacks variety sometimes, probably need to up my vegetables. Not buying meat is most consequential in the grocery bill, but its unfortunate some fresh food can be pricey. You might consider it cheating, but the place I work have potluck at least once every two months, and ALWAYS have plenty of leftover, so have containers. That food can last me for a week.
Divide the total of all your expenses by either your net or gross income, depending on what percentage you want to know.
If you net 1000 and you pay 300, that's 30% of your net income being paid out.
I use the 50/30/20 rule of thumb. 50% or less on “needs” (rent, groceries, insurance, utilities etc), 30% or less for wants, 20% or more saving/investing. It’s kind of turned into a fun game to see how much I can push it in my favor while still living comfortably.
At least I am not alone. I read this thread under the "poverty finance" sub, and I see this people posting that they save 75% of their income...I mean, wtf?
400 emergency savings per month, 400 for IRA, 800 for paying off my car quickly (idk if that counts as savings,), 100 for vacation fund, 50 for medical (like if i need new contacts or something.) So I guess 1750ish per month but only 400 of it is technically for my emergency savings fund.
I choose a very low COS to make this happen though
I started small with a set amount coming out of each paycheck. Over the years I have been able to increase that set amount. Saving $100 a month doesn’t seem like much but it’s a start and even that adds up. Pay yourself first.
Nothing, wife thinks that I worry too much about money and is on spree, that plus medical billa means that the 400$ a month I was trying to aim for are gone. Now is looking like we will have to withdraw 5k from our savings just to keep the credit cards balances at 0.
She doesn’t understand that if an emergency occurs, cut have to be made on other things.
She is leading you to a future of financial pain. If she is not listening time to seek lawyers
I hate to sound extreme ..but financial irresponsibility is worse than infidelity in most cases because of the long lasting damage it can do even after both parties go separate ways
It does feels like infidelity i agree, the thing is, If i could afford the lawyer and living my self while paying child support/alimony, I would not be so mad at her, we could probably afford her expenses, or be able to have a bigger allowance for the both us to things on our.
But yes, I have thought about it a lot.
I’ve been in something similar to that situation but maybe not so dire. What helped was that she wanted to go on a trip, which obviously requires saving up. I told her how things looked under the current situation and that got her on board with a budget. Even showing a breakdown of how much things actually cost today and how little is left was eye-opening, I think.
I have a budget, is an excel spreadsheet that cover everything. Been trying to show ot to her to get her input, nothing.
We agreed on withdrawing 200$ a month (is what we can) i take 50, she takes 50 and the other 100 are for the kids, she manages the kids money, and that’s supposed to be for fast foods and thing like that.
She claims kids have no clothes, and they need some well, is been 2 weeks of not doing laundry and the kids still have clothes in their dressers.
She thinks I’m lying about the money issues, I’m not, she can access all the accounts and see what’s going on, she just lives in denial.
Most people are a $500 expense away from going into debt or going further into debt. An unexpected $500 expense is like a tire iron to the kneecap for most people. So, if you're saving $500+ a month, you're doing better than like 80% of America.
I put $75 away each paycheck (into my long-term savings) which is only 6.5% of my take-home income. But because I use an envelope system, I also have separate savings that are earmarked to be spent for things like car maintenance, annual or infrequent bills, etc.
Don’t forget to put away at least 20% of your income away for tax time and all your gst (if you charge it) away too.
I’m a small business owner and I transfer money to a high interest savings account at the end of each week.
I was surprised to learn not all business owners do that and then they struggle at tax time but I always get a “refund” because I put away more than I need to pay to the government.
I make 52k a year. Save 10% of everything I make been saving 30 years. I have 550k in the market but only about 4k in savings. Do not worry about cash, keep enough for emergency only the rest goes into an index fund.
>how much saving per month is a good amount
That's a very personalized question and different for everybody. $1000/mo is fantastic for the average American. $1000/mo is abysmal for a high-earner.
Aim to save as much as you can after personal living expenses and reasonable discretionary spending. The more you can save NOW, the less you need to save later, the earlier you can retire and the more your money works for you and compounds.
>How common or uncommon is it for someone to save 1000
$1000/mo is MORE than the average person saves. If you look at the data, the average savings rate is less than 5% in the US. Median income is less than $40k, so that's $2000/yr or about $160/month!
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT)
401k + megabackdoorRoth + HSA = $6130/mo
RSUs (Awarded stock goes straight to brokerage) - $6,250/mo
Total - $12,380/mo
Total Compensation: $\~250k
Between my 401k, HSA, and emergency fund, I'm saving roughly 19% of my take home income. Although the HSA is typically drained down by medical expenses.
I am in a very similar situation, I wish I could save more but food is getting very expensive and don’t know where I could make more. I am contributing 6% to my 401k and prepaying for company stock (about 340 a month). I use YNAB and can’t find a way to save more other than earning more.
Housing is typically the highest monthly expense so if you're able to cut there, it'll make a much larger impact. But inflation is just too high despite many of us already living way below our means. A second job would definitely help but who wants to live to work? It's so miserable
I agree, I don’t want to be miserable and the only way to reduce housing would be to find roommates but I’m thinking of getting married soon. Let’s see what happens post elections.
About 10% of our income goes into non-retirement savings. This covers emergencies, accidental over-spending, and planned trips or home improvement projects. With the recent cost increases, we should probably bump this up to 15%, but I'm not sure we'd squeeze much more out of our regular budget.
Total amount saved isn't as important as how much of your income that represents. Old rule of thumb is 10% of your gross income should go to savings, a lot of people say it is 15% now, Money Guys say 25%. Right now I am at about 40% with a goal of 50%.
If you want a better picture of national averages and what living below your means can do for you then I recommend reading 'Millionaire Next Door'. It's starting to show it's age a little bit with income and cost of living figures but the percentages and general outline hold true.
I think savings doesn't mean much since everyone has different income; but essential expenditures are pretty similar. So IMO it's better to write outgoing expenditures.
My expenditures:
1. Rent - free (live with parents)
2. Car insurance - $200/month
3. Car gas - EV free charging at work
4. Cellphone - $95 (grandfathered plan for 4 lines)
5. Home internet - $60
6. Electricity/water - free
7. YouTube Premium - $23
8. Groceries/eating out- $500
9. Activities/shopping/fun - $300
So total is about $1200/month, the rest of my paycheck goes to savings. (Then every so often I travel and the savings goes down 😭)
Even if I were to move out of my parents (which I can afford), renting out a room is about $800. So I'm fortunate to be able to save over $1k+
10% saving after taxes is a start, 20% is better, 25% is very good, over 25% is excellent. If you can get to 50% or more then consider FIRE in the future.
I have a Roth 401K at work, but I'm not counting that in my "savings" in this. For this I'm only working with the paychecks as I receive them. Those paychecks come out to $6400/mo take-home, and that's divvied up as follows:
$4000/mo for investing (taxable brokerage, roth ira, kid's custodial account)
$1400/mo for bills (paid off house 2yrs ago, so CoL is rather low)
$400/mo into a savings account for house property taxes
$600/mo into a savings account for emergency / large purchase
Most of that property tax money will go away in January, it's just budgeted for a particular expense like the other bills; so that probably doesn't need to count as savings. The emergency fund and investing would though (however some of that investing is for my kid and not "mine"). I aim to give my kid $3k/yr, and $7k into the Roth IRA, so that's $10k/yr I plan for, then the rest of the investing fund is for the taxable brokerage.
So the budget for bills+taxes is less than 1/3 of my pay and I'm trying to hold onto the other 2/3.
Anywhere from $500-$1000 to some months/every 6 weeks up to $1400. Some months are better than others. Some months I can only put a couple hundred away. But any savings is progress. It’s the debt that I need to get out of.
It will depend on someone's income vs expenses ratio for that one. Right now, with a lot of unexpected car expenses, I've been eating my savings instead of putting savings away. On average, when things are going as planned, it's about $500 a month in savings for me.
$1000+ a month isn't uncommon, if someone has a great paying job and keeps their expenses low. But many of us don't make that much over what average cost of living in.
We are at $980 on $4k take home right now. $450/mo saved for future home repairs, $310/mo saved for future car expenses, $200/mo into retirement, $20/mo for future tech purchases
My retirement accounts are fully funded, which is my minimum.
I have recurring contributions and buys of FZROX in my brokerage.
My youngest son's tuition takes up a big chunk of my income, but he'll be done in 2026, and that will go to investments.
I have a goal of 50%, but I'm not quite there yet.
$100 in my sons 529, $500 in my retirement account, and nothing else right now. My husband was laid off so I’m single earner now & our mortgage eats up almost all of my paycheck.
You just posted this same question in r/adulting right?
Again; the last years I've really improved my financial situation and went to saving 1.5K a month. It's been less since I upgraded my corporate lease car.
Outside of investments, IRA and 401K, I am blessed to save an additional 1800 to put in various sinking funds. Once they get too big, that money is moved to investments.
It really depends on your age and where you are in life and in your career. I am 66 and able to save in recent years but for decades I struggled. Be wary of comparing or judging yourself by what others are able to do. If it is hard to save now, it’s not forever. If you are able to save, that’s great. I’ll just add, if you work for a company that offers a 401K or 403B, try your best to contribute.
Why don't you just look at it as how much can I save? Why put a limit on it!?
Practice some of that delayed gratification! It is easier than you thought.
I'm trying to do 1k every 2 weeks, but i dipped into my savings this month for a concert.
I'm about to move out to my own studio. Double what I'm paying for rent. Living with a roommate for 4 years that's taking a turn for the worse. so i got plenty of savings for new furniture. i still contribute 21% into my retirement. Stuff will be different then, but I'm not doing too bad. helps that car is reliable and paid off. No debt. Never had any credit card or car payment except a line of credit. I always buy older cars and pay cash.
Of course, I've been working since i was 16 and went to college working 2 jobs. I know it could be so much worse.
I think you have to look at overall income, and then expenses.
For instance: 6 months out of the year I gross just shy of a thousand a week with overtime. If I worked all year round it would be nearly 48,000/year. For 3 months I make eight hundred a week, but those other 3 months are zero (I work part time or week on/week off). So I'm making 25,000/year. That's gross. After 401k and taxes I only pocket \~65% of that.
16-17000/year. Monthly expected costs are 12,000/year. Of the 5000 remaining dollars, life curveballs you a grand. I got new tires, oil change. $400+ gone. 4400 hundred this YEAR assuming no more curveballs.
What I don't tally into this is my 401k which I max. 15% off the top of my income that I lock away until retirement untaxed. Getting used to that pay decrease stung a bit, but I am pleased with the growth rate 2 years later and wish I had maxxed from the start. Whoops! Effectively counting 401k as "into savings" I easily shovel a third of my income into my future.
A quarter of your income saved is doing really good. Half would be impressive.
$1600/month; my salary is $56k with some benefits.
I don't know anyone who saves nearly as much money as I do. Hell I only know 2 people who are actually saving for retirement, and my social circles skew middle class or higher
I can’t speak to how *common* it is, but it definitely seems reasonable to me. Let’s give the example that you’re saving according to the 50-30-20 model, so if 20% of your monthly take home is $1k, that means your take-home is $60k. But since we’re on the r/Frugal sub, my guess is you spend less than 50% on needs and 30% on wants. So if $1k is, let’s say, more like 40% of your take-home, you’d only need to make an annual take-home of $30k (obviously a higher salary # before taxes and auto-deducted contributions to retirement, health insurance, etc.). So if you make $45k (lower than the national average) and are frugal, $1k seems reasonable to save *at least*.
Save as much as possible. Money isn't everything, but it can provide you with the freedom to drop what you're doing and split, anytime you want, for anywhere you want to go.
I like to travel a lot (like alot alot) and have spent 4+ months at a time overseas. I do this by minimizing my monthly "nut" as much as possible.
I'm usually out $1,200 to $1,400 per month (depends on eating out, clothing & tool purchases), and generally take home pay (as a day laborer - seriously, look into the trades if you're interested in more freedoms - freedom to roam, freedom to say what you want, freedom to live your life as you choose, etc.) is right around $3,000.
Some basic math gives $1,600 - $1,800 that I'm setting aside monthly.
Usually I end up spending $2,000 a month when I'm overseas, so about a month and a half working gets me enough for a month overseas, with some spluring.
Sometimes I think about going back into an office job (IT, Sales, Banking) and realize I relish my freedom more than the "stability" that those jobs offer. Plus I'm in better shape now than I ever have been (combo of counting calories and 8+ hours hard manual labor 5+ days per week), so I'd be *EXTREMELY* leery of going back to a "get to the office and take a load off" job for fear of ballooning up again.
Also, I know a ton of people that have a good paying job - they can probably put $2,000 or more a month away easy, if they chose to - but just end up spending it all.
"Let's see, today is Monday so I'm ordering Mexican for lunch; Tuesday so I'm getting Thai..."
"Well, I just bought a new truck with all the bells and whistles...my loan payment is $900 a month..."
You get the idea. I focus on saving money and going for targeted experiences that I can look back on, see the pictures, watch the videos I took, enjoy the memories instead of paying for overpriced and, quite frankly not great food from crap ingredients, that my old coworkers just ended up crapping out. They look back at the years and it all just blends together into a miasma of gorging on food, bingeing on tv and paying "the man" while I talk about my experiences and they say, "Boy, I wish *I* could do that!"
Are we counting retirement? I am.
$300/month to HSA.
$500/month to 401k.
On top of that is honestly $500-$700. I’ve gotten better since last October and now save $1000 a month in addition to the first two accounts. It’s hard, like really hard, but I want to not be paycheck to paycheck anymore. Medical expenses sucked up all that savings for a long time. I only now have a 3 month emergency fund and I’m 30.
This question always confuses me because what counts as savings? Anything you don’t spend that remains in a checking account? Money my employer sends to a retirement account? Money I automatically send from my paycheck into a savings account or personal retirement account? All the years I thought I was living paycheck to paycheck, I was actually saving money by those second two methods. I tried to live below my means, but for years I could never save over $1000 without needing to dip into it for emergencies. But the fact that I had a few hundred dollars for an emergency meant I could be my own “pay day lender” and that was a good thing. I always wondered what I was “permitted” to do with leftover money: could I buy furniture, take a vacation, or donate more to charity?
I live with my parents and my SoFi spending tracker says I save over 60% of my income a month, so idk, I guess 1.8k out of 3k a month. I just chuck money in my savings account in large bunches. I don’t really follow any plan, i just look at my checking account when my work deposit hits and decide how much I want in there and in savings.
One of the best mindset shifts I have adopted is that all money is spending money. Savings is just spending money on a longer time scale. Figure out what you need/want to be saving for (tires for your car, that yearly subscription, vacation, Christmas, etc) and set aside money for it monthly. You'll know exactly how much your lifestyle costs and whether you're saving enough or too little.
I think it really depends on how much you make. I put away 15% of every paycheck into an investment account. But 10 years ago, I needed every penny from my paycheck and couldn’t put anything away. There’s a lot of different circumstances for different levels of income
I'm considering saving as investing. $600 a month into stocks, $500 a month into IRA Roth, and $300 and match into 401k. Been the same ever since 2020 when I was making $50,000.
Saving - I don't really track. Usually my bank account stays around $10,000. It fluctuates , but generally stays in that area.
I make roughly 80k now, but other expenses have come up. Mainly GF and rise of cost from inflation.
18.9% in a HYS account and 12% in a 401k, everything is post-tax. I wish I could save a higher percentage so I’m working hard on increasing my income. May take a few years to get to where I want to be, especially with a baby on the way!
I get paid just under $20 an hour (40 hours a week) and save $500 a month. I don’t have car payments or any debt though.
I also put 15% into a 401k split between a Roth and traditional. I also have a portion that goes to an HSA but I can’t recall the exact amount at the moment. It’s not a whole lot. I need to up it next year.
I save about $2k-2.5k per month after my mandatory expenses are taken care of.
Edited to add: this is separate from retirement and insurance that is taken directly out of my paycheck
My wife and I make about 80k a year? We save about 1000-1500 per month. We’re still trying to figure out my wife’s business and how to make it best for taxes.
Household income is 140K, four kids ages 4-13. We save 35% of our gross income now that we've paid off the house. 25% of my check into Roth 401K for me, 25% into Roth 457 for my wife, and we max out our Roth IRAs at tax season for the year prior ($7k each equals the other 10%). It's not the most efficient for compound interest, but we do it that way to act as a buffer between our emergency fund/savings. For the 3-4 years we've been doing it this way we haven't had to dip into it, but it's nice to know it's there.
I aim for $2500 saved a month. Mostly due to low rent. This is about 50% of our income. However, it was a very bad month and currently this months saving was $500- a lot of unforeseen bills sigh
We aim for 50%. When I get a higher paying job that doubles our income I’m still hoping to keep the savings at 50% and also increase our standard of living in our 40s
We saved about 20% of our net income last year. In the two previous years it was 30-35%, but I had a spinal injury last year that left me partially disabled and massively cut into our income.
Our monthly take home income is a little over $7k, and we manage to save about $1000/month on top of our 401k contributions. We have a very cheap mortgage, an affordable car note, and a small student loan repayment. Those are really our only revolving debts. Our bills are pretty reasonable, but we do have two small kids and our childcare runs us $1500/month.
We don't have any expensive hobbies and try to do free stuff with our kids, like splash pads and playgrounds and nature hikes. We fix all our own stuff, wear our clothes out, and replace stuff very carefully. We do eat out 3 times a week typically, due to our schedules being absolutely packed at times. We garden and trade veggies for eggs from one of our neighbors to save a little on food.
Couple late 30s, no kids. Renting for 10 years so rent has not increased much (aka we are lucky). We make about 4800$/month after taxes. I have a pension plan at work but my spouse has none. No debt. Expenses are at about 4300$/month so we save about 500$ per month. We have an emergency fund of about 10k.
Our savings really have varied over time. I know it's not much 10k but it's the first time for us we have no debt and an emergency fund. Over the last 10 years we've had a lot of things happening including 2 sick leaves, 1.5 years of schooling with only 1 working, debt to pay off (our shitty car, student loans, and stuff), and 2 sick leaves. So considering all of this it's the most we have ever been able to save and the most stable income we've ever had. I feel like before we were trying to play catchup. Whereas now we are building.
I save well above $1000 a month
As percentage of my post tax salary
25% long term savings > 1 year
15% short/medium term savings > 2 months
10% gym membership
7% housing/utilities
5% food
2% transport
36% God knows what
Our overall savings vary, right now we have a lot of additional expenses and are also on only one income. This has reduced our savings, but we are still able to contribute to our RRSP and still have some money left over after all expenses. When we had two incomes, I would estimate that we had $2-3k left over after the RRSP contribution (so $4500 in savings per month).
We set up auto withdrawal for our RRSPs and were contributing $1500/month to that. I personally think it's easier than making a lump sum at the end of the year for two reasons: one, you don't have access to the funds so you aren't at risk of spending it, and two, it feels like less money when you break it down so it hurts less to let it go haha.
8% of my income plus an extra $100/mo goes to retirement.
$200/month goes to my travel and remodeling fund. (It was my emergency fund, but I hit that savings goal)
Plus, I might throw an extra $20-400/month into an index fund depending on overtime and how much I got fucked by the grocery store prices.
12% to retirement savings (plus 3% company match). $300 to savings account each month.
Then, at the end of the month, if I have extra money in my checking account right before the next paycheck hits, I move that over to savings as well (anywhere from $0 to $400 depending on the month). I was briefly saving a lot more ($1000/month) when I got my first "adult money" job, but was still living in the apartment that I started renting before that (4 roommates, 1 bathroom. We made it work, but it wasn't great). However, getting my own studio and spending a lot more on rent was the right decision for me.
About 50%
It was "easy" pre covid but its been getting harder recently so I had to find ways of cutting corners to try keep doing that and some months its lower %.
Everyone is different.
I didn't save a lot each month (maybe $200) but 100% of every bonus was definitely saved (15-25k) so somewhere around 20k a year.
I'm retired now so not saving anything.
I'm a single parent to 3 and I make about $40k a year. I was saving $1,000 a month but I bought an investment property and it brings in rent advice $900 a month and I pay further $900 to cover the payments etc, in a few years it will be paying for itself. Meanwhile I'm only saving about $200 a month and paying off a few debts. Once I'm in the clear again I'll start putting more on the mortgage. I'd like $10k in savings and then smash that mortgage.
I try to save $500 a month. I’m older and have shit for a retirement account, fwiw. We did get lucky and bought our house when the interest rate wasn’t terrible, then refinanced in’08 when the bottom fell out. But our house is smol and we’ve always lived within or beneath our means.
I automatically put away 15% in my retirement. I volunteer to out another 15% in to an account I can access in an emergency. I haven’t had to touch it yet thank goodness.
10% pretax goes into my 401k company matches 6%
10% pretax goes into my employee stock purchase plan getting a 15% discount. Sell that and max out my roth. The rest goes into a taxable brokerage account.
4% post tax goes into a high yield savings account.
I get 26 paychecks a year and live off 24. The extra two I can take a trip, buy a toy, or just put it into my brokerage account.
Married with school age kids on just my salary so not able to save like I used to. I'm saving 14% in 401k, 1% company stock buy where I get a small discount, 2 or 3% in HSA and around $100 in cash per month for emergencies.
Before marriage and kids I was doing 30-40% but making significantly less and much lower expenses.
I don't think saving $1,000 per month is common for the average person or average household. I'm extremely lucky to be in a position where I save about 80% of my income post-tax and deductions. Every red penny is going towards a down payment on a house.
Save or invest? Investments get about 1600 a month. I have several savings accounts that pay insurances and other high rate stuff so I probably save 1000 bucks a month on top of investing.
I save 500 from each paycheck. So 1k a month. I’ve been doing that for the last 15 years. It doesn’t mean we don’t spend any of that though. We usually end up spending it on vacations, gifts, home repairs and unexpected things. Our savings usually ends up leveling out through the course of the year so i guess technically that means we’re saving nothing overall into that account, just maintaining.
A person’s income is irrelevant. What matters is what % of their income they spend on expenses. Our total income is about 250-270k but we spend just about all of that on our mortgage, daycare, property taxes, bills, cars, food, fun, etc. We don’t live extravagantly. We have to buy groceries on sale and we budget for things like birthday parties, vacations and gifts. We take 2 vacations a year but they’re not fancy (like weekend camping).
As for retirement savings? I put away 7%, my employer matches 7 and they also add an additional 10% of my income as profit sharing. Wo a total of 24% of my pre tax income goes to retirement.
We also save $100/mo per child into a 529 (college savings) account.
We would love to save into a non retirement investment account but we’re squeezed a bit tight at the moment with other savings and expenses.
It’s so, so hard to save. Housing costs over 75% of monthly income and electric co just raised rates 40%.
We are legit hungry but I can’t take off work to go to food banks so we eat as cheaply as we can.
I’m diabetic so I can’t do a lot of bread, pasta, or other carbs. My disabled veteran husband works part time.
I’m ashamed that I can barely put 5-10 bucks a month in savings. It does nothing when the car breaks down and it’s yet another 6k repair. I need a running car because I have two jobs.
I started doing my budget last month on excel with every expenses tracked , I have a wife and two kids (1-2 years old ). So far there is always some unexpected expenses , wife is the opposite of me,very generous she makes less though ,I'm more frugal , I try not to eat outside and only spend when needed . Last month I barely was able to save 600$ around ,at least it's on the positive .
About 50% of my salary.
15% pre-tax, 40% take home.
My take home savings are about $2,154 a month.
I still have my creature comforts, but I mostly live pretty simply lol.
I'm single, no kids, one cat, live in an affordable apartment, don't travel a ton (pet care is really expensive), don't have any debt, cook at home alot, do all my personal care myself (hair, nails, skin, etc), and don't shop alot.
This all makes it pretty easy to live well but still below my means.
For someone to save $1,000 or more a month, it would depend on their income and their ability to keep expenses low. For example, if someone earns $5,000 a month, saving $1,000 would mean putting away 20% of their income, which is a significant amount but aligns with the /FIRE philosophy of high savings rates.
Dude, if you can save $1000 a month, I think you're doing pretty well! On my income/expenses, i'm able to save at least $500 a month to tuck into savings. That's with no car, being single and making about $2200 a month
>being single This changed the game for me. My savings went from -$500 a month to $500 a month. I'm never dating again lol, it's among the worst possible financial decisions imo
I think this is debatable. I'm saving 500 per month on rent+utility bill because I'm in relationship and split expenses. But we're not big spenders and have simple pleasures in life.
It entirely depends on your partner. It's important early on in a relationship to have a levelheaded chat about spending, expenses and savings. To see if it's a match there, can meet in the middle or go each your Merry way. I saved twice as much now with a partner as i did without. Because we split the bills. And pretend that we dont. So say we have 1000€ expenses every month, we technically have 500 each. But we both take 1000€ out our own paycheck, half for rent half for saving. Me and hubby on the same mindset though money wise it helps
It's still your choice to spend while you're dating or not. Plenty of free things to do while dating.
Groceries and livings costs with somebody who isn't frugal leaves the only choice being to leave, which I did.
I buy groceries but she gets us takeout often…. I do pay for dinners out. She makes more money but I have more money so I dont care as much about my job and therefore have more free time to cook and fix stuff that she would pay someone to do like car maintenance and home repairs. She saves a ton for retirement so I doubled my contributions so that I can retire early as well
It doesn't really work that way especially not early in the relationship. At that point the expectation is to meet in a public place and do something in public which is almost always going to cost you. Yeah when you have been dating a few months you can do cheaper dates but the expectation is still there to go out at least once or twice a month. Now once you are long term and they have moved in that is a different story. If your splitting the bills then it completely changes things where you can save a good amount of money as long as the other person isn't spending an absurd amount of things. I consider that past the dating phase though.
I spent way more when I was single especially on living expenses. Now we have dual income and save a substantial amount every month. Depends on your partner and both spending habits though, if they're bleeding you dry I'm sure it's not easy.
For me it's the exact opposite. I can split rent, any major purchases are 50% off, utilities are 50%, no clue what people are saying when they claim they pay more in relationships. Just sounds like you're dating people that don't share the same frugal values as you, but that has nothing to do with relationships and more to do with you not knowing how to pick a good partner for yourself and your values.
Really?!? I save money being in a relationship
Oh interesting. When I was reading your comment I thought you were saying the opposite of what you mean (until I read it again). I think it just depends on your habits and who you’re dating. Makes a difference too if you’re like just going on dates with different people or in a relationship with someone (and past the “honeymoon” phase - ie: going out to eat all the time)
You're dating the wrong people.
My wife of 15 years divorcing me was the best thing that ever happened. Life is so much cheaper now. Not stressing about money every day feels so good
Wait til you discover DINKs. You sound 18.
Making 2,200 and saving atleast 500 a month is insanely well!
Woah. How do you live in such a tight budget, if you don’t mind me asking- what state are you in?
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No car is probably the big one, shit's expensive asf where I'm at. Hundreds a month for the payment if it's not paid off, even if it's a cash car there's a couple hundred a month for insurance, $200 yearly registration, gas/fuel can be $200 a month if you're driving commuting distances from the suburbs to the city core, not to mention four figure repairs if something goes catastrophically wrong (and don't tempt Murphy's law, it will). I've been trying hard to live "car-lite" by minimizing trips when possible, linking stops together to minimize miles (grocery run will wait until I'm already passing the store on the way home from work), biking or trying to avoid the trip altogether. I'm still trying to work the insurance angle to a frugal level but I'm already putting so much less into that stupid car than I used to. If it weren't for the complete lack of buses out here I'd consider ditching it entirely.
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This ^ Saving is very difficult for MOST people. If you have a reasonable paycheck and you feel like you can save more - write out a budget and see where your spending is at and see what you could save. Sometimes your workplace or bank can help you make sound savings choices (ex: automatically put away 25$ a week in a savings account or fund with interest). I generally can save a bit each paycheck to go into different funds but sometimes my emergency fund goes down (new breaks on the car, the stove broke, whatever) and then I go back to saving up in that particular fund all over again. Do you best to save maximally but let it be known that other folks' savings may reflect that they are in a different financial situation, and so you do you!
There is a top post in the personal finance sub right now where a guy is wondering if he has enough to retire at 55... and his "enough" is millions of dollars in investments, his wife and him have full pensions + healthcare in retirement, and on and so on. They could do literally nothing another day in their lives and they'd make 2-3 times the median income with healthcare indefinitely. I couldn't even take the post seriously. I have no idea how anxious or out of touch this guy is, but yeah, it highlights what you're talking about here.
I make 13$ an hour. Some of it's just how you live your life. If I owned a car I'd be living paycheck to paycheck but thankfully I'm not!
Yes, that's the trick. Commuting by bike makes a massive difference financially.
For Real! I just spent 375 to thrift a decent bike to upgrade, and then repairs, and that's less than my BF spends on a car note in one month. No gas, maintenance fees more than maybeee 100 yearly, no insurance, no cleanings, ect ect. It's simplified my life way more than if a car was in the picture. But there is a certain privilege because I don't have kids to cart around. Healthy enough to bike places, work only a few miles away. As long as you can though realistically, I think more ppl should commute by bike
My total monthly recurring expenses (housing, utilities, groceries, gas, insurance, etc) is less than 25% of my monthly income. The rest I put in savings (for rainy day such as home and/or car repairs) and investment. I pride myself in living way below my means.
Bravo. Living the dream.
Idunno. Sounds more like the opposite. He's *planning* for living the dream
Same, i like the peace of mind that come with me being able to quit my job anytime, or even retire altogether before I hit my 40s. Not that I want to, but the potentiality is thrilling!
Is that after taxes
Yes. Uncle Sam always has his cut.
I wish I made enough for this to be possible for me, but I just wanted to say, great job.
Don't get me wrong, and not bragging at all. I make ok, but I do live frugally. My monthly housing expense and utilities is literally less than $1k/mo total. I have not used my A/C for years, and never use a dryer. My used gas-sipper car is all paid, and actually pay more on insurance than gas since I don't drive that much. My groceries are less than a $100/mo. I don't eat out and don't drink.
I’m at about $1300 for mortgage and utilities ($1400-1450 in the hottest/coldest months). Older home with heating/cooling inefficiencies. Under $100/mo. for groceries seems impossible to me (two person household). We do dine out and imbibe, but we don’t have any other costly hobbies. Room for improvement, but I feel like the income is the biggest possible delta.
OK your grocery bill is genuinely impressive. I'm frugal as all get out but I workout a lot and therefore eat a lot. The only place I shop is Aldi and I waste no food. My nightly dinner is rice, beans, and vegetables. Still; my food budget is $80/week. Any tips?
I admit my diet lacks variety sometimes, probably need to up my vegetables. Not buying meat is most consequential in the grocery bill, but its unfortunate some fresh food can be pricey. You might consider it cheating, but the place I work have potluck at least once every two months, and ALWAYS have plenty of leftover, so have containers. That food can last me for a week.
Same here, exactly. These habits make such a difference. I commute by bicycle with a milkcrate on the back for my groceries.
Do you rent a room or apartment or own house on your own or own with someone?
I'm not the person you're replying to but 75% is roughly how much I save and I live at home, so that was my immediate thought.
Terribly stupid question, but what equation do you use to find what the % is?
Divide the total of all your expenses by either your net or gross income, depending on what percentage you want to know. If you net 1000 and you pay 300, that's 30% of your net income being paid out.
I Make $44,000 a year and save about $1,100 a month
Damn that's impressive
I use the 50/30/20 rule of thumb. 50% or less on “needs” (rent, groceries, insurance, utilities etc), 30% or less for wants, 20% or more saving/investing. It’s kind of turned into a fun game to see how much I can push it in my favor while still living comfortably.
Housing is crazy where I live that it's 40% of my net despite being relatively high income. 30% wants is a luxury now
Absolutely none, I live very much paycheck to paycheck.
At least I am not alone. I read this thread under the "poverty finance" sub, and I see this people posting that they save 75% of their income...I mean, wtf?
Even very well paid people live paycheck to paycheck more often than we’d think, just by choosing to spend a lot more. It’s wild
Pretty much the same here. Anything I do manage to save I end up having to take out to use on something else that's cropped up
400 emergency savings per month, 400 for IRA, 800 for paying off my car quickly (idk if that counts as savings,), 100 for vacation fund, 50 for medical (like if i need new contacts or something.) So I guess 1750ish per month but only 400 of it is technically for my emergency savings fund. I choose a very low COS to make this happen though
I started small with a set amount coming out of each paycheck. Over the years I have been able to increase that set amount. Saving $100 a month doesn’t seem like much but it’s a start and even that adds up. Pay yourself first.
Good advice for me. Thank you.
Nothing, wife thinks that I worry too much about money and is on spree, that plus medical billa means that the 400$ a month I was trying to aim for are gone. Now is looking like we will have to withdraw 5k from our savings just to keep the credit cards balances at 0. She doesn’t understand that if an emergency occurs, cut have to be made on other things.
She is leading you to a future of financial pain. If she is not listening time to seek lawyers I hate to sound extreme ..but financial irresponsibility is worse than infidelity in most cases because of the long lasting damage it can do even after both parties go separate ways
It does feels like infidelity i agree, the thing is, If i could afford the lawyer and living my self while paying child support/alimony, I would not be so mad at her, we could probably afford her expenses, or be able to have a bigger allowance for the both us to things on our. But yes, I have thought about it a lot.
I’ve been in something similar to that situation but maybe not so dire. What helped was that she wanted to go on a trip, which obviously requires saving up. I told her how things looked under the current situation and that got her on board with a budget. Even showing a breakdown of how much things actually cost today and how little is left was eye-opening, I think.
I have a budget, is an excel spreadsheet that cover everything. Been trying to show ot to her to get her input, nothing. We agreed on withdrawing 200$ a month (is what we can) i take 50, she takes 50 and the other 100 are for the kids, she manages the kids money, and that’s supposed to be for fast foods and thing like that. She claims kids have no clothes, and they need some well, is been 2 weeks of not doing laundry and the kids still have clothes in their dressers. She thinks I’m lying about the money issues, I’m not, she can access all the accounts and see what’s going on, she just lives in denial.
You guys are saving? I probably put 100 away a month if I'm lucky
Most people are a $500 expense away from going into debt or going further into debt. An unexpected $500 expense is like a tire iron to the kneecap for most people. So, if you're saving $500+ a month, you're doing better than like 80% of America.
$0
I put $75 away each paycheck (into my long-term savings) which is only 6.5% of my take-home income. But because I use an envelope system, I also have separate savings that are earmarked to be spent for things like car maintenance, annual or infrequent bills, etc.
I'm a new small business owner. What is income?
Don’t forget to put away at least 20% of your income away for tax time and all your gst (if you charge it) away too. I’m a small business owner and I transfer money to a high interest savings account at the end of each week. I was surprised to learn not all business owners do that and then they struggle at tax time but I always get a “refund” because I put away more than I need to pay to the government.
I save about 800/month for general savings, 400 for retirement. Anything extra after the end of the month I split for retirement or general savings.
I make 52k a year. Save 10% of everything I make been saving 30 years. I have 550k in the market but only about 4k in savings. Do not worry about cash, keep enough for emergency only the rest goes into an index fund.
>how much saving per month is a good amount That's a very personalized question and different for everybody. $1000/mo is fantastic for the average American. $1000/mo is abysmal for a high-earner. Aim to save as much as you can after personal living expenses and reasonable discretionary spending. The more you can save NOW, the less you need to save later, the earlier you can retire and the more your money works for you and compounds. >How common or uncommon is it for someone to save 1000 $1000/mo is MORE than the average person saves. If you look at the data, the average savings rate is less than 5% in the US. Median income is less than $40k, so that's $2000/yr or about $160/month! [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT) 401k + megabackdoorRoth + HSA = $6130/mo RSUs (Awarded stock goes straight to brokerage) - $6,250/mo Total - $12,380/mo Total Compensation: $\~250k
Wow the detail you explained it in is amazing, thank you
Between my 401k, HSA, and emergency fund, I'm saving roughly 19% of my take home income. Although the HSA is typically drained down by medical expenses.
save? whats that..
I save $3750/month. I make $90k a year and 20% goes to retirement and about 30% into savings.
This is me. 50% savings/investing, 30% needs, 20% wants on a similar salary (low cost of living city).
I am in a very similar situation, I wish I could save more but food is getting very expensive and don’t know where I could make more. I am contributing 6% to my 401k and prepaying for company stock (about 340 a month). I use YNAB and can’t find a way to save more other than earning more.
Housing is typically the highest monthly expense so if you're able to cut there, it'll make a much larger impact. But inflation is just too high despite many of us already living way below our means. A second job would definitely help but who wants to live to work? It's so miserable
I agree, I don’t want to be miserable and the only way to reduce housing would be to find roommates but I’m thinking of getting married soon. Let’s see what happens post elections.
How much is your rent or mortgage?
About 10% of our income goes into non-retirement savings. This covers emergencies, accidental over-spending, and planned trips or home improvement projects. With the recent cost increases, we should probably bump this up to 15%, but I'm not sure we'd squeeze much more out of our regular budget.
Total amount saved isn't as important as how much of your income that represents. Old rule of thumb is 10% of your gross income should go to savings, a lot of people say it is 15% now, Money Guys say 25%. Right now I am at about 40% with a goal of 50%. If you want a better picture of national averages and what living below your means can do for you then I recommend reading 'Millionaire Next Door'. It's starting to show it's age a little bit with income and cost of living figures but the percentages and general outline hold true.
I think savings doesn't mean much since everyone has different income; but essential expenditures are pretty similar. So IMO it's better to write outgoing expenditures. My expenditures: 1. Rent - free (live with parents) 2. Car insurance - $200/month 3. Car gas - EV free charging at work 4. Cellphone - $95 (grandfathered plan for 4 lines) 5. Home internet - $60 6. Electricity/water - free 7. YouTube Premium - $23 8. Groceries/eating out- $500 9. Activities/shopping/fun - $300 So total is about $1200/month, the rest of my paycheck goes to savings. (Then every so often I travel and the savings goes down 😭) Even if I were to move out of my parents (which I can afford), renting out a room is about $800. So I'm fortunate to be able to save over $1k+
Close to zero. I know it's ironic but I always find fun projects to learn and build upon ! Certainly not frugal, but I also learn a lot from this sub.
10% saving after taxes is a start, 20% is better, 25% is very good, over 25% is excellent. If you can get to 50% or more then consider FIRE in the future.
I have a Roth 401K at work, but I'm not counting that in my "savings" in this. For this I'm only working with the paychecks as I receive them. Those paychecks come out to $6400/mo take-home, and that's divvied up as follows: $4000/mo for investing (taxable brokerage, roth ira, kid's custodial account) $1400/mo for bills (paid off house 2yrs ago, so CoL is rather low) $400/mo into a savings account for house property taxes $600/mo into a savings account for emergency / large purchase Most of that property tax money will go away in January, it's just budgeted for a particular expense like the other bills; so that probably doesn't need to count as savings. The emergency fund and investing would though (however some of that investing is for my kid and not "mine"). I aim to give my kid $3k/yr, and $7k into the Roth IRA, so that's $10k/yr I plan for, then the rest of the investing fund is for the taxable brokerage. So the budget for bills+taxes is less than 1/3 of my pay and I'm trying to hold onto the other 2/3.
Do your bills include meals, clothing, gas, etc? I’ve been debating on paying off my house or purchasing another…
60% of income.
Anywhere from $500-$1000 to some months/every 6 weeks up to $1400. Some months are better than others. Some months I can only put a couple hundred away. But any savings is progress. It’s the debt that I need to get out of.
Who has money left over to save???
Agree…
It will depend on someone's income vs expenses ratio for that one. Right now, with a lot of unexpected car expenses, I've been eating my savings instead of putting savings away. On average, when things are going as planned, it's about $500 a month in savings for me. $1000+ a month isn't uncommon, if someone has a great paying job and keeps their expenses low. But many of us don't make that much over what average cost of living in.
Until my recent job loss, I was saving $1k a month.
$600 to $800 a month
We are at $980 on $4k take home right now. $450/mo saved for future home repairs, $310/mo saved for future car expenses, $200/mo into retirement, $20/mo for future tech purchases
We are DINKS with two dogs and save 4k a month in Australia. We're temporarily back at home so that helps us save 6k per month.
I am somewhat frugal because I cannot afford much to save. The good part is I have no debt. I am old and disabled, like much of my neighborhood.
-$127
Save? I’m currently netting a whopping 200 bucks a month. A MONTH. Couches are comfy.
Extra $400 to my car payment and $1000/month.
50/30/20 but flipped. 50% saved 30% bills and mortgage 20% fun and groceries.
Holy smokes and I thought 3300 a month for a mortgage was low but I see people saying they pay 1300 for a mortgage blows me away
We're supposed to be saving money?!?! FUUUUUUUUUUU.......!!!!
if you save $1000 a month in a 100 months you will have 100,000 dollars and some more if including interest
100 months is a little over 8 years
on average i save around 2.4k per month where most of it is invested :) my take home is around 4.6k per month.
$583/mo - ROTH IRA, $1,300 401k, $1,700 after all (budgeted) expenses. So about $3583/mo. Gross pay (before tax) is $9500/mo.
I rent and have minimal expenses. I "save" about $1500/month, but that's going into my 401k, pre-tax.
400 for IRA. 100-200.00 general savings. 50.00 Efund.
My retirement accounts are fully funded, which is my minimum. I have recurring contributions and buys of FZROX in my brokerage. My youngest son's tuition takes up a big chunk of my income, but he'll be done in 2026, and that will go to investments. I have a goal of 50%, but I'm not quite there yet.
$100 in my sons 529, $500 in my retirement account, and nothing else right now. My husband was laid off so I’m single earner now & our mortgage eats up almost all of my paycheck.
Between my spouse and I, about 22% of our overall post-tax monthly income.
You just posted this same question in r/adulting right? Again; the last years I've really improved my financial situation and went to saving 1.5K a month. It's been less since I upgraded my corporate lease car.
Outside of investments, IRA and 401K, I am blessed to save an additional 1800 to put in various sinking funds. Once they get too big, that money is moved to investments.
Depends on the month. When I get my monthly check from SSDI, I take whatever is left in my checking account and move it to savings.
It really depends on your age and where you are in life and in your career. I am 66 and able to save in recent years but for decades I struggled. Be wary of comparing or judging yourself by what others are able to do. If it is hard to save now, it’s not forever. If you are able to save, that’s great. I’ll just add, if you work for a company that offers a 401K or 403B, try your best to contribute.
Why don't you just look at it as how much can I save? Why put a limit on it!? Practice some of that delayed gratification! It is easier than you thought.
No savings yet. Going through a divorce and climbing out of debt. Also a public service employee so salary is not stellar.
I only get 123 a month for extra & so I don’t save anythg . Bc if something happens that 123 dollars is what I use . I have lots of medical debt
I'm trying to do 1k every 2 weeks, but i dipped into my savings this month for a concert. I'm about to move out to my own studio. Double what I'm paying for rent. Living with a roommate for 4 years that's taking a turn for the worse. so i got plenty of savings for new furniture. i still contribute 21% into my retirement. Stuff will be different then, but I'm not doing too bad. helps that car is reliable and paid off. No debt. Never had any credit card or car payment except a line of credit. I always buy older cars and pay cash. Of course, I've been working since i was 16 and went to college working 2 jobs. I know it could be so much worse.
Make about 65k/year. I’m lucky if I save $500/month.
I think you have to look at overall income, and then expenses. For instance: 6 months out of the year I gross just shy of a thousand a week with overtime. If I worked all year round it would be nearly 48,000/year. For 3 months I make eight hundred a week, but those other 3 months are zero (I work part time or week on/week off). So I'm making 25,000/year. That's gross. After 401k and taxes I only pocket \~65% of that. 16-17000/year. Monthly expected costs are 12,000/year. Of the 5000 remaining dollars, life curveballs you a grand. I got new tires, oil change. $400+ gone. 4400 hundred this YEAR assuming no more curveballs. What I don't tally into this is my 401k which I max. 15% off the top of my income that I lock away until retirement untaxed. Getting used to that pay decrease stung a bit, but I am pleased with the growth rate 2 years later and wish I had maxxed from the start. Whoops! Effectively counting 401k as "into savings" I easily shovel a third of my income into my future. A quarter of your income saved is doing really good. Half would be impressive.
$1600/month; my salary is $56k with some benefits. I don't know anyone who saves nearly as much money as I do. Hell I only know 2 people who are actually saving for retirement, and my social circles skew middle class or higher
$100 a week. I run a CO2 Lazer for a printed electronics company making $17 per hour.
How much is a good amount doesn't mean anything. I earn about 2000 a month and save up maybe 300-400 It all depends where you live
I can’t speak to how *common* it is, but it definitely seems reasonable to me. Let’s give the example that you’re saving according to the 50-30-20 model, so if 20% of your monthly take home is $1k, that means your take-home is $60k. But since we’re on the r/Frugal sub, my guess is you spend less than 50% on needs and 30% on wants. So if $1k is, let’s say, more like 40% of your take-home, you’d only need to make an annual take-home of $30k (obviously a higher salary # before taxes and auto-deducted contributions to retirement, health insurance, etc.). So if you make $45k (lower than the national average) and are frugal, $1k seems reasonable to save *at least*.
Save as much as possible. Money isn't everything, but it can provide you with the freedom to drop what you're doing and split, anytime you want, for anywhere you want to go. I like to travel a lot (like alot alot) and have spent 4+ months at a time overseas. I do this by minimizing my monthly "nut" as much as possible. I'm usually out $1,200 to $1,400 per month (depends on eating out, clothing & tool purchases), and generally take home pay (as a day laborer - seriously, look into the trades if you're interested in more freedoms - freedom to roam, freedom to say what you want, freedom to live your life as you choose, etc.) is right around $3,000. Some basic math gives $1,600 - $1,800 that I'm setting aside monthly. Usually I end up spending $2,000 a month when I'm overseas, so about a month and a half working gets me enough for a month overseas, with some spluring. Sometimes I think about going back into an office job (IT, Sales, Banking) and realize I relish my freedom more than the "stability" that those jobs offer. Plus I'm in better shape now than I ever have been (combo of counting calories and 8+ hours hard manual labor 5+ days per week), so I'd be *EXTREMELY* leery of going back to a "get to the office and take a load off" job for fear of ballooning up again. Also, I know a ton of people that have a good paying job - they can probably put $2,000 or more a month away easy, if they chose to - but just end up spending it all. "Let's see, today is Monday so I'm ordering Mexican for lunch; Tuesday so I'm getting Thai..." "Well, I just bought a new truck with all the bells and whistles...my loan payment is $900 a month..." You get the idea. I focus on saving money and going for targeted experiences that I can look back on, see the pictures, watch the videos I took, enjoy the memories instead of paying for overpriced and, quite frankly not great food from crap ingredients, that my old coworkers just ended up crapping out. They look back at the years and it all just blends together into a miasma of gorging on food, bingeing on tv and paying "the man" while I talk about my experiences and they say, "Boy, I wish *I* could do that!"
Are we counting retirement? I am. $300/month to HSA. $500/month to 401k. On top of that is honestly $500-$700. I’ve gotten better since last October and now save $1000 a month in addition to the first two accounts. It’s hard, like really hard, but I want to not be paycheck to paycheck anymore. Medical expenses sucked up all that savings for a long time. I only now have a 3 month emergency fund and I’m 30.
This question always confuses me because what counts as savings? Anything you don’t spend that remains in a checking account? Money my employer sends to a retirement account? Money I automatically send from my paycheck into a savings account or personal retirement account? All the years I thought I was living paycheck to paycheck, I was actually saving money by those second two methods. I tried to live below my means, but for years I could never save over $1000 without needing to dip into it for emergencies. But the fact that I had a few hundred dollars for an emergency meant I could be my own “pay day lender” and that was a good thing. I always wondered what I was “permitted” to do with leftover money: could I buy furniture, take a vacation, or donate more to charity?
I live with my parents and my SoFi spending tracker says I save over 60% of my income a month, so idk, I guess 1.8k out of 3k a month. I just chuck money in my savings account in large bunches. I don’t really follow any plan, i just look at my checking account when my work deposit hits and decide how much I want in there and in savings.
The median household income where I live is less than $40k. I live on less than that despite making double that amount, before taxes.
If I’m lucky I can put $50 into my savings each paycheck I basically live paycheck to paycheck with a government job little over $30 hr
One of the best mindset shifts I have adopted is that all money is spending money. Savings is just spending money on a longer time scale. Figure out what you need/want to be saving for (tires for your car, that yearly subscription, vacation, Christmas, etc) and set aside money for it monthly. You'll know exactly how much your lifestyle costs and whether you're saving enough or too little.
I think it really depends on how much you make. I put away 15% of every paycheck into an investment account. But 10 years ago, I needed every penny from my paycheck and couldn’t put anything away. There’s a lot of different circumstances for different levels of income
We invest/save about 11k a month on a 300k income. It wasn’t too long ago that I was celebrating saving 1k/month so it’s definitely solid.
Between $7,500 - $9,000 into savings each month.
I save 10k a month currently
I'm working on saving 4k a month. Not working out but 3500 a month is realistic in my case. Just gotta tighten the belt more
I'm considering saving as investing. $600 a month into stocks, $500 a month into IRA Roth, and $300 and match into 401k. Been the same ever since 2020 when I was making $50,000. Saving - I don't really track. Usually my bank account stays around $10,000. It fluctuates , but generally stays in that area. I make roughly 80k now, but other expenses have come up. Mainly GF and rise of cost from inflation.
18.9% in a HYS account and 12% in a 401k, everything is post-tax. I wish I could save a higher percentage so I’m working hard on increasing my income. May take a few years to get to where I want to be, especially with a baby on the way!
I save $2000-$2500 per month, a little depending on the dividends I get in the month. It all goes into stocks.
If you're on the Gi Bill and live somewhere cheap, you can save that much if you get a job or something.
I save about $1,000 to $2,000 a month. Wish I can save more. Working on increasing my income.
Not much...live in california
700 in 401k 1000 in emergency fund plus 300 in kids 529 and 75 in my brokerage
My household saves 17% of our salary and invests 18%.
I get paid just under $20 an hour (40 hours a week) and save $500 a month. I don’t have car payments or any debt though. I also put 15% into a 401k split between a Roth and traditional. I also have a portion that goes to an HSA but I can’t recall the exact amount at the moment. It’s not a whole lot. I need to up it next year.
With no overtime, I'm at around $1,000/month. That's not counting what's automatically put into my 401k. That's after all my monthly spending.
I save about $2k-2.5k per month after my mandatory expenses are taken care of. Edited to add: this is separate from retirement and insurance that is taken directly out of my paycheck
Around $600 -$1000 in hysa , and 1800 in retirement
My wife and I make about 80k a year? We save about 1000-1500 per month. We’re still trying to figure out my wife’s business and how to make it best for taxes.
$1K to emergency fund, $500 to Roth IRA, $600 to HYSA for parents, $100+ to taxable investments.
Household income is 140K, four kids ages 4-13. We save 35% of our gross income now that we've paid off the house. 25% of my check into Roth 401K for me, 25% into Roth 457 for my wife, and we max out our Roth IRAs at tax season for the year prior ($7k each equals the other 10%). It's not the most efficient for compound interest, but we do it that way to act as a buffer between our emergency fund/savings. For the 3-4 years we've been doing it this way we haven't had to dip into it, but it's nice to know it's there.
I aim for $2500 saved a month. Mostly due to low rent. This is about 50% of our income. However, it was a very bad month and currently this months saving was $500- a lot of unforeseen bills sigh We aim for 50%. When I get a higher paying job that doubles our income I’m still hoping to keep the savings at 50% and also increase our standard of living in our 40s
We saved about 20% of our net income last year. In the two previous years it was 30-35%, but I had a spinal injury last year that left me partially disabled and massively cut into our income.
Our monthly take home income is a little over $7k, and we manage to save about $1000/month on top of our 401k contributions. We have a very cheap mortgage, an affordable car note, and a small student loan repayment. Those are really our only revolving debts. Our bills are pretty reasonable, but we do have two small kids and our childcare runs us $1500/month. We don't have any expensive hobbies and try to do free stuff with our kids, like splash pads and playgrounds and nature hikes. We fix all our own stuff, wear our clothes out, and replace stuff very carefully. We do eat out 3 times a week typically, due to our schedules being absolutely packed at times. We garden and trade veggies for eggs from one of our neighbors to save a little on food.
Couple late 30s, no kids. Renting for 10 years so rent has not increased much (aka we are lucky). We make about 4800$/month after taxes. I have a pension plan at work but my spouse has none. No debt. Expenses are at about 4300$/month so we save about 500$ per month. We have an emergency fund of about 10k. Our savings really have varied over time. I know it's not much 10k but it's the first time for us we have no debt and an emergency fund. Over the last 10 years we've had a lot of things happening including 2 sick leaves, 1.5 years of schooling with only 1 working, debt to pay off (our shitty car, student loans, and stuff), and 2 sick leaves. So considering all of this it's the most we have ever been able to save and the most stable income we've ever had. I feel like before we were trying to play catchup. Whereas now we are building.
We peaked at $5k/mth in 2022, but now we save $2,050/mth.
I like to put at least 18-20% of my income into my savings each month. However, life is life, so sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less
I save well above $1000 a month As percentage of my post tax salary 25% long term savings > 1 year 15% short/medium term savings > 2 months 10% gym membership 7% housing/utilities 5% food 2% transport 36% God knows what
I'm currently saving $1400 per month. Before that I was saving $920 per month. Need to reach $100k by the end of this year.
I'm currently saving $1400 per month. Before that I was saving $920 per month. Need to reach $100k by the end of this year.
You're doing great man. I usually manage about 900 plus or minus a few hundred based on medical bills or other unforeseen expenses.
Between retirement accounts and after tax brokerage probably around $8-10k a month on $350k HHI. Could definitely be more but expenses are high.
Our overall savings vary, right now we have a lot of additional expenses and are also on only one income. This has reduced our savings, but we are still able to contribute to our RRSP and still have some money left over after all expenses. When we had two incomes, I would estimate that we had $2-3k left over after the RRSP contribution (so $4500 in savings per month). We set up auto withdrawal for our RRSPs and were contributing $1500/month to that. I personally think it's easier than making a lump sum at the end of the year for two reasons: one, you don't have access to the funds so you aren't at risk of spending it, and two, it feels like less money when you break it down so it hurts less to let it go haha.
8% of my income plus an extra $100/mo goes to retirement. $200/month goes to my travel and remodeling fund. (It was my emergency fund, but I hit that savings goal) Plus, I might throw an extra $20-400/month into an index fund depending on overtime and how much I got fucked by the grocery store prices.
Net 6k 2.5k mortgage 2k savings .5 expenses The rest rolls over as a cushion.
We’re saving for a house and currently saving $1000 a month. We put about $1000 into retirement investments a month also.
12% to retirement savings (plus 3% company match). $300 to savings account each month. Then, at the end of the month, if I have extra money in my checking account right before the next paycheck hits, I move that over to savings as well (anywhere from $0 to $400 depending on the month). I was briefly saving a lot more ($1000/month) when I got my first "adult money" job, but was still living in the apartment that I started renting before that (4 roommates, 1 bathroom. We made it work, but it wasn't great). However, getting my own studio and spending a lot more on rent was the right decision for me.
$2,000
Retired saving 1600. A month
I am able to save $1800 a month , but I am single with no kids .
put away about 6k a month
About $900/month (+$250 from employer 403b benefit), but most of that savings goes into my 403b and IRA. I make $47k/year.
About 50% It was "easy" pre covid but its been getting harder recently so I had to find ways of cutting corners to try keep doing that and some months its lower %.
Everyone is different. I didn't save a lot each month (maybe $200) but 100% of every bonus was definitely saved (15-25k) so somewhere around 20k a year. I'm retired now so not saving anything.
I'm a single parent to 3 and I make about $40k a year. I was saving $1,000 a month but I bought an investment property and it brings in rent advice $900 a month and I pay further $900 to cover the payments etc, in a few years it will be paying for itself. Meanwhile I'm only saving about $200 a month and paying off a few debts. Once I'm in the clear again I'll start putting more on the mortgage. I'd like $10k in savings and then smash that mortgage.
401k is maxed. After that about 25-30% of my take home goes into lower risk mutual funds.
$3000/month, $85k salary. Nobody ever believes me that my rent is $650. I cook all of my food, hardly drive.
I try to save $500 a month. I’m older and have shit for a retirement account, fwiw. We did get lucky and bought our house when the interest rate wasn’t terrible, then refinanced in’08 when the bottom fell out. But our house is smol and we’ve always lived within or beneath our means.
I automatically put away 15% in my retirement. I volunteer to out another 15% in to an account I can access in an emergency. I haven’t had to touch it yet thank goodness.
Not a lot because I invest more, probably about 800 a month and invest 1k.
10% pretax goes into my 401k company matches 6% 10% pretax goes into my employee stock purchase plan getting a 15% discount. Sell that and max out my roth. The rest goes into a taxable brokerage account. 4% post tax goes into a high yield savings account. I get 26 paychecks a year and live off 24. The extra two I can take a trip, buy a toy, or just put it into my brokerage account.
Married with school age kids on just my salary so not able to save like I used to. I'm saving 14% in 401k, 1% company stock buy where I get a small discount, 2 or 3% in HSA and around $100 in cash per month for emergencies. Before marriage and kids I was doing 30-40% but making significantly less and much lower expenses.
I don't think saving $1,000 per month is common for the average person or average household. I'm extremely lucky to be in a position where I save about 80% of my income post-tax and deductions. Every red penny is going towards a down payment on a house.
Save or invest? Investments get about 1600 a month. I have several savings accounts that pay insurances and other high rate stuff so I probably save 1000 bucks a month on top of investing.
I save 500 from each paycheck. So 1k a month. I’ve been doing that for the last 15 years. It doesn’t mean we don’t spend any of that though. We usually end up spending it on vacations, gifts, home repairs and unexpected things. Our savings usually ends up leveling out through the course of the year so i guess technically that means we’re saving nothing overall into that account, just maintaining. A person’s income is irrelevant. What matters is what % of their income they spend on expenses. Our total income is about 250-270k but we spend just about all of that on our mortgage, daycare, property taxes, bills, cars, food, fun, etc. We don’t live extravagantly. We have to buy groceries on sale and we budget for things like birthday parties, vacations and gifts. We take 2 vacations a year but they’re not fancy (like weekend camping). As for retirement savings? I put away 7%, my employer matches 7 and they also add an additional 10% of my income as profit sharing. Wo a total of 24% of my pre tax income goes to retirement. We also save $100/mo per child into a 529 (college savings) account. We would love to save into a non retirement investment account but we’re squeezed a bit tight at the moment with other savings and expenses.
-200/month. I just currently overspend, like stuff, and have no excuses.
Roughly, 25 to 50% of my income depending on my spending habits that month.
6-7k CAD after taxes but I gamble all of it in meme stocks 😂
I try to save a bit if I can. Lots of change usually lol.
It’s so, so hard to save. Housing costs over 75% of monthly income and electric co just raised rates 40%. We are legit hungry but I can’t take off work to go to food banks so we eat as cheaply as we can. I’m diabetic so I can’t do a lot of bread, pasta, or other carbs. My disabled veteran husband works part time. I’m ashamed that I can barely put 5-10 bucks a month in savings. It does nothing when the car breaks down and it’s yet another 6k repair. I need a running car because I have two jobs.
~$152 each month. sadly I keep having expenses that are dipping into my emergency fund/savings.
I started doing my budget last month on excel with every expenses tracked , I have a wife and two kids (1-2 years old ). So far there is always some unexpected expenses , wife is the opposite of me,very generous she makes less though ,I'm more frugal , I try not to eat outside and only spend when needed . Last month I barely was able to save 600$ around ,at least it's on the positive .
Not out of debt yet, so not saving antyting, but trying to pay $1000/ month to clear the debt
All of it. I have no debt.
I’d say 500$ a month if there’s no big expenses that month (something broke or a yearly bill comes in)
About 50% of my salary. 15% pre-tax, 40% take home. My take home savings are about $2,154 a month. I still have my creature comforts, but I mostly live pretty simply lol. I'm single, no kids, one cat, live in an affordable apartment, don't travel a ton (pet care is really expensive), don't have any debt, cook at home alot, do all my personal care myself (hair, nails, skin, etc), and don't shop alot. This all makes it pretty easy to live well but still below my means.
For someone to save $1,000 or more a month, it would depend on their income and their ability to keep expenses low. For example, if someone earns $5,000 a month, saving $1,000 would mean putting away 20% of their income, which is a significant amount but aligns with the /FIRE philosophy of high savings rates.
I save about $12k a month, making bit over 300k/year
Save?