Just curious how much money ya have left over each month after all the essential bills are paid ie: mortgage/rent/vehicle/insurance/food,etc?
I had many years that I had hardly any left over money, mostly when I was going to college and working 2 and 3 jobs to pay for everything. I wish I had more but now mine comes out to about $550 per month. I have always though of myself as middle class but I've never known if I really am or not.
Wait. You guys have money left over? Right now nothing, but it would just go into my 401k or the 529 account anyway. Its tough supporting a doc student and a baby. 
I have a wife, two kids, and a race car. What is this "leftover" money you speak of?
Haaahaaahaaa... sigh. 
I used to have leftover money, I turned it right back into stock options and my 401k. Yeah... that doesn't happen anymore.
It depends on how much refereeing I do. Currently I have it set up so that I am living just barely paycheck to paycheck (including $100 a month for food/booze/eating out) from my day job, and my "fun money", or the money left over, is from refereeing. Could be $100 a month, could be $1000. I think I put away about 40% of my salary from the real job to savings.
Since my wife left August of last year I've consistently run $400 short monthly.
I have about $1k extra a month if I can keep the race car away from it.
There was a time... Seriously, I am able to normally sock away about $1k a month. But, life happens (kids braces, replacement car, medical bills, etc) and frequently takes a heck of a bite out of it.
We put about a minimum of 15% of our salaries (both work full time) into company retirement plans before we ever see our paychecks. I'm actually getting ready to bump that a few percentage points. Even though we don't currently have a loan, we also have a car payment ($350 or so) put into my wife's credit union account as well, so eventually when we need to replace one of the 2 primary cars we can pay cash or minimally finance if we want to splurge a bit.
Other than those items, we don't really have a specific savings plan. With a kid in college our monthly savings balance tends to gust around. On a good month it will end up $1000 better. On a bad month it will drop $3000. Over the course of a year we try to be $3000-$5000 ahead of where we were last year (in addition to the retirement plans).
I put $1k a month in savings, if there was no car payment or other debt, I could easily bump that up to $1600 a month in savings.
That's after HSA/401k contributions, my half of mortgage and bills.
We live in a modest home in a cheap part of the country.
Next year will change though, once I get my savings where I want it, I'm going to come up with a realistic "Track budget" for the car.
Years ago the wife and I started living on one salary and saving the other for the "big" things. Now that we are retired we are still doing it. We live on her retirement and put mine ($3600) in savings each month. That's why we could pay cash for her new 2013 Subaru Legacy.
Hal wrote: Years ago the wife and I started living on one salary and saving the other for the "big" things. Now that we are retired we are still doing it. We live on her retirement and put mine ($3600) in savings each month. That's why we could pay cash for her new 2013 Subaru Legacy.
Thats great! I can only hope to be able to be in a position to do that at that time in my life. 4 kids and lifes ups and downs certainly make it challenging.
0 since it is all budgeted to go somewhere. We try to do the same thing as hal and live off 1 paycheck. Right now $2000/mo over that is going to daycare for our kids. The rest of the money goes to various things of which a significant portion is descensionary spending. I think a better question that is more meaningful is what % of income is devoted to simply surviving. Insurance, utilities, mortgage, non/income taxes. For us that number is ~10%. We are wierdos though.
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.
I have no desire to put out real specific numbers but I have no car payment's or revolving debt. After 401K max, backdoor roth, small mortgage, and a few other things our total debt is about 15% of just my take home. Not counting my wife's income.
Wow.. sorry I shared.
nocones wrote: Wow.. sorry I shared.
Srsly. I think the appropriate response at this point is "None of your berkeleying business" or "A whole lot more than you, suckaaaaah!" or "Enough that I don't have to pull out my berkeleying checkbook and compare notes."
Datsun1500 wrote:drainoil wrote:Why does it matter what others have left over? Some here have 0 left over, some have $20k a month left over. What difference is that to your situation? Some places, $40k a year is middle class, other places $140k is... The income levels on this board run from poverty, to $1,000,000 plus a year. Asking if $500 a month left over is enough makes no sense. It might be enough for you, it's not for me...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.
Pretty much this, cost of living, area that you live in, family, all sorts of stuff changes things.
Its like asking if you can afford something, its all in your own interpretation of how you are doing.
tree fiddy
wearymicrobe wrote:Datsun1500 wrote:Pretty much this, cost of living, area that you live in, family, all sorts of stuff changes things. Its like asking if you can afford something, its all in your own interpretation of how you are doing.drainoil wrote:Why does it matter what others have left over? Some here have 0 left over, some have $20k a month left over. What difference is that to your situation? Some places, $40k a year is middle class, other places $140k is... The income levels on this board run from poverty, to $1,000,000 plus a year. Asking if $500 a month left over is enough makes no sense. It might be enough for you, it's not for me...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.
+1.
I would consider the life I live to be upper middle class--I drive a sports car, I drink good beer, I play expensive guitars and wear what most people would call fancy clothes. If it all hit the fan for me, I'd still be set for about a year right now before I start tapping into serious retirement funds. I'm probably one of the few for that though, and it is because I'm a single dude who can live just about anywhere, has no debt, and is still getting a lot of help from Daddy (insurance and cell phones, since it is negligible to add me to the parents plan).
I bet that most folks here make at least double what I do though. Some probably pay more on income taxes than I make in a year.
after essential bills depends on the time of year. I work more in late spring, summer, and fall with a blip around christmas than I do in the winter.
Come wintertime, I -just- make my bills. But the other times, I can put a couple grand away a month (if I didn't have hobbies)
Well for those that shared without a sarcastic, I'm better than you toned response, thank you.
I only asked because I was curious where I fit in amongst grm'ers.
As with any other thread here, if one does not think they need to share what is asked, no one is holding a gun to your heard telling you to respond
Man some of you must have some giant egos that have never been put in check. All I can say is karma is a bitch lol.
As for the who cares, what does it matter? Well the same could be said for many things posted here over the years, so chalk up another one.
drainoil wrote: Well for those that shared without a sarcastic, I'm better than you toned response, thank you. I only asked because I was curious where I fit in amongst grm'ers. As with any other thread here, if one does not think they need to share what is asked, no one is holding a gun to your heard telling you to respond Man some of you must have some giant egos that have never been put in check. All I can say is karma is a bitch lol. As for the who cares, what does it matter? Well the same could be said for many things posted here over the years, so chalk up another one.
Uh.... Yeah... Did not see any of that in here until you took offense to a good suggestion.
Honestly what did I say that was so offensive/Egotistical that set you off?
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