How much do you save each month?

[milosh]

I'm curious, how much does your household save per month? Obvs I know that each family earns differently, so lots of different factors are at play. H and I are trying to beef up our savings so it's been on my mind.

[milosh]

Mar 1, 2015 12:46:05 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Including retirement? College savings?

Yes, all of it.

[picaflora]

Right now we're back on two incomes after a stint on just one. We were roughly $500 short each month on one. Now that I'm back to work, we put away about $1300/month. It should be more than that, but we've added back some bills and went back to a "normal" level of discretionary spending. Our e-fund was almost wiped clean though, and we'd like to buy a house in a year. So we're in a fairly aggressive savings mode, and could be more aggressive if we wanted.

That doesn't include any retirement savings.

[wannabe]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh, man.

[Gato]

I don't read picaflora as saying everyone should be saving more than $1300 a month. Just that she is trying to build back her E-fund and save for a house, so she wants to save as much as possible.

[jenna]

10% off the top into my 401k from work. [ETA: Oh, plus company match of 4% or 6% (?)]

The boys have college funds from maternal Grandma, and paternal Grandfather. We are very lucky in that regard.

Not nearly enough in my emergency fund. My pup has recently had two rounds of heart failure = two trips to the emergency vet with overnight stays.

[underwaterrhymes]

LOL.

(It's better to laugh than to cry.)

[eb777888]

For the past couple of years we've only been able to put away a couple hundred a month and $100/month for David's college and this is an account we can't see online and only have access to if we go to the bank, lol. I like to spend! H got really aggressive on our retirement a few years ago and we put about $1500 more a month into it. That really hurt. With H's new job, he's making quite a bit more money so we can throw more into both savings and David's college fund, not sure how much because H increased his retirement AGAIN with this new job, lol. I'm like can we please enjoy some of this money? Quit being so goddamned responsible.

[picaflora]

Mar 1, 2015 12:53:24 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

$1300/mo and should be more??

Ummm... yes?  

If I did the math, TECHNICALLY we should be able to save my take home minus the $500 we needed to get by each month when just DH was working.  Which is why it "should be" more.  Also, when I say we wiped out the efund, I mean it.  And we both feel more comfortable having 6 months of salary saved after going through periods of unemployment.  We also own a rental house that doesn't make us cash yet, only equity.  If something breaks, I have to pay for it.  Houses cost more where we live, so to get to a comfortable mortgage payment we'll need a larger down payment.  Need to save more to get to that...  The $1300/month + potentially more isn't a permanent savings goal.  Usually its a minimum of $400-500/month depending on what we have coming up or trips we want to take.

I personally am more conservative when it comes to my finances.  And DH isn't as picky as long as we aren't in the hole and he doesn't have to eat beans every night.  I also don't carry a cc balance, but I know that's "frowned upon" on ML.

I also don't have kids so - that makes it easier.  We're getting ahead while we can until kids come along (if they do).  

[Deleted]

Asking for percentage of savings is probably a better measure than dollar amount.

[pantsparty]

15% of gross goes into retirement.

I try to save 10% of net but that's been sporadic the past few years.

I actually do typically save 10-20% per month but much of that has been eventually going to house expenses and not accumulating in a savings account.

[Gato]

Mar 1, 2015 12:59:23 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Sorry, perhaps my face was misinterpreted as a flame. I just can't imagine having that much to save. I don't know why I always come into these posts thinking they'll make me feel better about life instead of worse. lol

I remember at 33 I was working not quite full time at nonprofit that didn't pay well.  Both my old cats were getting expensive and I had racked up $6000 in credit card debt.  It was stressful, and if one of my friends had said she was saving $1300 a month, I probably would have wanted to bean her.  Luckily, we were all poor, lol.

Now we are not.  In this way, it's good to be in your 40's.

[Ohhmm(bligo)]

The difference in the choices coming in 1st and 2nd is tickling me.

[Deleted]

We are right at $3500 with retirement and other savings funds. I'm not counting the $400/month we put into my neice's college fund because that money won't ever be ours.

ETA: per Miso's comment, only about 12% of our net base salaries go into our savings. Living in SoCal is way too expensive

ETA02: H does have a solid government pension that he has already vested/earned. He is working on a second one now and has a small 401k started. I am strictly 401K/retirement investments. 

[underwaterrhymes]

Mar 1, 2015 13:09:46 GMT -5 Gato said:

Mar 1, 2015 12:59:23 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

Sorry, perhaps my face was misinterpreted as a flame. I just can't imagine having that much to save. I don't know why I always come into these posts thinking they'll make me feel better about life instead of worse. lol

I remember at 33 I was working not quite full time at nonprofit that didn't pay well.  Both my old cats were getting expensive and I had racked up $6000 in credit card debt.  It was stressful, and if one of my friends had said she was saving $1300 a month, I probably would have wanted to bean her.  Luckily, we were all poor, lol.

Now we are not.  In this way, it's good to be in your 40's.

Hahahahaaaaa.

I am in my 40s. And I do not save $1,300 a month.

[underwaterrhymes]

Mar 1, 2015 13:09:45 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

I guess I am lucky that my retirement is almost entirely funded by my employer as long as I sell my soul to them for 30 years. I forget about that whenever we have this conversation, and it is a huge benefit.

Okay, now this is true for us too. H is in a very solid pension system that promises around 60% - 70% of his highest salary.

i, however, don't get retirement through my job and need to do something about that.

[knx9211]

Oops I didn't include what goes out of my paycheck and directly into my retirement. But I actually don't know what that is.

[Gato]

@tambcat and underwaterrhymes, you are both right. Most people can't afford to save much at all; I am not insensitive to that. I wouldn't suggest you need to save that much to be happy, anyway. My own personal experience was as part of a group of struggling nonprofit people and artists. And then one day, 20 years into adulthood, I look around and we're not struggling anymore. It was a strange and nice thing to realize.

[Deleted]

Mar 1, 2015 13:17:14 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Mar 1, 2015 13:09:45 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

I guess I am lucky that my retirement is almost entirely funded by my employer as long as I sell my soul to them for 30 years. I forget about that whenever we have this conversation, and it is a huge benefit.

Is it a pension? Can you take any of your retirement funds with you if you leave for another job? 

DH and I both have pensions in addition to our 403bs but we don't count that in our retirement planning since we'd have to be at our jobs a long time to be fully vested.

My former job and my current job both provide a cash balance account that vests in four years.  Having been at my old job for seven years, I took it all.  MUAHAHAHAHA.

[picaflora]

Mar 1, 2015 13:12:16 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

I really don't see either of us ever making much more than we do now apart from COL adjustments (which I might not get either, ha.)

If it makes you feel any better, I think we've had all the "big" jumps that we're going to get as well.  And neither one of us by ourselves makes what most would consider a high salary. The no kid thing is really what makes it possible.  Otherwise it'd all be daycare/supplies/etc instead. And...I'd rather have a kid (or 2).  

[dexteroni]

Mar 1, 2015 12:47:03 GMT -5 milosh said:

Mar 1, 2015 12:46:05 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Including retirement? College savings?

Yes, all of it.

Oh - then I answered wrong. I didn't include retirement. I thought we could change poll answers, but it's not letting me. Oh well.

I agree that a percentage poll would be better than a $ amount one.

[5thofjuly]

Between the two it's a little over 1/3rd of our incomes.

[TrickyBob]

LOL I mean, I have 3 cents in savings currently.....

I really need to add money, even if it is a low amount.

[W.T.Faulkner]

I have no idea how much I'm saving in retirement. This is bad. It might be 10%?

With that included, I'm probably saving around $500/mo. But - no mortgage, no kids, no car payment. So be less impressed. lol

[underwaterrhymes]

Mar 1, 2015 13:19:12 GMT -5 Gato said:

@tambcat and underwaterrhymes, you are both right. Most people can't afford to save much at all; I am not insensitive to that. I wouldn't suggest you need to save that much to be happy, anyway. My own personal experience was as part of a group of struggling nonprofit people and artists. And then one day, 20 years into adulthood, I look around and we're not struggling anymore. It was a strange and nice thing to realize.

PDQ.

I'm in the nonprofit sector and work two PT jobs, so that's part of the problem. We got heavily into debt when we moved to MA for my H's job back in 2009 because it took me awhile to find employment. And then they unexpectedly turned my role PT when I was pregnant and took away my free health benefits, which didn't help.

H is in the library sector and has tripled his salary since we originally made the move to MA, so I do see us eventually being able to save, but we are still digging our way out of a mountain of credit card debt.

[looseseal]

Mar 1, 2015 13:02:50 GMT -5 picaflora said:

Mar 1, 2015 12:53:24 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

$1300/mo and should be more??

  I also don't carry a cc balance, but I know that's "frowned upon" on ML.

I think what's frowned upon is being smug about not carrying a balance.

[joenali]

20% combined for retirement and I put 10% of my paycheck into savings. I should try to do a little more, but that's where I'm comfortable for now.

[rosiebear]

We recently sat down with a financial planner and realized that, even if we'd been working for years at higher paying jobs, we never would have saved as much as our pensions will be worth (knock wood for pension solvency).

Assuming the pension will still be there, the lower pay and lack of raises/bonuses we've been taking will be worth it.

That said, on the planner's advice we can now put away about 1k for two kids college funds, and about $900 savings each month (400 IRA; about 500 savings acct).

ETA: this is us NOW, not us 5 or more years ago. I have a post-divorce bankruptcy in my background, H has refinanced student loans and we just paid off his stupid credit card debt two years ago, both kids are now out of child care and attend public schools and my child support payments recently were cut in half.

[pumpkin]

I put money in retirement every month, but other than that nothing. I'm working to pay off my student loans and some CC debt I stupidly got myself into. Looking forward to the day when my answer is different.

[DaisyCakes]

*sigh* savings....a girl can dream...