Savings (retirement and non-retirement) percentage question

[bee20]

fortnightlily ,

I added a house fund recently and aim to have 3% of the house value in that fund, it's in a money market account similar to a HYSA and would take max of 48 hours to transfer. I keep a general 4-6 month slush in my bank account that I could spend right now if my furnace died. When it gets too high I add money to my brokerage.


For a car, my car is getting older but is very low mileage for it's age, so I don't plan to replace it for more than 5 years. I'd expect I'll start planning for it a year or two in advance.

Vacations I cash flow , but I don't go on expensive vacations. I have an annual spend target for vacations because otherwise I have trouble spending money on anything that isn't essential. Additionally 2022 was a really bad health year for me and I haven't fully recovered so I used most of my PTO on recovery versus vacation so "saved" that way (although it went into health expenses not covered by insurance like additional PT...). 

[ssmjlm]

fortnightlily ,

We have a car fund that is its own account. Right now not a ton is going into it since we have a car payment, but it's for maintenance we can't cash flow and next car down payment. We have never fully paid for a car. With DH's truck we put over 50% down, but it was a costly vehicle we bought during Covid, so there was no negotiating. My main goal is to pay it off before the term is over so I can start replenishing the car fund for the next vehicle purchase.

House Fund - I'm assuming you mean repairs? We don't have a separate account and would just pull from general savings/efund for repairs we can't cash flow.

No vacation fund. Most trips are cash flowed, with maybe a little from savings. We tend to book anything costly in advance to pay over time. Weekend trips we just typically cash flow since they're lower cost. We usually do 1 bigger trip every other year since we do have a beach house we use most of the summer.


Personally I got too bogged down with a bunch of sub accounts in Cap360 and had to consolidate. It was easier to say I needed X months of efund, X amount for house repairs, and X amount for a future vacation and just watched the total.

I keep the car separate since that is a different purchase type of situation.

[fortnightlily]

Thanks, those who've answered my question so far. We have way too much sitting in liquid savings right now. We're meeting with a financial advisor (through Citigold, my husband wanted it because it's free, I feel like we're just gonna get a sales pitch, but anyway....). But it feels right to me to keep any amount that's "allocated" in savings accounts or CDs, even if it's not expected to be spent in the next year.

[ohgillian]

fortnightlily

For the car fund, realistically, we aren't going to be able to save up much in advance of when we plan to replace the car. Instead, I backed into the "how much to save per year" by calculating when we want to replace the car, and how much we'd need to save to do that. I keep the car fund money separate from our other savings because I have a bit of a longer horizon there so I invest it differently. Our cars are close enough that I don't put it in the market, but I currently have most of the car fund in an 18 month cd at 5.75%

The other things you mentioned are comingled in our HYSA. I have a spreadsheet going out about a decade that I use to plan for those types of expenses.

[midwestmama]

fortnightlily,

Generally, we don't keep a car fund. The only car we've paid in full with cash at purchase was my current vehicle, which we bought in Oct. 2022. We used the money from the private sale of DH's truck which we sold in Jan. 2022 (we financed the replacement because at the time we could get a 0% interest loan), plus the money from the private sale of my vehicle, plus a little extra in cash on hand. Once we pay off DH's truck in a few months, I would like to save up maybe $5k and then put it in a short-term CD, and each time the CD renews, add money to it, and that will be the car fund when one of us needs to replace our vehicle.

Vacations we usually set aside some money from our bonuses, especially if it's a big vacation (more than a few thousand dollars). Otherwise, we use money from our regular savings (we deposit money from each of my paychecks into a regular savings account).

[k3am]

fortnightlily, I started my car fund when I realized my current car is on the way out (10+ years old and I've literally had to pick pieces of it off the road). I've been making a monthly payment to the car fund equivalent to what I expect to pay on a new car loan for close to two years. It will not be enough to pay for a new car, but will be enough for a decent downpayment and budget wise, ensures that I've got enough free cash flow to cover the payment once we decide it's time.

[mrsmayhem]

1. General emergency savings

We generally keep 4-6 months of our average monthly expenses in cash, but we no longer save a percentage of income towards this. Sometimes it dips a little lower, sometimes it goes a little higher, but we don't usually have to focus on it.


2. Retirement including 401K. Does that include a match or is the match an extra percentage from your employer?

44% including employer contributions
34% of just our contribution


3. Other stuff

My husband gets a significant bonus every year, so we use that to top off emergency savings, fund house projects or other larger expenses, and often add a little extra to 529's.

Other things like vacations, smaller home expenses, etc. we cash flow from monthly expenses.

[dragon's breath]

1. General emergency savings

All general stuff ("house maintenance", "appliance replacement", etc, very small already-funded, dedicated E-fund since a real emergency would have me robbing from these other funds) approx 8.5% of net.

2. Retirement including 401K. Does that include a match or is the match an extra percentage from your employer?

Currently only 11.8% of gross (does not include 5% match). Currently this low for a few reasons-- I have a pension that will be enough to cover my bills, I have a very healthy TSP balance already (started young and put a much larger percentage in early in my career), and I am prioritizing savings for #3.

3. Other stuff

This is my big one, since I want to start prepping land for building this summer, and am crossing my fingers I can build a new house next year.

Currently saving 45.7% of my net pay for this new house. I am mortgage-free and plan to sell my current house once new one is complete. However, I want to cash-fund as much of the new house as possible, and not depend on loans (construction or TSP loan, but will very possibly do a TSP loan and pay it off once old house is sold. I have no qualms with this as it's a good option for me, everything considered.)

In January, I worked some OT and holidays, and was able to save 70.3% of my net pay for this. (I still save for fun stuff, vacations, etc).

Once #3 is done, I'll boost retirement savings again (though I do not plan to max). I'm ready because for the first time in many years, I will feel pretty in-line with my income. I have scrimped and saved so long to make this new house happen (16 years, there were a lot of obstacles, including losing $60k to a crooked contractor, and a drawn out lawsuit against the previous landowner) that I just want to be finished and free. Being able to spend/have fun with 50% of my income when I work some OT will be pretty amazing.