How much $$$$

nocones wrote: Honestly what did I say that was so offensive/Egotistical that set you off?

Somehow it was bringing percentages into the equation. But anything other than percentages is fairly useless. I can save about 50% of what I bring home, and I'm thrilled with that. My dad might only save 20%, but his 20% is more than my entire salary.

Right now, precious little with having to pay the mortgage on the house for sale as well as covering part of the rent where I'm living now.

I find it amazing how my spending always seem to increase to match my salary...

The only money that is 'extra' is the money that we give away each year. Everything else has a specific purpose whether it's spending or saving. The bulk of our donations, 5-10k a year goes to funding an endowed scholarship we set up after a favorite professor passed away. Total donations are between 8k and 15k a year with it usually being somewhere around 9ish. We try to arrange our lives so we have that extra every year.

Do any of you guys keep your extra money in cash around the house?

An unrelated follow up question- those that do keep large amounts of cash around, when do you like to go on vacations?

Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to logdog: I grew up poor, so I always feel the need to have cash at the house. I usually have $10-15K in the safe. Don't know why I do it, but I do.

Hmmm... And your vacation is when?

JThw8 wrote: tree fiddy

I'm somewhere around this......I work my industrial supply gig to pay my bills/buy things, I work on the family farm for my rent/utilities/food. Pretty sweet deal for myself, but if I had kids/wife it would be nothing.

In reply to Datsun1500:

Good grief... and I don't like having more than a hundred or so in cash on me or in the house... and I grew up fairly poor as well.

Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to logdog: I grew up poor, so I always feel the need to have cash at the house. I usually have $10-15K in the safe. Don't know why I do it, but I do.

So did I not at the house but I have accounts with multiple banks just in case. Only things in my safe are paperwork and a very good shotgun.

I keep cash and loose money hidden EVERYWHERE. I've been like Datsun- grew up broke as E36 M3. Combine that with my penchant for disaster and I tend to keep a few k's loose. Wife doesn't even know where all of it is... she'd somehow spend it.

Uh.... Yeah... Did not see any of that in here until you took offense to a good suggestion.

Which suggestion are you talking about?

mtn wrote: I think I put away about 40% of my salary from the real job to savings.

drainoil wrote: Which suggestion are you talking about?

drainoil wrote:

nocones wrote: . I think a better question that is more meaningful is what % of income is devoted to simply surviving. Insurance, utilities, mortgage, non/income taxes.

Well being that I guess I'm a complete dummy retard, I was thinking in terms of straight forward good old US dollars rather than in terms of percentages when I asked the question. Guess I figured most here arent sitting with a calculator in hand to figure out their responses.

JoeyM wrote:

mtn wrote: I think I put away about 40% of my salary from the real job to savings.

(Wise owl picture)

Yeah, for now it is great. We'll see what happens when I get married (to 20k of student debt that I hope to get her to knock out before marriage), when I turn 26 and off of my parents healthcare, when dad realizes that I'm still on his auto insurance (probably will keep me there til 25), when I have to start a smart phone plan...

I hope to be able to live off of the lesser of the two salaries when we get married and stow away the other. We'll see what happens though. Right now I just want to get as much of a head start as I can. I'd like to retire as early as possible.

EDIT: Just figured it out. 30% goes into my Roth 401k, and 25% of the remainder goes into a brokerage/savings account. I just depleted that by about 2k though to pay for a shiny rock, but that was a one time only type of deal. Ignoring the rock, that equates to 47.5% of my salary going into savings. I should really change that to 10% going into my Roth 401k, 10% going into a Roth IRA (vanguard), and 10% going into another mutual fund that I can get through my job.

I'm not comfortable putting specific numbers out there. I will say that it is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the [self reported] median income of GRMers as seen in the GRM media kit that is available to advertisers.

FWIW, in general, the forum members here have a tendency towards being more DIY and less affluent than the general readership.

I would really like to see a Ven Diagram of the 51% that make >$100K/yr and the 53% that own more than 4 vehicles. I anticipate the % in both circles would be lower than you would imagine.

In reply to nocones:

I wouldn't be surprised if those over that point own less vehicles than those under.....heck, I make 1/4 that and have 4 cars, a bike, and a truck.

mtn wrote:

JoeyM wrote:

mtn wrote: I think I put away about 40% of my salary from the real job to savings.

(Wise owl picture)

Yeah, for now it is great. We'll see what happens when I get married (to 20k of student debt that I hope to get her to knock out before marriage), when I turn 26 and off of my parents healthcare, when dad realizes that I'm still on his auto insurance (probably will keep me there til 25), when I have to start a smart phone plan... I hope to be able to live off of the lesser of the two salaries when we get married and stow away the other. We'll see what happens though. Right now I just want to get as much of a head start as I can. I'd like to retire as early as possible. EDIT: Just figured it out. 30% goes into my Roth 401k, and 25% of the remainder goes into a brokerage/savings account. I just depleted that by about 2k though to pay for a shiny rock, but that was a one time only type of deal. Ignoring the rock, that equates to 47.5% of my salary going into savings. I should really change that to 10% going into my Roth 401k, 10% going into a Roth IRA (vanguard), and 10% going into another mutual fund that I can get through my job.

Very wise. You're on track to be able to retire in your early 30s. :thumbs up:

I'm saving a little over 30% of my gross (401k + Fidelity investments + mortgage principal).

JoeyM wrote: I'm not comfortable putting specific numbers out there. I will say that it is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the [self reported] median income of GRMers as seen in the GRM media kit that is available to advertisers. FWIW, in general, the forum members here have a tendency towards being more DIY and less affluent than the general readership.

Error 404 - Linkey no workie...

I think the key takeaway from all of this is to not compare yourself to others and do the best you can! Being held down by debt/a job is no way to live life.

In before the lock.

What's this savings I keep hearing about?

Relative to gross income, 36.5% goes to savings (401K, Roth, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Individual Investment Account, and paying down mortgage principle) and ~26.5% goes to fed + state income tax so that leaves me with 37 cents on the dollar.

I pick up a little more in gross savings from various matching programs but then I liquidate some of my employee stock when I make a big purchase like a car so it pretty much evens out.

I’m a natural born worry wart…I’ve had my current job for nine years and it pays well, I’m 49 and I’ve already saved many, many times more than most people my age but it’s never enough to make me feel secure.

I get a big laugh every time I access my on-line brokerage account because the cover page has a danger sign that reads, “Brett, based on your current savings and standard investment projections, you may only have XXX dollars to spend per year in retirement”. It’s funny because the number is huge and they’re only seeing one of many accounts.

None of this matters, I worry and worry and save and save.

In reply to RX Reven':

Saving is great, but don't forget to do what makes you happy. I'm not saying live like you're going to die tomorrow, but make the most of it.

There is a poor girl at work that will probably die alone with $5 million in the bank but she's getting there by eating like crap and living like a hermit. 48 hours of solitaire might be her ideal weekend, which is fine if shes happy but that's not for me.

Obviously not saying you're like this RX, but just a friendly reminder to everyone that life is short and then you die.

Enyar wrote: There is a poor girl at work that will probably die alone with $5 million in the bank but she's getting there by eating like crap and living like a hermit. 48 hours of solitaire might be her ideal weekend, which is fine if shes happy but that's not for me.

True, but she may also decide to retire tomorrow and just travel the world for the next 50 years with no need for a job.

I agree though, find a happy medium.