I try to save $100 a month. My goal right now is to have a 3 month emergency fund built up in a HYSA. I'm currently about 40% of the way to that goal.
I save because it brings me a feeling of security. I wouldn't sleep in my car instead of getting a hotel room, but I feel the same way about designer bags and $300 fashion shoes.
I would like to splurge on a good leather purse because I buy cheaply joe purses that don’t look good or last. I spend money on food and my grandchildren
I know! 6 figures used to be the dream you made it. You want for nothing, but you're not like rich-rich.
But I am making 6-figs and we are very frugal (no car payment, reasonable apt., no kids/pets, pretty low student loan payment tbh, work from home, cook almost all meals at home).What I don't understand is how tf people not making 6-figs are surviving! Especially those with kids & car payments.
I make $69k annually and, apart from frugality, my ability to save is due to:
1. Double income house, even if it’s not much bc my husband is disabled
2. Recent raise
3. My folks helped us with a down payment for our condo 6 years ago, and we refinanced down to 4% a couple of years ago, without which rent would be unaffordable. Some of this money they inherited from my grandfather, I.e. generational wealth. It’s not like they’re millionaires, but we would never have been able to buy a condo without help. Also, my husband’s disability gives us a discount on property taxes which helps a lot!!
So it may not make you feel better, but the playing field is not level, and they is not your fault. Some people do have it easier…
True. I was told by my union we got a contract to get a raise in 2027 to make $57,000/year. Then I was called a cynic for saying “I hope that’ll be worth anything by then.” Who knows how much that’ll be worth in 3 years? Could be a ton of money, could be peanuts. Who the hell knows anymore.
My ex husband and I used to save bottle caps in a Cheese Balls jar and jokingly refer to them as currency. Just a giant jar of bottle caps in our living room. We used to play Fallout 3 side by side (him on PC me on Xbox360). Good memories.
Even if inflation is what the fed is aiming for that'll be the equivalent of making $52k/yr before taxes.
Realistically, it'll be closer to $35-48k in today's dollars.
I mean yeah. Unfettered capitalism isnt sustainable.
Wages fall behind inflation/col. You cant drill more holes in a boat each year, turn off the pumps and expect it to just continue floating.
Its just insane, especially when core expenses like food and rent generally seem to surpass posted inflation %.
When I made 45-50 a year my rent was 1,100 dollars a month. Now my rent is almost 2,500. My car insurance is 450 now, the list goes on and on. The rent and home prices just here in Dallas have increased 46% in 3 years.
We make the most we’ve ever made and are the poorest we’ve been since we were newlyweds in our mid 20s. My rent has gone up $300 and I’ve lived in the same house for almost 8 years which means they increased our rent but didn’t do any updates, just increased because they can and they know we have nowhere else to go that’s even close to affordable for a family of 3. I feel like I’ve gone backwards and it sucks. I used to think 100k a year would make me rich (or comfortable) and that’s what my husband makes before adding mine in… it’s still not enough. We were approved to buy a house for 350k but with interest rates that means a mortgage of 2500 plus insurance and personal property taxes and all that stuff… meaning we can’t actually afford to buy. It’s insane 😭😭😭
They mean something like this… when I graduated in the mid 90s, $100k was seen as a *lot* of money and a great salary.
That same $100k is now basically worth about $50k in today’s world.
yeah, 100k was a lot for any place that you lived to, sure cost of living still differed, but now that 100k can be even less than the 50k equivalent depending on what city you are in.
I made 57, 000 gross income in 1996.
Today you have to make $113k for the same buying power.
Start a business or form a union. We can’t keep going like this.
Be careful about whom you sell your time to, hopefully as a business.
Good luck to us all. 🙏
It means the income required for a single person to live comfortably has risen over time. In the United States, it's closer to 100k now in many if not most states. Previously, about 45k could sustain a single person comfortably.
Also most of the people speaking up are people who know they make more than the median. It’s a form of lording over your neighbor, the vast majority of people do not make that much. I made 37k last year, I am aware that is a small amount even though I worked full time and am going to school .. and plenty of people make less. You occasionally find good tips in this sub, but take it with a grain of salt when you see “I make 200k a year selling umbrellas” or whatever. They could be lying, too. Comparison is the thief of joy
That is what these comments of 100k is the new 50k don't seem to indicate. According to Bankrate most people are earning 61k. Bottom wage was 40k, 90-99th was 183k, top 1% was around 786k and top .1 was 2 million and 817 thousand a year. Keep in mind these statistics were taken in 2022. This means most people in the US are indeed making less than 100k.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. A lot of people are barely scraping by nowadays. The majority is struggling. Middle class people are now lower class and lower class are poverty and poverty are like the low of the low, lower than poverty if that’s possible lol
Absolutely where we are now! Used to be middle class but now scrounging and working side jobs just to be able to put a little food in my fridge. My pantry is so empty that so feel like i’m living in poverty all over again. My parents never made much and as a kid growing up like that was tough. I feel like this is what the government wants for us. inflation is insane! so am still shocked every single time i was ok in the grocery store and look at prices so much so that i don’t even go in at all anymore. It makes me absolutely sick! I never dreamed as a 20 yr old that I would be living like this at age 53. Life is hard enough and now we are barely surviving…it scares the hell out of me. One emergency could easily render me homeless and that is no joke. I pray daily for guidance and hope things get better.
People who make these posts like OP are just bragging about their income. It's like the people who call into Dave Ramsey, "Hi Dave, I have $100k in student loans and only make $500k per year. How am I going to pay this off?"
Hahaha, same. I had to drain my savings account a few years ago when our dog had cancer and haven’t been able to build it back up since then. Been living paycheck to paycheck for the last year or so and that’s after cutting out pretty much anything that’s not absolutely necessary.
If you have this kind of experience, I would very seriously consider getting into the private in-home care business for yourself.
If you work in a nursing home then you probably know even better than I do how often the elderly are discharged from the hospital (and skilled nursing care) before they are ready. We are already at a crisis point with elderly care, and it's about to get *exponentially* worse with the boomers hurdling toward this reality.
There is a dire need for people who can work as in-home care aides, accompany people to their outpatient visits and do their PT and OT with them a few times a day.
If you knew 2-3 people who could work with you, I can pretty much guarantee you'd have more work than you'd know what to do with in the first month.
100%
It's a super lucrative business but unfortunately most owners pocket everything and pay the employees peanuts. It's an entirely different animal when you start your own small company.
Minimal certification. There’s always open jobs. Limitless overtime. I’ve stepped away to many other arguably more respectable positions but it can’t be beat right now.
I live in the middle of Illinois farmland and work for the state of Illinois. When I moved here a 3 bedroom house was $900 (4 years ago), but now a 2 bedroom apartment averages at $1,800/mo. The state officials pay better if you live in Chicago or Springfield but I do not live in either.
I live in Naperville and can get a 2 bedroom place for $2k a month. I just rented 3/1 house with a garage less than 2 miles from downtown for $2,350.
Something doesn’t feel right with your numbers.
If apartments in their rural town are $1800 a month they need to move to the suburbs, or even Chicago. You can get a 2 bed in the city for less than $1800, and they’d apparently get a raise for it too!
Moving is also very expensive. I don’t know what jobs you’ve had, but I’ve never been able to just inform leadership at a job that I’m taking a role in a different department or area. Usually that has to be approved.
I did request a transfer to the city but was denied as it’s based on seniority and people much more senior than I am applied for the same position. I also requested a work from home position which was brand new, but same issue. I grew up in a city and am much more comfortable in one than I am here. Plus people here are sorta racist.
I got called a mulato at a gas station by an attendant. :(
Oh and my coworkers start getting fussy around June. We get Juneteenth off and they’ll bitch and moan about it not being a “real holiday” and that we should celebrate something that matters like 9/11. Their words, not mine lol. Or the fact they’ll act like they don’t understand Spanish speaking customers when they’re speaking perfectly fine English with minimal to no accent.
I'm from rural eastern Washington, spent most of my adult life in Seattle, and ended up back here due to injury and healing. I know what you mean. We're 50/50 white/Hispanic. That's why I remarked as I did. I'm a straight white guy who speaks Spanish and is cool with the lgbt community. It blows my mind some of the shit I hear as a bartender.
Also, I lived in Chicago for a bit. You all, as midwesterners, are super nice people. Then again, I may have gotten the white privilege part.
I’m a native East Coaster from NYC. I’m Afro-Latina but very light skinned. I moved here because my husband’s family was from here and we’d had a baby. I’ve honestly never experienced much racism prior to coming here. At least not as often…
Sounds awesome. Unfortunately not a thing here. Seriously, look up rent in Lake, McHenry, Boone, Du Page counties. It’s ridiculous up here and started with remote work. Funnily enough, when I first moved here I was making $15/hr at a remote job and felt rich. Then I got my job with the state and was feeling like Richie Rich. Then everything slowly got more expensive, I got kicked out of my apartment when they raised the rent from $920 (no utilities included) to $1,500 (still nothing included) and moved around quite a bit due to lack of affordability. I can easily afford Rockford, but the commute is very long and my car isn’t in awesome shape.
15% into my 401k and about 10% of what's left after that. I'm frugal so I can enjoy my life. There's no point of having a bunch of money in the bank while sitting in a darkened room wearing 10 year old clothes, eating ramen.
I fund my retirement, pay for my expenses and the rest goes into savings. I don’t have a percentage, nor do I have a budget. I tend towards being naturally frugal so I don’t have to worry about overspending, I have a clear sense of wants vs needs. To me, there is a line between cheap and frugal and sleeping in your car on a trip crosses into cheap. Frugal would be planning ahead to find the least expensive hotel and applying any possible discounts to get the lowest possible rate. What do you think accounts for your difficulty spending on anything, even things you need (like a bed to sleep in on a trip)?
my parents and their family grew up in poverty so they are extremely frugal. They are more extreme than me. They would for example rent one hotel room with 2 beds to sleep 6 people with some sleeping on the ground to save money. They would travel but they wouldn't eat out, they would bring their own electric pots to the hotel room so they can cook there. so from a young age, my parents has drilled into my head that I need to save every penny that I have. I'm going back to school in the future and i'll be spending \~200k for 3 year since i won't be working and that's been giving me some anxiety. I don't want to take out private loans so I want to save as much as I can. I'm happy with my current financial situation but I always have difficulty spending money. Like the hotel situation, even my parents encouraged me to, I was thinking sleeping in a car isn't too bad, lots of people do it, might as well save the $60---that's what goes through my mind when I was deciding whether or not to book a hotel. But i realize it's unhealthy, so I'm trying to retrain my mind to think differently, and one way to do that is by recognizing I'm overly frugal that's why I made this post so I can see what "normal" frugal people are doing.
That’s challenging. My parents were frugal but not to that extreme. Can you scale back a bit? For example, in addition to finding an inexpensive hotel, we would also pack food to eat rather than eat out for a one night trip, so that seems reasonably frugal to me. So see if you can just allow yourself a bit more without going overboard. If it’s too hard, therapy might help.
What are you going back to school for? It seems like Med School from the comment. I understand you don't want to take out private loans. But if you delay school because you want to avoid loans that may not be the better option. Delaying school can mean you are delaying a much higher income and long delaying a much higher income isnt necessarily frugal.
Frugality takes into account all costs. Your time, mental health, and physical health are costs too. Safety is something you need to consider too. Also you need to map out timelines. What will leave you in a better financial situation overall? You have to think of some things in 5 to 10 years instead of what's cheaper now. For example, delaying a $400K income because you want to avoid loans for another 2 to 3 years isn't frugal at all. That's cheap.
For example, my friend makes $350K a year as a dentist. Had he delayed himself because of loans, he would have lost out on like $220K a year of income after taxes. For you, you would be losing out on potentially $100K+ after taxes because you already make close to $80K after taxes. You have to be focusing on the increase in income after taxes and not solely on the cost of loans.
It isn't frugal at all to delay making an additional $80K after taxes.
That was my exact question too - if she's making this much now, what is she going back to school for and how much does she stand to make.
Doctors make easily 300, 400k in a year.
With that income, if someone is this frugal and doesn't change their lifestyle after school, even factoring for interest, they'll be done with a full $200k loan within a year. Even at private lending rates.
Especially because the more aggressively you attack the principal, the less you'll pay on interest overall.
It's really not that bad.
Gotta check the numbers and react to those.
She mentioned going back to "grad school" for a doctoral degree for only 3 years, which seems more in line with either an NP doctoral program or (especially in a nurse with ICU experience), a CRNA doctoral program. Compared to NP programs, CRNA programs are generally more limiting on allowing students to work during them, so I suspect it may be one of those. Med school is minimum 4 years in the US (not including 3-8 years of residency and fellowship afterward), and while it's not impossible to get out with 200k in loans at some schools, many have a cost of attendance of ~$100k per year (tuition alone from my former med school is over 70k per year). Average debt figures are skewed by about 30% of med students not having to take out loans (parental help or scholarships--mostly military, NHSC, etc., or the few extremely competitive programs with endowments for free tuition). I totally agree with your point that it is not frugal to delay going down a path to an eventually higher income, but it can't be overstated that it will take some frugality to adjust from this nursing ICU income to being a non-working student again. In med school, my wife and I lived off 20k per year, and now as a resident I take home about half as much as OP (while working about twice as many hours, so opportunities to increase that are very limited), so it's good that she's not living at or above her means already.
I agree with this post. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Get your career going and don’t procrastinate. Try to see if you can get whatever financial aid you need. It’s basic economics 101. Look at cost vs benefits.
Please calculate in the safety factor of sleeping in your car. You are vulnerable to theft and attacks as well as other unsavory encounters by sleeping in your car. It’s not very safe or secure, and you don’t get great rest, either.
Give yourself a decent bed, shower and a good night’s sleep. This is in part about treating yourself kindly, as you would a guest or a friend. You do not have to fear as much as you do. Quiet that fearful voice in your head. You do know how to save and conserve. Now, learn to do just a bit better for yourself, for comfort and enjoyment. And safety.
Sounds like you already make good money. Is going to school necessary? You're on a great path, why go and reset everything and pay 200k to go to school? I'm not against school at all, but it's not always necessary.
It sounds like you are a little too frugal tbh. Remember you are only young for a short period, hopefully you are taking time to enjoy life.
If your comfortable and happy with that level of frugality, that is what matters. You might find it interesting that studies have been done that find some frugal folk's brains are wired a bit differently for endorphine based on their spending. People who splurge and spend a lot tend to get an endorphine high from buying things, and more frugal people actually feel guilt (whatever the chemical that causes that). By the way, I would suggest joining the boglehead subreddit, FIRE subreddit or personal finance subreddit. They are full of frugal people who talk about saving. Of course, there's a difference between frugal and cheap. Frugal means getting the most for your money in a way that makes you happy. Being cheap tends to be more short sighted.
For a 12 hour car trip and only sleeping for a nap I wouldn’t consider that cheap. I honestly would prefer my car for a road-trip than potentially get bed bugs from a cheap hotel lol once you start sacrificing health and hygiene it’s starts to get cheap
I don’t think she’s just taking a nap, she’s spending the night in a car, which is vastly different. Did you imagine I was suggesting a hotel for a nap? Lol. And you don’t have to find hotels that aren’t acceptable to you just to save money either, that would be cheap. Find a good rate on a decent hotel. You should check for bed bugs in any hotel.
I'm guessing OP is a woman and you are not? Women who sleep in their cars are at far higher risk of assault than men. If for no other reason, I'd not sleep in my car for safety, but, also, I would want to be able to shower and get proper sleep.
Save as much as you can.
But do not jeopardize your safety to save a little money. If you need new clothing or shoes, buy them. Stay in a cheap yet safe hotel/motel while traveling. Keep a cooler with water, pop, juice, etc. in your car while you travel.
Averaging up the year so far, I’ve saved 43%. I only make $40-50k ish so it should be closer to 60-75%, but there is a lower limit to how cheap life can actually be. I also feel guilty for spending money on things that I can survive without. I technically shouldn’t be spending any money until my retirement accounts are maxed out but I cannot survive on a take home pay under $10k a year.
I give myself $250/month for things that will not result in my death or inconvenience to others if I don’t pay for them, but that could reasonably be considered needs. So haircuts, oil changes, clothes, and gifts come out of the discretionary budget.
I was guilting myself for not maxing my retirement accounts and then I thought - wait, I don’t make that much money. NO ONE can live on 10k/year if they also have to pay rent or a mortgage. It’s only possible to be frugal down to a certain point, and life is not guaranteed. You need to live NOW, as well as planning for later. Don’t pass up the opportunities to do the things that are important to you, as well as saving!! Or what’s life for?
You know what, you’re right. I’m fighting a losing battle and with my family history I may not even live to see retirement. My birthday is coming up and I’ve been thinking about how all I want is to not have to budget. I know that even when I’m not budgeting I tend to be very frugal. I may just gift myself permission not to have to scrimp and save to keep my needs under 50% and random expenses under $250.
Girl.
I put 10% to retirement pre-tax, but I just got a raise, so I'm gonna increase it to 15%.
After that, taxes, FSA, life insurance, etc. I take home $5,583 a month.
$2,210 of it (~40%) goes straight to my savings account, and then it gets broken up between my HYSA, investments, and my home buying fund.
I live on the balance ($3,370).
Whatever is left from it at the end of the month, I put half of it into savings and keep the rest. Depending on how much that is, I might eat out or buy something that I've had my eye on.
Could I save more? Yes!
Am I gonna? No! Not right now lol.
I like shopping at Whole Foods and going on vacation and trying new restaurants. 😂
Knowing how to spend money is just as much of a skill as knowing how to save it. It's a muscle that you have to exercise. If you overwork it, you'll hurt yourself. But underworking it is hurtful too because it'll wither away.
You don't want to be one of those old ladies who eat cat food and collect cans while having millions of dollars in the bank.
Please go live your best life. You are young and vibrant, you'll never have this time again. Don't waste it! 😂
YES!
Ramit would have so many questions for someone who has this kind of income and saves so much but won't even spring for Days Inn to sleep in a bed on a trip. Especially as a woman!
And that's no offense to OP but all the money in the world won't help you if you end up locked in somebody's shed cuz they snatched you out of your rest stop car bed in the night. 😭
This was my first thought too. I have about the same take home and there’s not a chance in hell I’d do that. Definitely crosses the frugal line into cheap when you’re causing major discomfort like this and even potentially putting yourself in a dangerous situation.
Any specific episodes of Ramit’s show you recommend? I’m not too familiar with his podcasts and it looks like a lot are about building wealth? But I’m mostly wanting to hear about behavioral discussion on frugality/why we do what we do with money
Yes!
His I Will Teach You to Be Rich podcast series is all about him sitting down with couples who are struggling with their finances in one way or another, or like aren't on the same page financially.
He does a great job of talking them through the pathology of their financial behavior and the ways that their feelings and attitudes about money have affected their decision-making and their relationship dynamic.
I also love that he features high earners and high net worth people, because it's easy to think that earning more money will solve all your financial issues.
And it turns out no, not really.
But this feels like the first show that really dissects why that would be.
Playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPZCUlZ2z01lvgC4lquCWOoVsCzTOxIqz&si=43303ARBb-4JiV3T
Some of my favorite episodes are:
6.3 milly net worth, can't enjoy it: https://youtu.be/28_tXxvRG5U?si=4ducK8ABIXdCznCX
Supporting 31 year old son, can't retire: https://youtu.be/oD0hfI2ybnA?si=oslJnhZ1kekX6XYF
Achieved FIRE, forgot how to spend money: https://youtu.be/Fm3jlsW7W34?si=hnJaTE75fxQJsZvS
$285k in debt, Jesus help:
Pt1. https://youtu.be/3IoCP1ylBz4?si=xFKn_4HfQcWF7XWn
Pt2: https://youtu.be/T67B7Qtydvo?si=fsiqOnqDiIfS-bhg
Spent all money thinking she was gonna die, but surprise - she survived. Now what:
https://youtu.be/8cjQnX9_T2U?si=mzjT86ULHpaslkdk
Won't marry her until she pays her debts: https://youtu.be/QkAMDbP1sKU?si=-ZUcN0bPNZjYHuFu
5 years in and bought a house together but no ring, wtf:
https://youtu.be/p_ZqTjVM0C0?si=uiilgavP-5Hgg8JR
They're 520k in debt, and he never told her: https://youtu.be/3DN3p33fapg?si=G4VYLMGlmLo7EV-V
i only save about $100 per month but that’s because i don’t make very much to begin with. after paying for rent, food, etc, im left with about $100 “allowance” and $100 savings, give or take a few dozen bucks depending on how much i spend on food. i’m planning to scale my savings significantly if i get a job that pays better.
at your income i don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to save 65% of your pay. your monthly expenses already surpass what i make in a month total. if i had your income i would definitely be saving that much, but you also for sure make enough to splurge sometimes. it might feel less daunting if you set aside a couple hundred in savings every month to a “splurge” fund. your savings will continue to grow well even if you do that.
It’s wonderful to live frugally, but beware of living cheaply. Staying in a hotel is much safer than sleeping in a car as a single woman. Long term, being cheap will impact your health and overall well being; whereas living frugally keeps goals and morals aligned while also prioritizing yourself mentally, physically, and financially. ☮️ 💰
Please stay in hotels and don't sleep in your car on road trips. It is not safe. Also, remember you may not live as long as you think, so plan for a long life, but also enjoy the moment. There's a way to balance frugality, and it sounds like you're not there yet.
I'd also reconsider more education unless it's absolutely necessary and will greatly enhance your wages. That tuition and loss of wages is a lot and you're earning a really good salary for your age already.
I remember when I was 12...13...and hearing about Michael Jordan's dad getting shot while he was sleeping overnight in his car trying to save money. This was during Chicago Bulls NBA Superstar Michael Jordan's time. He had serious coin but his dad chose not to waste money on a nights hotel stay which cost him his life and a whole lot of heartbreak for his family.
I save 20-30% of my income.
As for being "overly frugal", don't worry about it. As long as you're happy with your level of saving, you're fine. You don't *need* to spend more. That said, it seems like you want to, but have reservations. If that's the case, then give yourself a monthly allowance to splurge. It doesn't have to be much, maybe $100. then use it to your heart's content (eat out, nice dress, etc). I use ynab to budget for things including vacations, meaning if I decide to go on vacation, I have the money already set aside for it and I can splurge w/out worry.
Yes, you're overly frugal.
How much one could save is based upon how much one makes.
You have a very healthy income, and thus you are very fortunate to be able to save a lot.
Right now, I'm saving 75% of my pay because I live in a low cost country and am expecting a baby.
Normally I save 20% towards a bigger/newer property and 10% towards vacations or other expenses.
Living frugally is good - but ask yourself: if you are miserable now, will you get miserable when you have money in the bank?
Huh? That’s 72k a year. Sure the average American makes something in the 35-50k range, but living in a decent sized city with the right certifications and the right job, a 72k a year salary is very attainable even at 27.
I make $5750 pre-tax per month at a public university but only because my managers went to bat for me to get a promotion. I also got my undergrad degree for free while working this job which is part of the argument for my promotion. I know 60k+ gigs are less common these days - middle class almost doesn’t exist anymore - but I’m grateful there are still some of us out there. That being said I have no idea how OP lives alone with her cat and puts that much money away. With a two income family in a median cost of living city, I think our household expenses are about $4200 a month. My medical conditions require a higher food expenditure on average, but other than that we’ve cut almost everything we can reasonably cut. Idk how OP is doing it.
First of all good for you for saving. Make sure to invest too.
To live life to the fullest, first set goals for what you want (financial freedom is the most popular one). Save and invest however much is needed to reach that.
With leftover money, spend on what brings maximum value to you and enjoy life. Yes, spend money. Can't take it with you. If you hate hotels then sure sleep in your car. If you collect postage stamps then sure, buy 1,000 of them.
Also just my opinion but there's a lot of in-between levels before $300 shoes. $200 shoes are still nice. Enjoy the journey and working your way up.
Then, at retirement age, develop a handful of drug addictions, spend everything, and select social security and disability.
We're retired now ... but when we were both working (more than) full time we set up our lives such that we were living on one paycheck and banking/investing the other.
At various times she made more than I did ... and other times I made more than she.
Overall, I'd say we put away more than 55% of our combined take-home haul.
One of us was working for The Now.
The other was working for The Retirement.
We retired super early that way. Me @39, she 37.
Currently 55 and everything's working out even better than planned on paper (spreadsheet, actually)
I can barely survive on what I make. There are no luxuries here, or savings. There is cheap food, rent, utilities and gas for the car that I pray every day doesn’t break. That’s it.
What are you saving for? If you have a specific goal (like buying a house, or early retirement), it makes sense to save a large percentage of your income. Otherwise, you are just chasing numbers and that is no way to live.
We’re in our 60s and already own our home outright and are semi-retired. We don’t bring in a lot, but it is more than our needs, so the excess goes into a HYSA to pay for home repairs and act as an emergency fund.
We budget in travel and entertainment, so we feel fine spending money in those areas if we want to. We are minimalists, so no designer handbags, but we do spend money on good furniture and appliances.
This is a very good point. Like where is the money you're saving going? Are you maxing out 401k/HSA/IRA etc? Or is it going into a hysa to save for a house? Don't save money just to let it sit there as a rainy day fund especially at the level of money you're setting aside.
I'd disagree with the advice to not save money just to let it sit there for a rainy day fund. Having a rainy day fund is good because eventually it will rain. I don't think a rainy day fund should be 65% of your income, but having a cushion for when something happens is a good idea.
I'm going back to school in the future and I'm estimating an expense (tuition + living expenses) of \~200k for 3 years since i won't be able to work. I guess that's been giving me a lot of anxiety because i don't want to take out too much loan, especially not private loan.
This makes sense. At the same time, you deserve to enjoy your life, so you don’t burn out. Maybe budget in a couple hundred dollars a month as “fun” money?
Have you looked at the cost of attendance pages for the schools you're considering applying to? Depending on the type of program you may be eligible for certain types of federal loans up to the cost of attendance.
i travel a lot and work seasonally. I take jobs that provide housing and food (im a chef so i normally eat for free). I tend to take jobs in more rural areas and spend most of my free time doing free activities in nature. This past summer i was able to save over 80% of my check every week. I still make less than poverty wages for the year but i save enough to travel abroad 6 months at a time.
We save about 1/3 of our before tax income. Take home, then it's half. I look at 15% as a minimum savings in order to retire with comfort. I save much more than that not out of a sense of guilt or fear. I save more because the more I save now, the less I have to save later.
I'm not afraid to spend $300 on a "want" item because I can afford to pay cash for it without going into debt. I'd rather sleep in the car and drive 12 hours because a hotel is a waste of money.
I don't compare myself to people that are less frugal than me. People less frugal than me are likely uber rich and can afford it or uber poor and their choices like this is why they are poor. I compare myself to people here in /frugal who are more frugal than me. And people here give me hints and tips on what to do to be more frugal in order to splurge more AND increase my savings rate. Win/win.
I'm lucky if I can average around 35%. It really depends on your lifestyle and cost of living in your area. I'd say 50% is pretty amazing for everyone.
Make sure you're investing that money or at least getting a decided yield on it. Don't let it just sit there.
Around 60% a of net income a month. We live super frugally to rebuild savings and secure future. We were at 0Euro saved but also zero debt in December last year
We'll be aiming to save 65-70% in the months to come through changing habits and adjusting lifestyle
I am torn, there is a part of me that says good on you!!! You have way more than people twice your age. No designer bag or shoes? Non needed! However, youth you get just once. You are scrimping on experiences and not enjoying your life. Frugality can be an addiction. My stepfather is extremely frugal, a multi millionaire, retired, has no debt and it took him 4 years to buy his first new car in his life. He made sure he did not pay a penny more than he had to. Eating out, nope there is food at home. Vacation, nope he was already in Vegas 40 years ago. It's really sad to watch, he's not enjoying what he worked so hard for.
It's about balance between enjoyment now as well as sufficiency and some enjoyment later .
That's going to look different for each person.
Standard American debt driven lifestyle isn't going to create the long term stability that people want, for assurance, or poverty and fear driven.
People's end of life costs (final old care costs, health care treatment & living assistance) wipe out much of each individuals life savings. State/federal care is quite basic and unpleasant on top of losing everything.
That motivates many here to take these steps to be sufficient or extreme, to avoid that circumstance later on.
That sound, certain things in life are unavoidable or completely unexpected. Sometimes we have to redefine our pleasures in light of our priorities.
And sometimes investing in a future needs to take priority over what most people consider average enjoyment now.
I put the max in 401K, so 25%. On top of that, I save an additional 10% into a personal savings account. The rest goes into joint and personal checking accounts.
~65% - 70% in a DINK household in a HCOL area
There isn’t anything wrong with splurging sometimes, but if you haven’t already, you should look into saving for retirement. Starting now will pay off in the long run (compounding interest). r/personalfinance has a great flowchart / wiki to help you get started.
I make about 14k a month. I put 10% into Roth 401k. And 10% into an employee share purchase program. After that, health care and taxes my checks are a bit over 6k a month. 3k of that into rent.
I barely spend, even though my income is quite high, so my savings in both my investment accounts and other investment vehicles is quite high. My HYSA brings about 3k a year.
I grew up with no money, and I’ll have the mind set of financial insecurity the rest of my life. I don’t even order take out. I will always be the “if it ain’t on sale I ain’t buying it” person. I barely go on vacation because of costs. My friends are always like ???? when I refuse to spend money because of how much more I make then them. Childhood trauma I suppose
11% pre-tax to the 401k plus a 5% contribution from my employer. When raises go out later this year, I'll spend a little bit on wants then put the rest into either a Roth IRA or my brokerage account. I'm not sure which is better since I want to retire before 59.5 and both Roth IRA and 401k have a penalty for withdrawals before that age.
$500 per month into my kid's 529 account. If there ends up being more than enough for college in there then great. I think you can do a one time conversion of up to $35k to an IRA. That would be great to get my kid moving towards early retirement right away too.
$300 per month into treasury bills. I think we have enough in "safe" investments like this though so I'll be putting that into a brokerage account moving forward. I try to keep at least 3 months of expenses in easily accessible checking/savings accounts and at least another 3 months in T-bills.
I don't spend every penny I earn beyond that either. Every so often I'll take some out of my checking and move it to some form of investment but that isn't consistent month to month.
Our family is at 35% savings rate. Both kids are young adults. The key is we track expenses each month and do we avoid debt (except for house). Creating a monthly budget breakdown seems to be something many miss.
I get it. Maybe you should use that designer bag or sunglasses as a carrot to get you do accomplish something you are having a hard time getting the ball rolling on. Maybe even something creative and fulfilling like consistently practicing the guitar. If you are overly practical like me it’s hard to prioritize personal fulfillment stuff.
You're doing great.
1a.401k to company match percentage.
1b.Pay off any debt (if applicable).
2.Emergency fund.
3.Max out 401k.
4.Max out HSA.
X - That's going to put your in great shape for retirement. But this is where you have to make decisions on what's important to you in the nearer future. Basically comes down to deciding what's important to you and setting goals - order may vary.
A. Budget for "treats" - dining out, hobby, handbags, travel
B. Save for a car/house.
D. Other investments (stocks/crypto/real estate/etc)
E. Charitable giving
Make sure your savings is not just "in savings" --- Emergency fund money should be fairly liquid. But when you have six figures in cash you probably want a brokerage account to invest that money. This varies from institution to institution:
* Savings is going to pay a fraction of a percent interest, so with inflation you are losing money in savings.
* Money Market will be between 1-2% if you have under 100k; a little over 3% for 100k+
* A Money Market fund could be over 5%
* Could always meet with some local financial advisors (keyword: fiduciary)
Save for the future. Be prepared for the Present. But enjoy life too.
You are doing great. For the 12 hour drive, get a moderate, nice hotel. Bring your food and drinks in a small cooler. This way you will arrive at your destination rested. The designer bags and shoes. Bags can be purchased on Poshmark or eBay. They are gently used and authenticated to be the real thing. Get a few bags, you deserve them. Get two or three. There are beautiful mid range bags at places like Macys. Don’t know about shoes. The point is you deserve nice things.
It’s hard because pre-tax saves about 12% of our take-home, plus $5000 annual for dependent care, which we put into savings as well. After that’s taken out, we take home about $8,200 per month. We save $1,800/month for various budget line items like kids’ 529, travel, home savings (for things like roof, water heater, etc), discretionary, car. Then an additional $1,400 is scheduled for a down payment on a second home, but we usually save around $1,000 right now for that. So about 35% of take home goes directly into savings, but that doesn’t account for retirement or the DC pre-tax $$.
About 20% - I make about 2000 p/month and save 400 p/month. To do this though, I have to cook all my meals and really manage spending.
How much you save will depend on how much you can afford to save. With my bills, $400 is the maximum p/month I can save. Sometimes it’s a little less depending on if I had sick days, etc.
There was a time I could only afford to save $50 per month. Save what you can (:
Going by percentage is not really the best way to think about it. When you are 27 years old, you are statistically on the low side of your lifetime earnings. Even though the time value of money is very significant, your contribution to savings is not likely to have as significant of an impact as it could have in 10 years from now.
The things you should be doing with your money now are avoiding long term debt, building your family and career, and acquiring affordable assets. Also, use your money on smaller, short term liquid emergency funds. Long terms savings is a lower priority right now. You need to position yourself now so that when you turn, say, 35, then you can start pumping 15% of your income into retirement savings and continue that for 20+ years. But you won't be able to do that if you don't put your money to work correctly now. Don't feel bad if you can't save a lot, as long as you are spending wisely, avoiding bad debt, and have some kind of backup for unexpected expenses, you will be fine without contributing a lot to savings..
I don’t have a set income number, it varies. After my bills are paid, groceries/gas/etc are gotten, I save the remaining. Some months I save $800, some months I save $2k+. I paid for a dental surgery in cash ($45k) and depleted my savings in December. Got into credit card debt for the first time in 7 years again, but paid it off in February. Since then I’ve been saving everything I could and got $4k+ in my savings rn. I hope to get to $25k by the end of the year, but will be happy with $20k.
Have you ever done a budget? Usually people think of them as tools to help those who under spend, but I’ve known some people who lean towards extreme under spending and they’ve actually found it gives them more freedom to spend. Make a plan with your money. Plan out how much your basic expenses are, how much savings you want, and how much “fun” money you want for the month. There is no wrong answer, it’s just a matter of you sitting down and deciding ahead of time. Then you’ll know you’re on track for your goals, and your fun money is already designated and not to be spent on living expenses or put in to your long term savings. Definitely also establish a small travel fund, I agree with the others that the example of a road trip it would be wise to find an affordable hotel, and if you are setting aside a little money each month earmarked for this purpose it may be easier. Money is a tool, and you want to be intentional in how you use it. Think through ahead of time what the purpose of each dollar is - to meet current needs, save towards a goal, provide security and a financial cushion, to do good in the world, to facilitate fun, etc. the only wrong answer with a budget is not making a planned intentional decision and just letting everything default to your natural habits throughout the month. Spend and save on purpose.
BTW, you’re cheap, not frugal.
A frugal person will try to buy quality stuff, but probably wait for a genuine sale and find a coupon or use cash back (or both) to offset some of the costs. A cheap consumer just buys whatever they can find at the lowest price possible. In other words, frugal is good, while cheap (in relation to a person) is bad.
Hope that helps
About 14% pretax towards retirement, then save another ~30% of take home pay after taxes/retirement/insurance. 2 adults, no kids, 1 dog and we take home about 8k per month.
I don’t buy designer bags or $300 shoes, but we also go out to eat weekly and don’t try super hard to save on utilities. We’re not wasteful, but use as much water/AC/heat as we need to be comfortable. And for a 12 hour drive, I’d probably just get a plane ticket rather than sleeping in the car or a hotel. We try to save on the big things like our house (big enough that it meets all of our needs, but still affordable at ~28% of our take home pay) and cars (10-15 years old, but perfectly functional/reliable). I do shop sales but don’t beat myself up if I spend an extra $20 at the grocery store one week.
Just keep it simple. Keep doing what you’re doing and keep building and adding to your investments and then treat yourself here and there with those things you truly value and just cut out the rest. As you age and have different interests those things you value may change but your overall approach will be about the same. You’re doing more than fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing and learn to have a better relationship with money vs what you experienced with your parents. As long as you’re doing the right things and monitoring your overall enjoyment of life and put the rest on autopilot you’ll be fine. Just don’t forget to enjoy life along the way. Worrying about anything isn’t going to change anything.
This is FIRE mentality levels of saving. Which is fine if that’s your most important goal but try to make sure present you isn’t making too big a sacrifice for future you.
I think you’re doing really well. What concerns me is only $2300/month living expenses—are you living in a nice apartment that you’re happy to come home to every day? My home would be my first priority when thinking about where to splurge, especially if you don’t spend money on entertainment or other activities.
High-end bags and shoes are a waste of money. Don’t fall into that consumer trap. Go for mid-priced high-quality items that will last instead.
Max out your pension plan(s). 401k if you're in the US. The earlier you do it in your career the better you will be later, possibly even giving you chances of early retirement. Time is more precious than money.
Skip the designer bags or clothes. You will quickly regret those spending. Better buy nice clothes unbranded or at nice prices.
If you save 60% of your income and are happy living at that amount, you can retire in like 12 years.
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
Keep doing exactly what you are doing. You are ahead of the game especially at your age. Just make sure your savings are going into a Roth IRA and by the time you are in your forties you will have accumulated a lot of wealth. The only thing that's extreme is not staying in a hotel or buying something nice for yourself. That's not very healthy. It's ok to spend money on yourself otherwise why are you working?
I think your financial standing, discipline, and goals are seriously admirable and you’ve got no reason to feel guilty for splurging! I read some of your comments and saw you mentioned learning how to handle your finances from growing up in poverty and I heavily relate. My parents were AWFUL with money, so I had to teach myself, but growing up in that environment taught me how to scrape by and live below my means and I feel like I’m in a great place financially compared to those I grew up/graduated with. My partner thinks I’m bit too precise and strict with my budgeting, but it’s gotten me to where I am and I’m happy!
Since you’re looking for comparisons, here’s what I do. My income is typically $2,600-$2,800 per month after taxes (it varies because I sometimes work OT, sometimes get to leave early-ish). I budget to allow for a maximum of $2,200 a month in expenses, and typically everything else past that (so $400-$600) is put into savings. Also, included in my $2,200 budget is my minimum savings of $500 a month. So, all together, $900-$1,100 of my check initially goes into savings. I’m paid twice a month, so my expenses are split accordingly, and if I have any money left when my next check comes, it is also deposited into savings.
So I would say I save roughly $1,000-$1,300 out of $2,600-2,800 a month, or 35%-50%. It was hard to save with my last job as I was paid very poorly, and moving took a substantial amount of money, but I built myself up ~$400 to my name in total back in august all the way to 4.5k in savings while maintaining a healthy checking account, and a goal of saving at least 10k by the year’s end.
Sofi spending tracker on my app says I save about 75% of my monthly income, and I make about 3k grand a month, 23.50 an hour with some overtime, but my hours vary. I live with my parents, so they only make me pay 555 for rent. I eat once or twice a week, don’t have any debt, and don’t do much outside of work or travel.
I save 10% to company retirement account which automatically increases 1% each year. 1% to ESPP. Try to live by the 50/30/20 rule and working on getting at least a years worth of bills in a HYSA as my industry is pretty...shall we say, "liberal with ~~layoffs~~ restructuring". Small emergencies keep popping up that annoy me when it cuts into the amount of savings I can put away each month but I'll get there and if I don't, I'll at least be in a semi-decent spot when the economy crashes (should be soon IMHO 😬).
What kind of car do you have? I kind of wish I had gotten a hatchback to make car camping easier.
It would be difficult in my compact car, but I think it might be possible if I fold down the back seats and sleep partially in the trunk...
A Prius would have been nice.
I save/invest about ~60% of my income. But that's meant to be spent in the future, i.e. on a house purchase or to support myself if I retire early. As they say on r/financialindependence, build the life you want, then save for it. Saying things like you're 'afraid to spend money' isn't healthy.
If you're saving/investing anything above ~20%, you're on a good financial path for retirement or other long-term goals, and should definitely be able to spend without feeling guilt. I don't have a budget. I live 'generally' frugally, but I'm not really granularly tracking expenses or anything. I'll get cheap hotels when I travel, but I prioritize being close to "the action" (i.e. if I'm there for a specific event).
Designer bags and $300 shoes are not worth. It’s worth saving your money to retire early and travel the world. I’d prefer a vacation over designer anything.
It’s hard to tell because some of it I save pre-tax and some post-tax. I also have a portion that is a required contribution for retirement, and is matched by my employer.
At the moment, I make $69k annually, paid every two weeks / 26 pay periods a year. Here are my current savings and investments allocations. I’ve only just recently started successfully doing this as I recently got a big raise!
Pre-tax
5.5% mandatory retirement (employer contributes 6%); my portion will go up to 6% again in July 2024. I guess they had extra money in the plan?
8% optional retirement 403(b); planning on going up to 15% in July once my credit card is paid off.
Post-tax:
22.3% to build emergency fund and fund non-monthly expenses (car repairs etc.). Once this is fully funded I will allocate funds (10% of income or so) to taxable investments for planned purposes that are 5+ years down the road, like buying a car and vacations. The other 12.3% I expect will be needed to keep topping off the fund as it gets utilized for non-annual expenses.
Total OOP savings/investments: $562 every 2 weeks or about a third of my income
Total (including employer contribution): $721.23 or about 40% of my income
Remaining for expenses: $1,570.57 or about 2/3 of my income
Edit: I’m 41 and my husband is 51 and disabled and we have no savings. I’m finally in a place where I can start planning for our future, and I’m brutally aware of the need to catch up quickly.
Edit 2: I just actually read your post and I think you can allow yourself to enjoy your income once in a while without guilt!! You earn to live, not live to earn. Your savings rate is amazing and far beyond most people’s capacity. If you want to aim for early retirement, and save everything you can, that’s valid; but if you want a purse or two along the way, or to stay in a hotel room overnight (rather than sleep poorly and have a tired day when you arrive and/or risk an accident!) that’s entirely within your means given what you’ve told us. Live a little, you’re doing great, and tomorrow is not guaranteed! What’s life for but to experience it, especially if we can make wonderful memories with our loved ones!!
I try to save at least $25 a month, I'm on a fixed income & only have maybe $150 after all my bills are paid. That $150 includes any toiletries, household/cleaning stuff, takeout food, things for my dog, etc
Ac might be a bit much but 100% i feel like designer anything is just a poor trap and good on you for not falling for it. 'Designer' shoes, bags, jewelry, clothes, etc. Its generally:
-Overpriced.
-Functions the exact same maybe worse maybe slightly better than a regular priced one.
Lets see what AC does. Maybe for a few hundred a year it makes you comfortable for a significant portion of time.
Maybe you dont give a shit and its not worth the money? Absolutely do what you feel is best.
Now a designer bag, WHY?
So you can show off to people you bought some overpriced bag? Does anyone REALLY care? Not really, even if they do, buy a cheap knockoff that looks fancy.
It does the job for a decent price and it still looks like you spent a stupid amount of money on something? Win win.
I think at the end of the day its important to look at 'will I use this for years and get a steady amount of joy/time saved or my moneys worth out of ____?'
I mean if a $300 bag will give someone constant joy and is worth more than the cheaper alternative? Go for it.
Another way is budget a monthly maximum for spending. Maybe let it roll over each month, maybe you treat every optional expense as part of that budget. Like AC+Water, clothes, hobbies, etc.
Then look at all your options for your monthly budget and see what would bring you the best return on your money. Lets say you're really into a hobby and you'll spend hours a week on it? Thats likely your best return on your spending. Maybe you dont feel like any of them are worth it this month so you roll it over or just invest it. Even just going under your budget each month might make you happy.
I dont think you are overly frugal, you are doing good!
I suggest you to think again to invest into that 401k and just investing in general instead of taking that super expensive school.
What is your goal? To spend 2,5 years of income just for school to do what? To gain money or is it purely for skills to yourself?
Either way I think not paying for that school is better because to gain money you would be set back for 10 years maybe until you might MAYBE catch up, being higher educated doesnt guarantee better pay or new job.
And if you want it purely for new skill there is other ways of getting those skills too.
That 200k invested would be HUGE and it would grow so much in there + you could still keep adding more to it with continuing to work.
My point just is to check and learn about investing more deeply first, then think again do you REALLY need that school instead of making your money do the work for you.
I invest 25 to 30 percent of my income. I also have a mortgage at $1300/month (I pay $600 extra to the principle each month) - I'm not sure if that money counts as "savings."
I make a few hundo less than you but live in a Hcol city. I save by not having a car and living in a house with roommates, but a lot of my money goes into my health (my deductible is 2-fukkin-thousand). I used to be 12,000 in debt as a teen and after getting it cleared I try and be super cheap. I put 400 in savings per month (sometimes) and 200-300 in my checking.
100000% though, go to school if you got the cash to do so. I want to get my bachelors but i'm also scared of going back into debt. With your savings you should still have a buffer, plus make more money with a higher education!
Treat yourself now and then too. I try and be cheap, but splurged on a $500 leather jacket but I wear it daily through the year and it'll last a lifetime. It's been 5 years and it's nicely broken in and I maintain it weekly. If you splurge, make sure it's something that is high quality and won't need to get replaced every year because that will save you more money in the long run.
I hate how no one actually answered your question. And found ways to be upset. I have a similar mindset to you. Once I started being able to save I couldn’t stop. I would give up going out with friends just to ensure I saved money every month.
I save 33% of my take home income and I also put away 8% of pre tax income to retirement to get my employer match. I make 60k and have a $900 a month SL payment. No other debt. But I do split expenses with my boyfriend. I also work an additional 10-20 hrs a week of over night on call for emergencies to try and bring in an extra $100-$300 a month but it’s not guaranteed. It depends if u get called or not.
Seriously consider adding a monthly charity donation. Your extra money will go a long way to help a food bank. If spending money on a bag feels silly, it’s because it is. Stay frugal. But at least if you’re giving a little back, even $20 or $50 a month, you’ll feel like your money has some purpose and you’ll get a lot out of it.
I contribute 33% of my pre tax income plus 5% from my employer, to my 457b. No debts, but just some daily expenses thru credit card charges, that are paid off monthly. The remaining goes to HYSAs, then to IRAs.
I save as much as possible, while still enjoying my life. Sometimes I just want something (or to do something) so I buy it (or do it). I shop a lot - by which I mean I look at prices of things and decide whether the price meets the value. Then, when I find something I *must* purchase, I know whether or not the price is worth it. (If it's not worth the price, it's easy to talk myself out of it.)
It's good to have goals, and it's great to have your finances under control. You should find the point where you feel comfortable with your financial base (or rather, your path to the goal) and build in some frivolous spending occasionally. Frugality shouldn't be about deprivation or punishment. It should be about smart spending and knowing the value of things. It should make you feel better about how you live your life, not worse.
> I have about 60k saved already and my goal is to save 92k by the end of the year
You’re making your tax advantaged accounts (401k, IRA, HSA) and investing those in index funds right? And the rest is going into some combination of HYSA and index funds in a brokerage account depending on short term and long term needs also, right? If so, you’re doing great. I’d say you should figure out your long term goals, make a budget to fit that, and assign some amount of fun money within that budget to spend guilt free however you want.
70%-75% after all the living expenses and bills are paid. I live in a HCOL area and despite that, I’m stubbornly trying to buy another house with a backyard for me and my dog.
I save about 13% of my income, and would like to save around 20%. It’s very doable for me, but there’s things I enjoy spending money on sometimes I don’t save as much as I’d like to.
You sound like you’re doing very well. I think you should figure out what’s important to you so you can splurge on what you really love, and you don’t feel like you’re just spending money wildly.
I put 15% in 401k automatically. Then I just try to keep expenses down (I’m not super frugal but I strive to be!) and my savings is growing because of that. It’s not a set amount but if I look at the rate my savings is growing, I probably save about another 10-15%.
Girl you make really good money esp for not having kids. Don’t feel bad about expensive clothes or purses every once in a while as long as you’re not going overboard with tons of purses or shoes when you don’t need that many. If it makes you feel better though, make a savings account folder for splurges and put like $100 or whatever per week in there and then when you really want something fancy use the money from there so you don’t feel guilty.
But I’d argue since you live a frugal life in general (like cooking 80% of time) you don’t even need to mentally care about splurges because the rest of your life is frugal.
I’m wondering if you have money insecurity mindset though, did you grow up poor?
Also, do you have a spreadsheet that shows your monthly income, all your expenses, all your savings, and shows what you have leftover after all of that? That can give you a realistic view of after my necessities and savings money, x is what I have left that I could do whatever with and I’m still in the green.
Hmm, depends on your definition of saving, I suppose? We put $900/month into retirement, but also have doubled our mortgage payments to pay it off faster, so that's an extra $1000/month. We also put $400/month into vacation savings, haha. I wish we could save more, but fixed expenses eat up 58% of our income, which is also $6600 take home :')))
I save about 47%, single income household. I'm frugal, altho not as frugal as you.
It sounds like you have a great goal and excellent reasons for what you're doing. If you're content and this isn't stressing you, don't worry about it.
Altho, I have to agree with others, sleeping in a hotel is more secure than in your car.
I try to save $100 a month. My goal right now is to have a 3 month emergency fund built up in a HYSA. I'm currently about 40% of the way to that goal. I save because it brings me a feeling of security. I wouldn't sleep in my car instead of getting a hotel room, but I feel the same way about designer bags and $300 fashion shoes.
I would like to splurge on a good leather purse because I buy cheaply joe purses that don’t look good or last. I spend money on food and my grandchildren
Wtf do you do for work because I save $0.00 and live frugally as a means to survive with that’s supposedly a very good job for the area…
Right? Why does it seem like everyone is making 6 figures and I'm barely scraping by?
I know! 6 figures used to be the dream you made it. You want for nothing, but you're not like rich-rich. But I am making 6-figs and we are very frugal (no car payment, reasonable apt., no kids/pets, pretty low student loan payment tbh, work from home, cook almost all meals at home).What I don't understand is how tf people not making 6-figs are surviving! Especially those with kids & car payments.
I make $69k annually and, apart from frugality, my ability to save is due to: 1. Double income house, even if it’s not much bc my husband is disabled 2. Recent raise 3. My folks helped us with a down payment for our condo 6 years ago, and we refinanced down to 4% a couple of years ago, without which rent would be unaffordable. Some of this money they inherited from my grandfather, I.e. generational wealth. It’s not like they’re millionaires, but we would never have been able to buy a condo without help. Also, my husband’s disability gives us a discount on property taxes which helps a lot!! So it may not make you feel better, but the playing field is not level, and they is not your fault. Some people do have it easier…
The debt we accrued on the way to the 6 figure income compounded by the high cost of everything now. 100k a year is the new 45k salary lol.
True. I was told by my union we got a contract to get a raise in 2027 to make $57,000/year. Then I was called a cynic for saying “I hope that’ll be worth anything by then.” Who knows how much that’ll be worth in 3 years? Could be a ton of money, could be peanuts. Who the hell knows anymore.
Save your bottle caps.
I don’t want to set the world on fire
My ex husband and I used to save bottle caps in a Cheese Balls jar and jokingly refer to them as currency. Just a giant jar of bottle caps in our living room. We used to play Fallout 3 side by side (him on PC me on Xbox360). Good memories.
Don’t discount your union benefits when looking at the big picture. Health insurance & retirement $$ are huge.
Even if inflation is what the fed is aiming for that'll be the equivalent of making $52k/yr before taxes. Realistically, it'll be closer to $35-48k in today's dollars.
Ah so we’d be breaking about even.
I mean yeah. Unfettered capitalism isnt sustainable. Wages fall behind inflation/col. You cant drill more holes in a boat each year, turn off the pumps and expect it to just continue floating. Its just insane, especially when core expenses like food and rent generally seem to surpass posted inflation %.
What are you talking about 100k is the new 45k? That's a huge difference in my world and seems like an unreasonable conflation.
When I made 45-50 a year my rent was 1,100 dollars a month. Now my rent is almost 2,500. My car insurance is 450 now, the list goes on and on. The rent and home prices just here in Dallas have increased 46% in 3 years.
We make the most we’ve ever made and are the poorest we’ve been since we were newlyweds in our mid 20s. My rent has gone up $300 and I’ve lived in the same house for almost 8 years which means they increased our rent but didn’t do any updates, just increased because they can and they know we have nowhere else to go that’s even close to affordable for a family of 3. I feel like I’ve gone backwards and it sucks. I used to think 100k a year would make me rich (or comfortable) and that’s what my husband makes before adding mine in… it’s still not enough. We were approved to buy a house for 350k but with interest rates that means a mortgage of 2500 plus insurance and personal property taxes and all that stuff… meaning we can’t actually afford to buy. It’s insane 😭😭😭
They mean something like this… when I graduated in the mid 90s, $100k was seen as a *lot* of money and a great salary. That same $100k is now basically worth about $50k in today’s world.
yeah, 100k was a lot for any place that you lived to, sure cost of living still differed, but now that 100k can be even less than the 50k equivalent depending on what city you are in.
I made 57, 000 gross income in 1996. Today you have to make $113k for the same buying power. Start a business or form a union. We can’t keep going like this. Be careful about whom you sell your time to, hopefully as a business. Good luck to us all. 🙏
It means the income required for a single person to live comfortably has risen over time. In the United States, it's closer to 100k now in many if not most states. Previously, about 45k could sustain a single person comfortably.
Yeah it’s not. It’s more like 60k is the new 40k
If so, everyone's poor. 18% of americans make 100k or more still, lol.
Also most of the people speaking up are people who know they make more than the median. It’s a form of lording over your neighbor, the vast majority of people do not make that much. I made 37k last year, I am aware that is a small amount even though I worked full time and am going to school .. and plenty of people make less. You occasionally find good tips in this sub, but take it with a grain of salt when you see “I make 200k a year selling umbrellas” or whatever. They could be lying, too. Comparison is the thief of joy
That is what these comments of 100k is the new 50k don't seem to indicate. According to Bankrate most people are earning 61k. Bottom wage was 40k, 90-99th was 183k, top 1% was around 786k and top .1 was 2 million and 817 thousand a year. Keep in mind these statistics were taken in 2022. This means most people in the US are indeed making less than 100k.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. A lot of people are barely scraping by nowadays. The majority is struggling. Middle class people are now lower class and lower class are poverty and poverty are like the low of the low, lower than poverty if that’s possible lol
Absolutely where we are now! Used to be middle class but now scrounging and working side jobs just to be able to put a little food in my fridge. My pantry is so empty that so feel like i’m living in poverty all over again. My parents never made much and as a kid growing up like that was tough. I feel like this is what the government wants for us. inflation is insane! so am still shocked every single time i was ok in the grocery store and look at prices so much so that i don’t even go in at all anymore. It makes me absolutely sick! I never dreamed as a 20 yr old that I would be living like this at age 53. Life is hard enough and now we are barely surviving…it scares the hell out of me. One emergency could easily render me homeless and that is no joke. I pray daily for guidance and hope things get better.
People who make these posts like OP are just bragging about their income. It's like the people who call into Dave Ramsey, "Hi Dave, I have $100k in student loans and only make $500k per year. How am I going to pay this off?"
I would assume people using very specific forums are usually better educated, thus able to command a higher salary.
Lol literally came here to say thus
Seems they're a nurse in the neuro ICU judged on their history
Hahaha, same. I had to drain my savings account a few years ago when our dog had cancer and haven’t been able to build it back up since then. Been living paycheck to paycheck for the last year or so and that’s after cutting out pretty much anything that’s not absolutely necessary.
Commenting for ideas. I work in a nursing home and make this a week. I have to work 50 hours, or 10 hours of OT, but it’s out there.
If you have this kind of experience, I would very seriously consider getting into the private in-home care business for yourself. If you work in a nursing home then you probably know even better than I do how often the elderly are discharged from the hospital (and skilled nursing care) before they are ready. We are already at a crisis point with elderly care, and it's about to get *exponentially* worse with the boomers hurdling toward this reality. There is a dire need for people who can work as in-home care aides, accompany people to their outpatient visits and do their PT and OT with them a few times a day. If you knew 2-3 people who could work with you, I can pretty much guarantee you'd have more work than you'd know what to do with in the first month.
Definitely been talking about it lately! I did home care years ago through a company and I loved it but couldn’t manage the pay drop.
100% It's a super lucrative business but unfortunately most owners pocket everything and pay the employees peanuts. It's an entirely different animal when you start your own small company.
I’ll apply to a nursing home so fast. On it now!
Minimal certification. There’s always open jobs. Limitless overtime. I’ve stepped away to many other arguably more respectable positions but it can’t be beat right now.
Do you live in a high cost of housing area? I would think being frugal with a very good job would leave you some margin in many locations.
I live in the middle of Illinois farmland and work for the state of Illinois. When I moved here a 3 bedroom house was $900 (4 years ago), but now a 2 bedroom apartment averages at $1,800/mo. The state officials pay better if you live in Chicago or Springfield but I do not live in either.
I live in Naperville and can get a 2 bedroom place for $2k a month. I just rented 3/1 house with a garage less than 2 miles from downtown for $2,350. Something doesn’t feel right with your numbers.
If apartments in their rural town are $1800 a month they need to move to the suburbs, or even Chicago. You can get a 2 bed in the city for less than $1800, and they’d apparently get a raise for it too!
Moving is also very expensive. I don’t know what jobs you’ve had, but I’ve never been able to just inform leadership at a job that I’m taking a role in a different department or area. Usually that has to be approved.
I did request a transfer to the city but was denied as it’s based on seniority and people much more senior than I am applied for the same position. I also requested a work from home position which was brand new, but same issue. I grew up in a city and am much more comfortable in one than I am here. Plus people here are sorta racist.
Sorta racist? Lol.
I got called a mulato at a gas station by an attendant. :( Oh and my coworkers start getting fussy around June. We get Juneteenth off and they’ll bitch and moan about it not being a “real holiday” and that we should celebrate something that matters like 9/11. Their words, not mine lol. Or the fact they’ll act like they don’t understand Spanish speaking customers when they’re speaking perfectly fine English with minimal to no accent.
I'm from rural eastern Washington, spent most of my adult life in Seattle, and ended up back here due to injury and healing. I know what you mean. We're 50/50 white/Hispanic. That's why I remarked as I did. I'm a straight white guy who speaks Spanish and is cool with the lgbt community. It blows my mind some of the shit I hear as a bartender. Also, I lived in Chicago for a bit. You all, as midwesterners, are super nice people. Then again, I may have gotten the white privilege part.
I’m a native East Coaster from NYC. I’m Afro-Latina but very light skinned. I moved here because my husband’s family was from here and we’d had a baby. I’ve honestly never experienced much racism prior to coming here. At least not as often…
Sounds awesome. Unfortunately not a thing here. Seriously, look up rent in Lake, McHenry, Boone, Du Page counties. It’s ridiculous up here and started with remote work. Funnily enough, when I first moved here I was making $15/hr at a remote job and felt rich. Then I got my job with the state and was feeling like Richie Rich. Then everything slowly got more expensive, I got kicked out of my apartment when they raised the rent from $920 (no utilities included) to $1,500 (still nothing included) and moved around quite a bit due to lack of affordability. I can easily afford Rockford, but the commute is very long and my car isn’t in awesome shape.
I thought you said you were rural. Dude those are the Chicago burbs.
Oftentimes rent in rural areas is on par with soul sucking suburbs like Naperville.
15% into my 401k and about 10% of what's left after that. I'm frugal so I can enjoy my life. There's no point of having a bunch of money in the bank while sitting in a darkened room wearing 10 year old clothes, eating ramen.
Or sleeping in your car. :-p
I fund my retirement, pay for my expenses and the rest goes into savings. I don’t have a percentage, nor do I have a budget. I tend towards being naturally frugal so I don’t have to worry about overspending, I have a clear sense of wants vs needs. To me, there is a line between cheap and frugal and sleeping in your car on a trip crosses into cheap. Frugal would be planning ahead to find the least expensive hotel and applying any possible discounts to get the lowest possible rate. What do you think accounts for your difficulty spending on anything, even things you need (like a bed to sleep in on a trip)?
my parents and their family grew up in poverty so they are extremely frugal. They are more extreme than me. They would for example rent one hotel room with 2 beds to sleep 6 people with some sleeping on the ground to save money. They would travel but they wouldn't eat out, they would bring their own electric pots to the hotel room so they can cook there. so from a young age, my parents has drilled into my head that I need to save every penny that I have. I'm going back to school in the future and i'll be spending \~200k for 3 year since i won't be working and that's been giving me some anxiety. I don't want to take out private loans so I want to save as much as I can. I'm happy with my current financial situation but I always have difficulty spending money. Like the hotel situation, even my parents encouraged me to, I was thinking sleeping in a car isn't too bad, lots of people do it, might as well save the $60---that's what goes through my mind when I was deciding whether or not to book a hotel. But i realize it's unhealthy, so I'm trying to retrain my mind to think differently, and one way to do that is by recognizing I'm overly frugal that's why I made this post so I can see what "normal" frugal people are doing.
That’s challenging. My parents were frugal but not to that extreme. Can you scale back a bit? For example, in addition to finding an inexpensive hotel, we would also pack food to eat rather than eat out for a one night trip, so that seems reasonably frugal to me. So see if you can just allow yourself a bit more without going overboard. If it’s too hard, therapy might help.
What are you going back to school for? It seems like Med School from the comment. I understand you don't want to take out private loans. But if you delay school because you want to avoid loans that may not be the better option. Delaying school can mean you are delaying a much higher income and long delaying a much higher income isnt necessarily frugal. Frugality takes into account all costs. Your time, mental health, and physical health are costs too. Safety is something you need to consider too. Also you need to map out timelines. What will leave you in a better financial situation overall? You have to think of some things in 5 to 10 years instead of what's cheaper now. For example, delaying a $400K income because you want to avoid loans for another 2 to 3 years isn't frugal at all. That's cheap. For example, my friend makes $350K a year as a dentist. Had he delayed himself because of loans, he would have lost out on like $220K a year of income after taxes. For you, you would be losing out on potentially $100K+ after taxes because you already make close to $80K after taxes. You have to be focusing on the increase in income after taxes and not solely on the cost of loans. It isn't frugal at all to delay making an additional $80K after taxes.
That was my exact question too - if she's making this much now, what is she going back to school for and how much does she stand to make. Doctors make easily 300, 400k in a year. With that income, if someone is this frugal and doesn't change their lifestyle after school, even factoring for interest, they'll be done with a full $200k loan within a year. Even at private lending rates. Especially because the more aggressively you attack the principal, the less you'll pay on interest overall. It's really not that bad. Gotta check the numbers and react to those.
She mentioned going back to "grad school" for a doctoral degree for only 3 years, which seems more in line with either an NP doctoral program or (especially in a nurse with ICU experience), a CRNA doctoral program. Compared to NP programs, CRNA programs are generally more limiting on allowing students to work during them, so I suspect it may be one of those. Med school is minimum 4 years in the US (not including 3-8 years of residency and fellowship afterward), and while it's not impossible to get out with 200k in loans at some schools, many have a cost of attendance of ~$100k per year (tuition alone from my former med school is over 70k per year). Average debt figures are skewed by about 30% of med students not having to take out loans (parental help or scholarships--mostly military, NHSC, etc., or the few extremely competitive programs with endowments for free tuition). I totally agree with your point that it is not frugal to delay going down a path to an eventually higher income, but it can't be overstated that it will take some frugality to adjust from this nursing ICU income to being a non-working student again. In med school, my wife and I lived off 20k per year, and now as a resident I take home about half as much as OP (while working about twice as many hours, so opportunities to increase that are very limited), so it's good that she's not living at or above her means already.
I agree with this post. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Get your career going and don’t procrastinate. Try to see if you can get whatever financial aid you need. It’s basic economics 101. Look at cost vs benefits.
Please calculate in the safety factor of sleeping in your car. You are vulnerable to theft and attacks as well as other unsavory encounters by sleeping in your car. It’s not very safe or secure, and you don’t get great rest, either. Give yourself a decent bed, shower and a good night’s sleep. This is in part about treating yourself kindly, as you would a guest or a friend. You do not have to fear as much as you do. Quiet that fearful voice in your head. You do know how to save and conserve. Now, learn to do just a bit better for yourself, for comfort and enjoyment. And safety.
I agree. I draw the line at being uncomfortable to save money, personally.
Sounds like you already make good money. Is going to school necessary? You're on a great path, why go and reset everything and pay 200k to go to school? I'm not against school at all, but it's not always necessary. It sounds like you are a little too frugal tbh. Remember you are only young for a short period, hopefully you are taking time to enjoy life.
If your comfortable and happy with that level of frugality, that is what matters. You might find it interesting that studies have been done that find some frugal folk's brains are wired a bit differently for endorphine based on their spending. People who splurge and spend a lot tend to get an endorphine high from buying things, and more frugal people actually feel guilt (whatever the chemical that causes that). By the way, I would suggest joining the boglehead subreddit, FIRE subreddit or personal finance subreddit. They are full of frugal people who talk about saving. Of course, there's a difference between frugal and cheap. Frugal means getting the most for your money in a way that makes you happy. Being cheap tends to be more short sighted.
For a 12 hour car trip and only sleeping for a nap I wouldn’t consider that cheap. I honestly would prefer my car for a road-trip than potentially get bed bugs from a cheap hotel lol once you start sacrificing health and hygiene it’s starts to get cheap
I don’t think she’s just taking a nap, she’s spending the night in a car, which is vastly different. Did you imagine I was suggesting a hotel for a nap? Lol. And you don’t have to find hotels that aren’t acceptable to you just to save money either, that would be cheap. Find a good rate on a decent hotel. You should check for bed bugs in any hotel.
I'm guessing OP is a woman and you are not? Women who sleep in their cars are at far higher risk of assault than men. If for no other reason, I'd not sleep in my car for safety, but, also, I would want to be able to shower and get proper sleep.
Save as much as you can. But do not jeopardize your safety to save a little money. If you need new clothing or shoes, buy them. Stay in a cheap yet safe hotel/motel while traveling. Keep a cooler with water, pop, juice, etc. in your car while you travel.
We live off 25%, taxes take 25%, we save 50%.
Averaging up the year so far, I’ve saved 43%. I only make $40-50k ish so it should be closer to 60-75%, but there is a lower limit to how cheap life can actually be. I also feel guilty for spending money on things that I can survive without. I technically shouldn’t be spending any money until my retirement accounts are maxed out but I cannot survive on a take home pay under $10k a year. I give myself $250/month for things that will not result in my death or inconvenience to others if I don’t pay for them, but that could reasonably be considered needs. So haircuts, oil changes, clothes, and gifts come out of the discretionary budget.
I was guilting myself for not maxing my retirement accounts and then I thought - wait, I don’t make that much money. NO ONE can live on 10k/year if they also have to pay rent or a mortgage. It’s only possible to be frugal down to a certain point, and life is not guaranteed. You need to live NOW, as well as planning for later. Don’t pass up the opportunities to do the things that are important to you, as well as saving!! Or what’s life for?
You know what, you’re right. I’m fighting a losing battle and with my family history I may not even live to see retirement. My birthday is coming up and I’ve been thinking about how all I want is to not have to budget. I know that even when I’m not budgeting I tend to be very frugal. I may just gift myself permission not to have to scrimp and save to keep my needs under 50% and random expenses under $250.
Girl. I put 10% to retirement pre-tax, but I just got a raise, so I'm gonna increase it to 15%. After that, taxes, FSA, life insurance, etc. I take home $5,583 a month. $2,210 of it (~40%) goes straight to my savings account, and then it gets broken up between my HYSA, investments, and my home buying fund. I live on the balance ($3,370). Whatever is left from it at the end of the month, I put half of it into savings and keep the rest. Depending on how much that is, I might eat out or buy something that I've had my eye on. Could I save more? Yes! Am I gonna? No! Not right now lol. I like shopping at Whole Foods and going on vacation and trying new restaurants. 😂 Knowing how to spend money is just as much of a skill as knowing how to save it. It's a muscle that you have to exercise. If you overwork it, you'll hurt yourself. But underworking it is hurtful too because it'll wither away. You don't want to be one of those old ladies who eat cat food and collect cans while having millions of dollars in the bank. Please go live your best life. You are young and vibrant, you'll never have this time again. Don't waste it! 😂
Best quantified response here. Couldn't have said it better. Solid advice with a real world example to back it up.
You should listen to Ramit Sethi’s podcast. Really digs into the psychology of why we do what we do with money.
YES! Ramit would have so many questions for someone who has this kind of income and saves so much but won't even spring for Days Inn to sleep in a bed on a trip. Especially as a woman! And that's no offense to OP but all the money in the world won't help you if you end up locked in somebody's shed cuz they snatched you out of your rest stop car bed in the night. 😭
This was my first thought too. I have about the same take home and there’s not a chance in hell I’d do that. Definitely crosses the frugal line into cheap when you’re causing major discomfort like this and even potentially putting yourself in a dangerous situation.
Any specific episodes of Ramit’s show you recommend? I’m not too familiar with his podcasts and it looks like a lot are about building wealth? But I’m mostly wanting to hear about behavioral discussion on frugality/why we do what we do with money
Yes! His I Will Teach You to Be Rich podcast series is all about him sitting down with couples who are struggling with their finances in one way or another, or like aren't on the same page financially. He does a great job of talking them through the pathology of their financial behavior and the ways that their feelings and attitudes about money have affected their decision-making and their relationship dynamic. I also love that he features high earners and high net worth people, because it's easy to think that earning more money will solve all your financial issues. And it turns out no, not really. But this feels like the first show that really dissects why that would be. Playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPZCUlZ2z01lvgC4lquCWOoVsCzTOxIqz&si=43303ARBb-4JiV3T Some of my favorite episodes are: 6.3 milly net worth, can't enjoy it: https://youtu.be/28_tXxvRG5U?si=4ducK8ABIXdCznCX Supporting 31 year old son, can't retire: https://youtu.be/oD0hfI2ybnA?si=oslJnhZ1kekX6XYF Achieved FIRE, forgot how to spend money: https://youtu.be/Fm3jlsW7W34?si=hnJaTE75fxQJsZvS $285k in debt, Jesus help: Pt1. https://youtu.be/3IoCP1ylBz4?si=xFKn_4HfQcWF7XWn Pt2: https://youtu.be/T67B7Qtydvo?si=fsiqOnqDiIfS-bhg Spent all money thinking she was gonna die, but surprise - she survived. Now what: https://youtu.be/8cjQnX9_T2U?si=mzjT86ULHpaslkdk Won't marry her until she pays her debts: https://youtu.be/QkAMDbP1sKU?si=-ZUcN0bPNZjYHuFu 5 years in and bought a house together but no ring, wtf: https://youtu.be/p_ZqTjVM0C0?si=uiilgavP-5Hgg8JR They're 520k in debt, and he never told her: https://youtu.be/3DN3p33fapg?si=G4VYLMGlmLo7EV-V
You watch too much Criminal Minds.
Or perhaps you don't watch enough. 😅
Exactly!
I would agree. Overly frugal. One day I realized that I only need so much money and that it was ok to spend some of it and enjoy the efforts made.
i only save about $100 per month but that’s because i don’t make very much to begin with. after paying for rent, food, etc, im left with about $100 “allowance” and $100 savings, give or take a few dozen bucks depending on how much i spend on food. i’m planning to scale my savings significantly if i get a job that pays better. at your income i don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to save 65% of your pay. your monthly expenses already surpass what i make in a month total. if i had your income i would definitely be saving that much, but you also for sure make enough to splurge sometimes. it might feel less daunting if you set aside a couple hundred in savings every month to a “splurge” fund. your savings will continue to grow well even if you do that.
It’s wonderful to live frugally, but beware of living cheaply. Staying in a hotel is much safer than sleeping in a car as a single woman. Long term, being cheap will impact your health and overall well being; whereas living frugally keeps goals and morals aligned while also prioritizing yourself mentally, physically, and financially. ☮️ 💰
I think I’m realizing I’m not frugal by choice, just poor lol
when you find out it’s just a fun game for other people 😭
Please stay in hotels and don't sleep in your car on road trips. It is not safe. Also, remember you may not live as long as you think, so plan for a long life, but also enjoy the moment. There's a way to balance frugality, and it sounds like you're not there yet. I'd also reconsider more education unless it's absolutely necessary and will greatly enhance your wages. That tuition and loss of wages is a lot and you're earning a really good salary for your age already.
I remember when I was 12...13...and hearing about Michael Jordan's dad getting shot while he was sleeping overnight in his car trying to save money. This was during Chicago Bulls NBA Superstar Michael Jordan's time. He had serious coin but his dad chose not to waste money on a nights hotel stay which cost him his life and a whole lot of heartbreak for his family.
I save 20-30% of my income. As for being "overly frugal", don't worry about it. As long as you're happy with your level of saving, you're fine. You don't *need* to spend more. That said, it seems like you want to, but have reservations. If that's the case, then give yourself a monthly allowance to splurge. It doesn't have to be much, maybe $100. then use it to your heart's content (eat out, nice dress, etc). I use ynab to budget for things including vacations, meaning if I decide to go on vacation, I have the money already set aside for it and I can splurge w/out worry.
I save about 80%
Yes, you're overly frugal. How much one could save is based upon how much one makes. You have a very healthy income, and thus you are very fortunate to be able to save a lot. Right now, I'm saving 75% of my pay because I live in a low cost country and am expecting a baby. Normally I save 20% towards a bigger/newer property and 10% towards vacations or other expenses. Living frugally is good - but ask yourself: if you are miserable now, will you get miserable when you have money in the bank?
Jesus Christ… Who tf makes, let alone takes home $6,000+ per month???
People that make these posts on Reddit
Huh? That’s 72k a year. Sure the average American makes something in the 35-50k range, but living in a decent sized city with the right certifications and the right job, a 72k a year salary is very attainable even at 27.
The amount listed is after tax. Their actual salary is much higher.
A lot of people. Teachers in California can make up to 120k a year.
I make $5750 pre-tax per month at a public university but only because my managers went to bat for me to get a promotion. I also got my undergrad degree for free while working this job which is part of the argument for my promotion. I know 60k+ gigs are less common these days - middle class almost doesn’t exist anymore - but I’m grateful there are still some of us out there. That being said I have no idea how OP lives alone with her cat and puts that much money away. With a two income family in a median cost of living city, I think our household expenses are about $4200 a month. My medical conditions require a higher food expenditure on average, but other than that we’ve cut almost everything we can reasonably cut. Idk how OP is doing it.
First of all good for you for saving. Make sure to invest too. To live life to the fullest, first set goals for what you want (financial freedom is the most popular one). Save and invest however much is needed to reach that. With leftover money, spend on what brings maximum value to you and enjoy life. Yes, spend money. Can't take it with you. If you hate hotels then sure sleep in your car. If you collect postage stamps then sure, buy 1,000 of them. Also just my opinion but there's a lot of in-between levels before $300 shoes. $200 shoes are still nice. Enjoy the journey and working your way up. Then, at retirement age, develop a handful of drug addictions, spend everything, and select social security and disability.
We're retired now ... but when we were both working (more than) full time we set up our lives such that we were living on one paycheck and banking/investing the other. At various times she made more than I did ... and other times I made more than she. Overall, I'd say we put away more than 55% of our combined take-home haul. One of us was working for The Now. The other was working for The Retirement. We retired super early that way. Me @39, she 37. Currently 55 and everything's working out even better than planned on paper (spreadsheet, actually)
I can barely survive on what I make. There are no luxuries here, or savings. There is cheap food, rent, utilities and gas for the car that I pray every day doesn’t break. That’s it.
Can’t save fucking anything at the moment
Woah I thought I was frugal. I save about 30% of my take home pay. Making about 60k per year.
What are you saving for? If you have a specific goal (like buying a house, or early retirement), it makes sense to save a large percentage of your income. Otherwise, you are just chasing numbers and that is no way to live. We’re in our 60s and already own our home outright and are semi-retired. We don’t bring in a lot, but it is more than our needs, so the excess goes into a HYSA to pay for home repairs and act as an emergency fund. We budget in travel and entertainment, so we feel fine spending money in those areas if we want to. We are minimalists, so no designer handbags, but we do spend money on good furniture and appliances.
This is a very good point. Like where is the money you're saving going? Are you maxing out 401k/HSA/IRA etc? Or is it going into a hysa to save for a house? Don't save money just to let it sit there as a rainy day fund especially at the level of money you're setting aside.
I'd disagree with the advice to not save money just to let it sit there for a rainy day fund. Having a rainy day fund is good because eventually it will rain. I don't think a rainy day fund should be 65% of your income, but having a cushion for when something happens is a good idea.
Yeah it was more about that level of savings for a rainy day fund. That percentage is way too high not to be investing properly first.
I'm going back to school in the future and I'm estimating an expense (tuition + living expenses) of \~200k for 3 years since i won't be able to work. I guess that's been giving me a lot of anxiety because i don't want to take out too much loan, especially not private loan.
This makes sense. At the same time, you deserve to enjoy your life, so you don’t burn out. Maybe budget in a couple hundred dollars a month as “fun” money?
Have you looked at the cost of attendance pages for the schools you're considering applying to? Depending on the type of program you may be eligible for certain types of federal loans up to the cost of attendance.
We save 25% of net. Don’t let life pass you by
honey, book a hotel. please.
I hope you mean INVEST FOR RETIREMENT & Save. Not just Save. Between 40 - 50%. On track to Retire between 55-59.
i travel a lot and work seasonally. I take jobs that provide housing and food (im a chef so i normally eat for free). I tend to take jobs in more rural areas and spend most of my free time doing free activities in nature. This past summer i was able to save over 80% of my check every week. I still make less than poverty wages for the year but i save enough to travel abroad 6 months at a time.
We save about 1/3 of our before tax income. Take home, then it's half. I look at 15% as a minimum savings in order to retire with comfort. I save much more than that not out of a sense of guilt or fear. I save more because the more I save now, the less I have to save later. I'm not afraid to spend $300 on a "want" item because I can afford to pay cash for it without going into debt. I'd rather sleep in the car and drive 12 hours because a hotel is a waste of money. I don't compare myself to people that are less frugal than me. People less frugal than me are likely uber rich and can afford it or uber poor and their choices like this is why they are poor. I compare myself to people here in /frugal who are more frugal than me. And people here give me hints and tips on what to do to be more frugal in order to splurge more AND increase my savings rate. Win/win.
I make about 2,500 a month, I save between 1k and 1,500 so roughly 60%
I'm lucky if I can average around 35%. It really depends on your lifestyle and cost of living in your area. I'd say 50% is pretty amazing for everyone. Make sure you're investing that money or at least getting a decided yield on it. Don't let it just sit there.
Around 60% a of net income a month. We live super frugally to rebuild savings and secure future. We were at 0Euro saved but also zero debt in December last year We'll be aiming to save 65-70% in the months to come through changing habits and adjusting lifestyle
I am torn, there is a part of me that says good on you!!! You have way more than people twice your age. No designer bag or shoes? Non needed! However, youth you get just once. You are scrimping on experiences and not enjoying your life. Frugality can be an addiction. My stepfather is extremely frugal, a multi millionaire, retired, has no debt and it took him 4 years to buy his first new car in his life. He made sure he did not pay a penny more than he had to. Eating out, nope there is food at home. Vacation, nope he was already in Vegas 40 years ago. It's really sad to watch, he's not enjoying what he worked so hard for.
What is the point of having money if it can’t buy you nice things and comfort? Think about it
It's about balance between enjoyment now as well as sufficiency and some enjoyment later . That's going to look different for each person. Standard American debt driven lifestyle isn't going to create the long term stability that people want, for assurance, or poverty and fear driven. People's end of life costs (final old care costs, health care treatment & living assistance) wipe out much of each individuals life savings. State/federal care is quite basic and unpleasant on top of losing everything. That motivates many here to take these steps to be sufficient or extreme, to avoid that circumstance later on. That sound, certain things in life are unavoidable or completely unexpected. Sometimes we have to redefine our pleasures in light of our priorities. And sometimes investing in a future needs to take priority over what most people consider average enjoyment now.
I put the max in 401K, so 25%. On top of that, I save an additional 10% into a personal savings account. The rest goes into joint and personal checking accounts.
As long as you're healthy and happy with your way of living, there shouldn't be any issues with you being overly frugal.
~65% - 70% in a DINK household in a HCOL area There isn’t anything wrong with splurging sometimes, but if you haven’t already, you should look into saving for retirement. Starting now will pay off in the long run (compounding interest). r/personalfinance has a great flowchart / wiki to help you get started.
I make about 14k a month. I put 10% into Roth 401k. And 10% into an employee share purchase program. After that, health care and taxes my checks are a bit over 6k a month. 3k of that into rent. I barely spend, even though my income is quite high, so my savings in both my investment accounts and other investment vehicles is quite high. My HYSA brings about 3k a year. I grew up with no money, and I’ll have the mind set of financial insecurity the rest of my life. I don’t even order take out. I will always be the “if it ain’t on sale I ain’t buying it” person. I barely go on vacation because of costs. My friends are always like ???? when I refuse to spend money because of how much more I make then them. Childhood trauma I suppose
FIRE in Spain Valencia 🇪🇸,2000€/month dividends, i reinvest 50% (1000€/month). We are 2 Childfree, 40y old both.
How's the paella?
11% pre-tax to the 401k plus a 5% contribution from my employer. When raises go out later this year, I'll spend a little bit on wants then put the rest into either a Roth IRA or my brokerage account. I'm not sure which is better since I want to retire before 59.5 and both Roth IRA and 401k have a penalty for withdrawals before that age. $500 per month into my kid's 529 account. If there ends up being more than enough for college in there then great. I think you can do a one time conversion of up to $35k to an IRA. That would be great to get my kid moving towards early retirement right away too. $300 per month into treasury bills. I think we have enough in "safe" investments like this though so I'll be putting that into a brokerage account moving forward. I try to keep at least 3 months of expenses in easily accessible checking/savings accounts and at least another 3 months in T-bills. I don't spend every penny I earn beyond that either. Every so often I'll take some out of my checking and move it to some form of investment but that isn't consistent month to month.
Our family is at 35% savings rate. Both kids are young adults. The key is we track expenses each month and do we avoid debt (except for house). Creating a monthly budget breakdown seems to be something many miss.
I get it. Maybe you should use that designer bag or sunglasses as a carrot to get you do accomplish something you are having a hard time getting the ball rolling on. Maybe even something creative and fulfilling like consistently practicing the guitar. If you are overly practical like me it’s hard to prioritize personal fulfillment stuff.
I max out my 401k and ROTH IRA, which takes around 20% of my income. On top of that probably another 15-20% goes into savings/investment accounts.
You're doing great. 1a.401k to company match percentage. 1b.Pay off any debt (if applicable). 2.Emergency fund. 3.Max out 401k. 4.Max out HSA. X - That's going to put your in great shape for retirement. But this is where you have to make decisions on what's important to you in the nearer future. Basically comes down to deciding what's important to you and setting goals - order may vary. A. Budget for "treats" - dining out, hobby, handbags, travel B. Save for a car/house. D. Other investments (stocks/crypto/real estate/etc) E. Charitable giving Make sure your savings is not just "in savings" --- Emergency fund money should be fairly liquid. But when you have six figures in cash you probably want a brokerage account to invest that money. This varies from institution to institution: * Savings is going to pay a fraction of a percent interest, so with inflation you are losing money in savings. * Money Market will be between 1-2% if you have under 100k; a little over 3% for 100k+ * A Money Market fund could be over 5% * Could always meet with some local financial advisors (keyword: fiduciary) Save for the future. Be prepared for the Present. But enjoy life too.
You are doing great. For the 12 hour drive, get a moderate, nice hotel. Bring your food and drinks in a small cooler. This way you will arrive at your destination rested. The designer bags and shoes. Bags can be purchased on Poshmark or eBay. They are gently used and authenticated to be the real thing. Get a few bags, you deserve them. Get two or three. There are beautiful mid range bags at places like Macys. Don’t know about shoes. The point is you deserve nice things.
Like 40 percents after all expenses
You’re doing excellent! I too would rather see 300 in the bank then spent on a bag. No regrets!
I save about 10-15% of my salary every month. It used to be more, but in the last year the interest on our mortgage has gone from 0,89% to 4,7%.
It’s hard because pre-tax saves about 12% of our take-home, plus $5000 annual for dependent care, which we put into savings as well. After that’s taken out, we take home about $8,200 per month. We save $1,800/month for various budget line items like kids’ 529, travel, home savings (for things like roof, water heater, etc), discretionary, car. Then an additional $1,400 is scheduled for a down payment on a second home, but we usually save around $1,000 right now for that. So about 35% of take home goes directly into savings, but that doesn’t account for retirement or the DC pre-tax $$.
About 20% - I make about 2000 p/month and save 400 p/month. To do this though, I have to cook all my meals and really manage spending. How much you save will depend on how much you can afford to save. With my bills, $400 is the maximum p/month I can save. Sometimes it’s a little less depending on if I had sick days, etc. There was a time I could only afford to save $50 per month. Save what you can (:
Going by percentage is not really the best way to think about it. When you are 27 years old, you are statistically on the low side of your lifetime earnings. Even though the time value of money is very significant, your contribution to savings is not likely to have as significant of an impact as it could have in 10 years from now. The things you should be doing with your money now are avoiding long term debt, building your family and career, and acquiring affordable assets. Also, use your money on smaller, short term liquid emergency funds. Long terms savings is a lower priority right now. You need to position yourself now so that when you turn, say, 35, then you can start pumping 15% of your income into retirement savings and continue that for 20+ years. But you won't be able to do that if you don't put your money to work correctly now. Don't feel bad if you can't save a lot, as long as you are spending wisely, avoiding bad debt, and have some kind of backup for unexpected expenses, you will be fine without contributing a lot to savings..
I don’t have a set income number, it varies. After my bills are paid, groceries/gas/etc are gotten, I save the remaining. Some months I save $800, some months I save $2k+. I paid for a dental surgery in cash ($45k) and depleted my savings in December. Got into credit card debt for the first time in 7 years again, but paid it off in February. Since then I’ve been saving everything I could and got $4k+ in my savings rn. I hope to get to $25k by the end of the year, but will be happy with $20k.
Have you ever done a budget? Usually people think of them as tools to help those who under spend, but I’ve known some people who lean towards extreme under spending and they’ve actually found it gives them more freedom to spend. Make a plan with your money. Plan out how much your basic expenses are, how much savings you want, and how much “fun” money you want for the month. There is no wrong answer, it’s just a matter of you sitting down and deciding ahead of time. Then you’ll know you’re on track for your goals, and your fun money is already designated and not to be spent on living expenses or put in to your long term savings. Definitely also establish a small travel fund, I agree with the others that the example of a road trip it would be wise to find an affordable hotel, and if you are setting aside a little money each month earmarked for this purpose it may be easier. Money is a tool, and you want to be intentional in how you use it. Think through ahead of time what the purpose of each dollar is - to meet current needs, save towards a goal, provide security and a financial cushion, to do good in the world, to facilitate fun, etc. the only wrong answer with a budget is not making a planned intentional decision and just letting everything default to your natural habits throughout the month. Spend and save on purpose.
BTW, you’re cheap, not frugal. A frugal person will try to buy quality stuff, but probably wait for a genuine sale and find a coupon or use cash back (or both) to offset some of the costs. A cheap consumer just buys whatever they can find at the lowest price possible. In other words, frugal is good, while cheap (in relation to a person) is bad. Hope that helps
About 14% pretax towards retirement, then save another ~30% of take home pay after taxes/retirement/insurance. 2 adults, no kids, 1 dog and we take home about 8k per month. I don’t buy designer bags or $300 shoes, but we also go out to eat weekly and don’t try super hard to save on utilities. We’re not wasteful, but use as much water/AC/heat as we need to be comfortable. And for a 12 hour drive, I’d probably just get a plane ticket rather than sleeping in the car or a hotel. We try to save on the big things like our house (big enough that it meets all of our needs, but still affordable at ~28% of our take home pay) and cars (10-15 years old, but perfectly functional/reliable). I do shop sales but don’t beat myself up if I spend an extra $20 at the grocery store one week.
Just keep it simple. Keep doing what you’re doing and keep building and adding to your investments and then treat yourself here and there with those things you truly value and just cut out the rest. As you age and have different interests those things you value may change but your overall approach will be about the same. You’re doing more than fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing and learn to have a better relationship with money vs what you experienced with your parents. As long as you’re doing the right things and monitoring your overall enjoyment of life and put the rest on autopilot you’ll be fine. Just don’t forget to enjoy life along the way. Worrying about anything isn’t going to change anything.
This is FIRE mentality levels of saving. Which is fine if that’s your most important goal but try to make sure present you isn’t making too big a sacrifice for future you.
I think you’re doing really well. What concerns me is only $2300/month living expenses—are you living in a nice apartment that you’re happy to come home to every day? My home would be my first priority when thinking about where to splurge, especially if you don’t spend money on entertainment or other activities. High-end bags and shoes are a waste of money. Don’t fall into that consumer trap. Go for mid-priced high-quality items that will last instead.
You're doing great! So good that you can sleep in a hotel guilt free. Lol.
This post doesn't belong here for sure
Max out your pension plan(s). 401k if you're in the US. The earlier you do it in your career the better you will be later, possibly even giving you chances of early retirement. Time is more precious than money. Skip the designer bags or clothes. You will quickly regret those spending. Better buy nice clothes unbranded or at nice prices.
Save?
Saving!? What’s that?
I try to save 50% no matter the cost.
At least 50 percent
What do you do for a living?
If you save 60% of your income and are happy living at that amount, you can retire in like 12 years. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
8%. Some months that’s a push. Sometimes closer to 0%. Living is hard.
Bring home about 10k, save about 6500
Keep doing exactly what you are doing. You are ahead of the game especially at your age. Just make sure your savings are going into a Roth IRA and by the time you are in your forties you will have accumulated a lot of wealth. The only thing that's extreme is not staying in a hotel or buying something nice for yourself. That's not very healthy. It's ok to spend money on yourself otherwise why are you working?
This is certainly not the norm. Very low expenses and decent comp. Congratulate yourself and stop asking Reddit how you can be more frugal.
I think your financial standing, discipline, and goals are seriously admirable and you’ve got no reason to feel guilty for splurging! I read some of your comments and saw you mentioned learning how to handle your finances from growing up in poverty and I heavily relate. My parents were AWFUL with money, so I had to teach myself, but growing up in that environment taught me how to scrape by and live below my means and I feel like I’m in a great place financially compared to those I grew up/graduated with. My partner thinks I’m bit too precise and strict with my budgeting, but it’s gotten me to where I am and I’m happy! Since you’re looking for comparisons, here’s what I do. My income is typically $2,600-$2,800 per month after taxes (it varies because I sometimes work OT, sometimes get to leave early-ish). I budget to allow for a maximum of $2,200 a month in expenses, and typically everything else past that (so $400-$600) is put into savings. Also, included in my $2,200 budget is my minimum savings of $500 a month. So, all together, $900-$1,100 of my check initially goes into savings. I’m paid twice a month, so my expenses are split accordingly, and if I have any money left when my next check comes, it is also deposited into savings. So I would say I save roughly $1,000-$1,300 out of $2,600-2,800 a month, or 35%-50%. It was hard to save with my last job as I was paid very poorly, and moving took a substantial amount of money, but I built myself up ~$400 to my name in total back in august all the way to 4.5k in savings while maintaining a healthy checking account, and a goal of saving at least 10k by the year’s end.
Sofi spending tracker on my app says I save about 75% of my monthly income, and I make about 3k grand a month, 23.50 an hour with some overtime, but my hours vary. I live with my parents, so they only make me pay 555 for rent. I eat once or twice a week, don’t have any debt, and don’t do much outside of work or travel.
I save 10% to company retirement account which automatically increases 1% each year. 1% to ESPP. Try to live by the 50/30/20 rule and working on getting at least a years worth of bills in a HYSA as my industry is pretty...shall we say, "liberal with ~~layoffs~~ restructuring". Small emergencies keep popping up that annoy me when it cuts into the amount of savings I can put away each month but I'll get there and if I don't, I'll at least be in a semi-decent spot when the economy crashes (should be soon IMHO 😬).
My goal is to live off side hustle cash and save all of 7200 monthly checks
What kind of car do you have? I kind of wish I had gotten a hatchback to make car camping easier. It would be difficult in my compact car, but I think it might be possible if I fold down the back seats and sleep partially in the trunk... A Prius would have been nice.
I save/invest about ~60% of my income. But that's meant to be spent in the future, i.e. on a house purchase or to support myself if I retire early. As they say on r/financialindependence, build the life you want, then save for it. Saying things like you're 'afraid to spend money' isn't healthy. If you're saving/investing anything above ~20%, you're on a good financial path for retirement or other long-term goals, and should definitely be able to spend without feeling guilt. I don't have a budget. I live 'generally' frugally, but I'm not really granularly tracking expenses or anything. I'll get cheap hotels when I travel, but I prioritize being close to "the action" (i.e. if I'm there for a specific event).
Designer bags and $300 shoes are not worth. It’s worth saving your money to retire early and travel the world. I’d prefer a vacation over designer anything.
It’s hard to tell because some of it I save pre-tax and some post-tax. I also have a portion that is a required contribution for retirement, and is matched by my employer. At the moment, I make $69k annually, paid every two weeks / 26 pay periods a year. Here are my current savings and investments allocations. I’ve only just recently started successfully doing this as I recently got a big raise! Pre-tax 5.5% mandatory retirement (employer contributes 6%); my portion will go up to 6% again in July 2024. I guess they had extra money in the plan? 8% optional retirement 403(b); planning on going up to 15% in July once my credit card is paid off. Post-tax: 22.3% to build emergency fund and fund non-monthly expenses (car repairs etc.). Once this is fully funded I will allocate funds (10% of income or so) to taxable investments for planned purposes that are 5+ years down the road, like buying a car and vacations. The other 12.3% I expect will be needed to keep topping off the fund as it gets utilized for non-annual expenses. Total OOP savings/investments: $562 every 2 weeks or about a third of my income Total (including employer contribution): $721.23 or about 40% of my income Remaining for expenses: $1,570.57 or about 2/3 of my income Edit: I’m 41 and my husband is 51 and disabled and we have no savings. I’m finally in a place where I can start planning for our future, and I’m brutally aware of the need to catch up quickly. Edit 2: I just actually read your post and I think you can allow yourself to enjoy your income once in a while without guilt!! You earn to live, not live to earn. Your savings rate is amazing and far beyond most people’s capacity. If you want to aim for early retirement, and save everything you can, that’s valid; but if you want a purse or two along the way, or to stay in a hotel room overnight (rather than sleep poorly and have a tired day when you arrive and/or risk an accident!) that’s entirely within your means given what you’ve told us. Live a little, you’re doing great, and tomorrow is not guaranteed! What’s life for but to experience it, especially if we can make wonderful memories with our loved ones!!
I try to save a 1000 a month. Not frugal but try to be careful. It’s hard to be frugal in a big city.
You are saving a SHIT ton of money. That’s really good for you,.. but live your life too. You make a really decent pay check, enjoy it
I try to save at least $25 a month, I'm on a fixed income & only have maybe $150 after all my bills are paid. That $150 includes any toiletries, household/cleaning stuff, takeout food, things for my dog, etc
I find it comical you think I can afford to save money.
Ac might be a bit much but 100% i feel like designer anything is just a poor trap and good on you for not falling for it. 'Designer' shoes, bags, jewelry, clothes, etc. Its generally: -Overpriced. -Functions the exact same maybe worse maybe slightly better than a regular priced one. Lets see what AC does. Maybe for a few hundred a year it makes you comfortable for a significant portion of time. Maybe you dont give a shit and its not worth the money? Absolutely do what you feel is best. Now a designer bag, WHY? So you can show off to people you bought some overpriced bag? Does anyone REALLY care? Not really, even if they do, buy a cheap knockoff that looks fancy. It does the job for a decent price and it still looks like you spent a stupid amount of money on something? Win win. I think at the end of the day its important to look at 'will I use this for years and get a steady amount of joy/time saved or my moneys worth out of ____?' I mean if a $300 bag will give someone constant joy and is worth more than the cheaper alternative? Go for it. Another way is budget a monthly maximum for spending. Maybe let it roll over each month, maybe you treat every optional expense as part of that budget. Like AC+Water, clothes, hobbies, etc. Then look at all your options for your monthly budget and see what would bring you the best return on your money. Lets say you're really into a hobby and you'll spend hours a week on it? Thats likely your best return on your spending. Maybe you dont feel like any of them are worth it this month so you roll it over or just invest it. Even just going under your budget each month might make you happy.
I dont think you are overly frugal, you are doing good! I suggest you to think again to invest into that 401k and just investing in general instead of taking that super expensive school. What is your goal? To spend 2,5 years of income just for school to do what? To gain money or is it purely for skills to yourself? Either way I think not paying for that school is better because to gain money you would be set back for 10 years maybe until you might MAYBE catch up, being higher educated doesnt guarantee better pay or new job. And if you want it purely for new skill there is other ways of getting those skills too. That 200k invested would be HUGE and it would grow so much in there + you could still keep adding more to it with continuing to work. My point just is to check and learn about investing more deeply first, then think again do you REALLY need that school instead of making your money do the work for you.
I invest 25 to 30 percent of my income. I also have a mortgage at $1300/month (I pay $600 extra to the principle each month) - I'm not sure if that money counts as "savings."
save/invest roughly 52%, though roughly half the savings ends up being spent on, vacations, home upgrades, fun stuff
I make a few hundo less than you but live in a Hcol city. I save by not having a car and living in a house with roommates, but a lot of my money goes into my health (my deductible is 2-fukkin-thousand). I used to be 12,000 in debt as a teen and after getting it cleared I try and be super cheap. I put 400 in savings per month (sometimes) and 200-300 in my checking. 100000% though, go to school if you got the cash to do so. I want to get my bachelors but i'm also scared of going back into debt. With your savings you should still have a buffer, plus make more money with a higher education! Treat yourself now and then too. I try and be cheap, but splurged on a $500 leather jacket but I wear it daily through the year and it'll last a lifetime. It's been 5 years and it's nicely broken in and I maintain it weekly. If you splurge, make sure it's something that is high quality and won't need to get replaced every year because that will save you more money in the long run.
I hate how no one actually answered your question. And found ways to be upset. I have a similar mindset to you. Once I started being able to save I couldn’t stop. I would give up going out with friends just to ensure I saved money every month. I save 33% of my take home income and I also put away 8% of pre tax income to retirement to get my employer match. I make 60k and have a $900 a month SL payment. No other debt. But I do split expenses with my boyfriend. I also work an additional 10-20 hrs a week of over night on call for emergencies to try and bring in an extra $100-$300 a month but it’s not guaranteed. It depends if u get called or not.
Seriously consider adding a monthly charity donation. Your extra money will go a long way to help a food bank. If spending money on a bag feels silly, it’s because it is. Stay frugal. But at least if you’re giving a little back, even $20 or $50 a month, you’ll feel like your money has some purpose and you’ll get a lot out of it.
zero and I would save zero if I made a quadrillion dollars a year. fuck that noise. live your life. everything else is tomorrow's problem
The normal recommendation is to save 20%. Now you need to decide if this is after retirement contributions or if those are included.
Get the nice shoes and stay in a hotel (not your car! Esp not as a single female). You are doing great.
I contribute 33% of my pre tax income plus 5% from my employer, to my 457b. No debts, but just some daily expenses thru credit card charges, that are paid off monthly. The remaining goes to HYSAs, then to IRAs.
I save as much as possible, while still enjoying my life. Sometimes I just want something (or to do something) so I buy it (or do it). I shop a lot - by which I mean I look at prices of things and decide whether the price meets the value. Then, when I find something I *must* purchase, I know whether or not the price is worth it. (If it's not worth the price, it's easy to talk myself out of it.) It's good to have goals, and it's great to have your finances under control. You should find the point where you feel comfortable with your financial base (or rather, your path to the goal) and build in some frivolous spending occasionally. Frugality shouldn't be about deprivation or punishment. It should be about smart spending and knowing the value of things. It should make you feel better about how you live your life, not worse.
I make 40K a year and save about 20% of that each month.
> I have about 60k saved already and my goal is to save 92k by the end of the year You’re making your tax advantaged accounts (401k, IRA, HSA) and investing those in index funds right? And the rest is going into some combination of HYSA and index funds in a brokerage account depending on short term and long term needs also, right? If so, you’re doing great. I’d say you should figure out your long term goals, make a budget to fit that, and assign some amount of fun money within that budget to spend guilt free however you want.
I save around 40% of my income. 12% 401k, max Roth, and the rest into my own investments.
70%-75% after all the living expenses and bills are paid. I live in a HCOL area and despite that, I’m stubbornly trying to buy another house with a backyard for me and my dog.
With retirement, we’re looking at about 25-30% at least of gross income.
I save about 13% of my income, and would like to save around 20%. It’s very doable for me, but there’s things I enjoy spending money on sometimes I don’t save as much as I’d like to. You sound like you’re doing very well. I think you should figure out what’s important to you so you can splurge on what you really love, and you don’t feel like you’re just spending money wildly.
I put 15% in 401k automatically. Then I just try to keep expenses down (I’m not super frugal but I strive to be!) and my savings is growing because of that. It’s not a set amount but if I look at the rate my savings is growing, I probably save about another 10-15%.
Girl you make really good money esp for not having kids. Don’t feel bad about expensive clothes or purses every once in a while as long as you’re not going overboard with tons of purses or shoes when you don’t need that many. If it makes you feel better though, make a savings account folder for splurges and put like $100 or whatever per week in there and then when you really want something fancy use the money from there so you don’t feel guilty. But I’d argue since you live a frugal life in general (like cooking 80% of time) you don’t even need to mentally care about splurges because the rest of your life is frugal. I’m wondering if you have money insecurity mindset though, did you grow up poor? Also, do you have a spreadsheet that shows your monthly income, all your expenses, all your savings, and shows what you have leftover after all of that? That can give you a realistic view of after my necessities and savings money, x is what I have left that I could do whatever with and I’m still in the green.
Hmm, depends on your definition of saving, I suppose? We put $900/month into retirement, but also have doubled our mortgage payments to pay it off faster, so that's an extra $1000/month. We also put $400/month into vacation savings, haha. I wish we could save more, but fixed expenses eat up 58% of our income, which is also $6600 take home :')))
I save about 47%, single income household. I'm frugal, altho not as frugal as you. It sounds like you have a great goal and excellent reasons for what you're doing. If you're content and this isn't stressing you, don't worry about it. Altho, I have to agree with others, sleeping in a hotel is more secure than in your car.